12th Tooling Conference & Exhibition - Tooling 2022

The typical heat treatment of martensitic stainless steels consists of hardening and subsequent tempering once or several times. During tempering the common tempering
mechanisms occur, such as carbide precipitation, relaxation of the fresh martensite, destabilisation of the retained austenite and subsequent transformation of austenite into martensite. In the case of low-alloyed steels,...

Retained austenite is widely regarded as a detrimental microstructural constituent in high-alloyed tool steels. However, an undesired amount of it often remains in the microstructure due to the incomplete transformation of austenite into martensite during the hardening process of tool and high-speed steels. Resulting effects are dimensional instabilities and internal stresses after the heat...

Chromium- and chromium-vanadium ledeburitic tool steels are extensively used in industry, for cold work tooling. The applications where abrasive wear is dominant such as fine-blanking, punching, cropping, shearing or trimming are typical examples. For these applications the steels must have high strength and hardness. On the other hand the tools have to withstand the chipping or cracking in...

The die-casting molds employed with molten aluminum under high pressures are subjected to severe localized corrosion, which is due, mainly, to the intense thermal cycling at temperatures around 700 °C. The recovery of molds usually involve the removal of the damaged region and reconstruction through welding. By a different approach, the resistance and lifespan of the recovered piece can be...