Chapter 3

MF F312

Tooling materials and Heat treatment

Introduction
Properties of materials

Strength: tensile, shear, compressive

Plasticity: malleability(led), ductility
Elasticity and stiffness
Elastic limit
Toughness
Hardness
Machinability
Endurance limit
Cost

Machinability
The machinability rating of a material attempts to quantify the
machinability of various materials.
The American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) determined machinability
ratings for a wide variety of materials by running turning tests at 180
surface feet per minute (sfpm). It then arbitrarily assigned 160 Brinell B1112
steel a machinability rating of 100%.
The machinability rating is determined by measuring the weighed averages
of the normal cutting speed, surface finish, and tool life for each material.
Note that a material with a machinability rating less than 100% would be
more difficult to machine than B1112 and material with a value more than
100% would be easier.
It is known that B1112 has a tool life of 60 minutes at a cutting speed of 100
sfpm. If a material has a machinability rating of 70%, it can be determined,
with the above knowns, that in order to maintain the same tool life (60
minutes) the cutting speed must be 70 sfpm (assuming the same tooling is
used)

Ferrous Materials Steels

Steels are iron-carbon alloys that
may contain other alloying
elements.
There are 1000s of alloys with
different compositions and/or
heat treatments.
Low Alloy (<10 wt%)

Low
Carbon

Low Carbon (<0.25 wt%)

Medium Carbon (0.25 to 0.60 wt%)
High Carbon (0.60 to 1.4 wt%)

Medium
Carbon

Steels

Low alloy

High Alloy
Stainless Steel (> 11 wt% Cr)
Tool Steel

High
Carbon

High alloy

Stainless

Tool

Effects of Alloying Elements on Steel

Manganese contributes to strength and hardness; dependent upon the carbon

content. Increasing the manganese content decreases ductility and weldability.
Manganese has a significant effect on the hardenability of steel.
Phosphorus increases strength and hardness and decreases ductility and notch impact
toughness of steel. The adverse effects on ductility and toughness are greater in
quenched and tempered higher-carbon steels.
Sulfur decreases ductility and notch impact toughness especially in the transverse
direction. Weldability decreases with increasing sulfur content. Sulfur is found primarily
in the form of sulfide inclusions.
Silicon is one of the principal deoxidizers used in steelmaking. Silicon is less effective
than manganese in increasing as-rolled strength and hardness. In low-carbon steels,
silicon is generally detrimental to surface quality.
Copper in significant amounts is detrimental to hot-working steels. Copper can be
detrimental to surface quality. Copper is beneficial to atmospheric corrosion resistance
when present in amounts exceeding 0.20%.
Nickel is a ferrite strengthener. Nickel does not form carbides in steel. It remains in
solution in ferrite, strengthening and toughening the ferrite phase. Nickel increases the
hardenability and impact strength of steels.
Molybdenum increases the hardenability of steel. It enhances the creep strength of lowalloy steels at elevated temperatures.
8

Ferrous tooling materials

Tool steel: group of high quality carefully
manufactured steels that are characterized by
high hardness and resistant to abrasion
Classification according to quenching, alloys
and applications such as shock resistant, cold
worked steel

Water hardening tool steel: group W

Oldest
Carbon content (0.6 to 1.4) for heat treatable
Cr (hard ability and wear resistant) and V
(toughness)
Use for light and medium cold impact operations
coining, cold heading, punching, knurling, embossing
and wood and metal hand cutting tools
Suitable for low temp working conditions
Should not used if drastic dimensional changes,
sharp corners or holes near the edge of the tool

Shock resistant tool steels group s

Use for shock operation
Contain less carbon content
Oil and water hardened steel (hardness below
RC60)
Alloying with Si, Cr, W, Mo (molybdenum) to
increase Hardenability and wear resistant
Pneumatic chisels heavy duty shear blades,
punches, rivet busters etc..suitable for
machine part that require high shock resistant

Oil hardening cold work steel Group O

Less dimensional changes during heat
treatment
Inexpensive, machinabillity, wear resistant,
Depth of hardening is better than W-steel
Use for room temp work
Blanking, bending, trimming, coining, shearing
shaping dies, thread rolling die, broaches
knurling tools, gages etc

Air hardening cold work steel Group A

Alloying with Mn, Cr, Mo and V

Excellent dimensional stability, wear resistant,
Machinability is low as W and O group
Use for intricate tools shapes thread rolling,
long slender broaches, die with projections
and application where resistant to distortion
and abrasion is prime importance

High C-high Cr cold work steel Group D

High wear resistant and deep hardening properties
Extremely low dimensional changes during hardening
Susceptible for edge brittleness which makes
unsuitable for edge-cutting tools
Use for wire-drawing die, master gages, intricate
blanking, and piercing,
And where dimensional stability and long wearing
properties are important

Hot-work tool steel (group H)

High working temp.
Alloying with Cr, Mo, and W (tungsten)
Use for hot forging die, hot extrusion dies, hot
shear, die-casting and plastic molding dies
Three groups Cr-hot work (H11 to H16), Mo
hot work (H20 to H26), Tungsten(W) hot work
(H41 to H43) steels

High speed steels

Red hardness, abrasion resistant, shock resistant
Mainly use for cutting tools, extrusion die, blanking
punches and die,
Alloying elements W, Mo, Cr, and V and special grade
of cobalt to increase red hardness and abrasion
resistance
HSS are more difficult to machine and grind because
of high C and alloying elements
Two group of this steel (1) Tungsten high speed steel
and (2) molybdenum high speed steel (initial cost is
less)

