20th International Forgemasters Meeting - IFM 2017

Because tool steels are widely employed in industrial as machining tools and dies. Excellent mechanical properties, such as hardness, toughness and strength, are the most important criteria in evaluating tool steels. As a coarse dendritic structure with bulk precipitates owing to segregation causing embrittlement in the interdendritic regions, grain refinement and the uniform distribution of fine precipitates are necessary to improve the microstructure and optimize mechanical properties. The conventional manufacturing for tool steels, which include high-temperature homogenization treatment for 1 day and nearly 20 passes of hot rolling (such as SKD 61), consumes large amounts of energy and time and results in a long process chain for the manufacture of products. ...