What Is Heat Treating?

-
What is heat treating?  Simply defined, it is the controlled heating and cooling of steel in order to enhance certain mechanical and physical properties.  We could go into a deep metallurgical explanation, but you would probably fall asleep, or get easily distracted by all the extra research you would do on tempered martensite or retained austenite.   Heat treating is a commonly misunderstood topic, we hope to guide you in understanding some of the basic processes that will hopefully lead you to ask the right questions about the materials you select and the processes you specify in order to build the best tool you can build.

The following is a list of some basic processes that should be considered with any tool steel heat treatment:

Stress relief… Why? It reduces dimensional distortion
Preheating… Why? Minimizes thermal shock
Hardening temperatures and times… Why? Proper temperature and times are critical in producing the desired properties.
Quench method… Why? Sets the proper microstructure, can cause cracks if done incorrectly or if certain design characteristics exist.
Tempering… Why? When it’s done is critical as much as how it’s done. The goal is to stress relieve the stress introduced at the quench or create a tempered martensitic structure, the more tempered martensite the better the part or tool.
Understanding how these processes relate to the standard practices of your local heat treater is key in having a successful relationship with your heat treater. We will discuss how the relationship with your heat treater is critical in achieving the desired part properties in a future blog.

评论

发表评论

此博客中的热门博文

What Do YOU Know About Mold Steel Quality?

-
图片
Many industries place strict requirements on the acceptable level of surface defects and imperfections that may appear on a plastic molded part. Such conditions often apply to critical components for the medical and pharmaceutical industries as well as for the manufacturers of lenses and other optical devices. However, for aesthetic reasons, many other consumer goods have similar restrictions. After all, any defect that appears on the surface of the mold steel is likely to be replicated onto the molded part. Problems associated with the texturing or polishability of a mold cavity can often be traced back to the mold steelmaking process. The material properties that have shown the greatest influence on obtaining a good surface finish are the microcleanliness level, the severity of chemical segregation and the appearance of primary carbides. The mold steel's chemical composition along with the manufacturing techniques used during its production, will determine its ability to p...
阅读全文

Everything You Need To Know About Injection Molding

-
图片
What is Injection Molding: Injection Molding is a manufacturing process for producing parts in large volume. It is most typically used in mass-production processes where the same part is being created thousands or even millions of times in succession. Why Use Injection Molding: The principal advantage of injection molding is the ability to scale production en masse. Once the initial costs have been paid the price per unit during injection molded manufacturing is extremely low. The price also tends to drop drastically as more parts are produced. Other advantages include the following: Injection Molding produces low scrap rates relative to traditional manufacturing processes like CNC machining which cut away substantial percentages of an original plastic block or sheet. This however can be a negative relative to additive manufacturing processes like 3D printing that have even lower scrap rates. Note: waste plastic from injection molding manufacturing typically comes consistent...
阅读全文

M2 Tool Steel | 1.3343 | HS-6-5-2C| SKH51

-
图片
M2 Tool Steel | 1.3343 | HS-6-5-2C| SKH51 AISI  M2 Tool Steel  is molybdenum based high-speed steel in tungsten–molybdenum series.  HSS  grade steel  M2  is a medium alloyed high speed steel which has good machinability. The H-SS M2 chemical composition gives a good combination of well-balanced toughness, wear resistance and red hardness properties. Widely used for cutting tools such as twist drills, taps, milling cutters, saws, knives etc. Also commonly used in cold work punches and dies and cutting applications involving high speed and light cuts. Grade M2 High Speed Steel is by far the most popular high speed steel replacing high speed steel grade  T1  in most applications because of its superior properties and relative economy. We are one of leading AISI M2 HSS steel supplier and we can offer better quality and M2 alloy steel price for your various applications. 1. Supply Range of M2  tool steel  High Speed M2 Ste...
阅读全文