Judging by the name, you may have an idea on the main purpose of a tool steel. Whether you are manufacturing hand tools or machine tools, like dies or drill bits, tool steel is the perfect choice. Some of the main properties that make this alloy steel the best option for tool manufacturing include:
Fairly high material hardness that makes it resistant to deformation and flattening.
Great toughness which makes it resistant to breakage and chipping.
Wear resistance which includes resistance to abrasion and erosion.
Good thermal properties that provide it with the ability to retain its shape and sharp cutting edges even at very high temperatures.
Other uses for tool steels that should be highlighted are modifying and repairing machine tools and dies, something which could be very relevant for some metal manufacturing industries. Also, the production of injection moulds finds this type of steel very useful thanks to its resistance to abrasion.
Tool steels come in different grades. Each grade has more specific properties depending on how it is treated. For example, some grades receive extra chemical properties from components like vanadium. Vanadium increases the resistance to corrosive wear of the tool steel.
Others include a smaller amount of manganese to reduce the possibility of cracks during quenching.