Special purpose steel

Low alloy group L: alloying with Cr and Ni used
for bearing, rollers, chuck parts, and indexing
fingers (tough, hard, wear resistant)
Carbon Tungsten steel group F: high wear
resistance because of high C and Tungsten, use
for high wear, low temp, low shock application,
such as wire drawing dies, paper cutting
knives, forming tools burnishing tools
Low carbon mold group P: mold for injection
or compression molding plastics

Cast Iron
It is easer to cast than to built up with sever
pieces of steel
Good compressive strength and stability
Use for main body of Jigs and fixtures
Large forming die and drawing dies

Mild or Low carbon steel

Hot and cold-rolled flats, cut to size and
properly machined are used for component of
jigs and fixtures (wear and strength not
necessity)
Cold-rolled shapes are smoothly and
accurately finished no machining is required
Cold-rolled is lower in cost
Hot-rolled
is
better
suited
for
fabrication(welding)
Cold rolled has greater tendency to warp

Non metallic tooling materials

Rubber: used in various specialized forming, drawing,
blanking, and bulging operations.
It is also used as stripper material with conventional
punch and die
Masonite: cellulose material used for construction of
punches and dies in drawing operations on thin gages
of metals, blanking and punching operation provided
steel insert are used for cutting surface, light in weight
Densified wood: compressed to about 50%, used in
construction of forming and drawing dies for soft
material

 Plastics:
fast
production
requirement
responsible for development in plastics tooling,
shorter lead time, ease to tool-design changes,
duplication, light weight, easy revision and
repair, resistant to moisture, temperature etc
Types of plastic: phenolic, polyesters,
urethanes and epoxies
Unlimited applications

Oxide cutting tool materials

Limited to cutting tools (difficult to give shapes)
Composed of Al2O3 (aluminum oxide) same as
grinding wheel
Some are bonded together with metallic binders
while others are fused together without use of other
material
High compressive strength, hot hardness, abrasive
resistant, low heat conductivity, resistant to welding
Not suitable for shock load and interrupted cuts
Use for machining of CI, C, low alloy steel, high speed
steel (5500m/min)

Diamond
Diamond is the hardest material on the earth, and its hardness is
much higher than corundum and silicon carbide. Diamond also has
high strength, good wear resistance and low friction coefficient. So
when used as an abrasive, it has many obvious advantages over the
common abrasives.
High grinding efficiency, Low grinding force: Less heat will be
generated in the grinding process. This can decrease or avoid burns
and cracks on the surface of the workpiece, and decrease the
equipment's wear and energy consumption.
High wear resistance: Diamond grinding tools' change in dimension is
small. This can lead to good grinding quality and high grinding
precision.
Long lifespan, Long dressing period: This can greatly increase the
work efficiency, and improve the workers' labor environment and
decrease the product's labor intensity.
Low comprehensive cost: The processing cost of each workpiece is
lower.

General Characteristics of Cutting- Tool

Materials
Carbon
alloy
steels

High
speed
steels

Castcobalt
alloys

Hot
hardness

Increasing

Toughness

Increasing

Wear
resistance

Increasing

Cutting
speed

Increasing

Thermalshock
resistance
Tool
material
cost

Increasing

Carbides

Cera
mics

Cubic
boron
nitride

Diamond

Increasing

Depth of
cut

Light to
medium

Light
to
heavy

Light to
heavy

Light to
heavy

Light to
heavy

Light to
heavy

Finish
obtainable

Rough

Rough

Rough

Good

Very
good

Very
good

Very light
for single
crystal
diamond
Excellent

24

 Sintering is a method used to create objects from powders. It is

based on atomic diffusion.
Diffusion occurs in any material above absolute zero, but it
occurs much faster at higher temperatures.
In most sintering processes, the powdered material is held in a
mold and then heated to a temperature below the melting
point.
The atoms in the powder particles diffuse across the
boundaries of the particles, fusing the particles together and
creating one solid piece.
Because the sintering temperature does not have to reach the
melting point of the material, sintering is often chosen as the
shaping process for materials with extremely high meltingpoints such as tungsten and molybdenum.

Non ferrous Tooling materials

Sintered carbides: carbides of V, Ti, Ta held
together with cobalt binder, other materials
Cr, and Ni
Made by powder metallurgy
High hardness, compressive red hardness,
cutting speed,
Wire-drawing die, long run, blanking die,
mandrels, gages, wear pads

Heat Treating
Heat treatment: physical properties of metal
are changed by subjecting it to a combination
of heating and cooling
Purpose: harden, soften, toughen, stress-relive,
increase machinability, strength or combination
of theses
Degree of heating and cooling will depends
upon the properties desire

Normalization
Ferrous material back into a normal structure after
forging, casting or improper heat treatment
The process results in grain refinement, homogeneity
or in some case increasing machinability
Typically, the work is heated to a temperature about
55 C (100 F) above the upper critical line of the
iron-iron carbide phase diagram
To be properly classed as a normalizing treatment,
the heating portion of the process must produce a
homogeneous austenitic phase (face-centered cubic,
or fcc, crystal structure) prior to cooling

Annealing
Annealing, in metallurgy and materials science, is a
heat treatment wherein a material is altered, causing
changes in its properties such as strength and
hardness.
It is a process that produces conditions by heating to
above the recrystallization temperature, maintaining
a suitable temperature, and then cooling.
Annealing is used to induce ductility, soften material,
relieve internal stresses, refine the structure by
making it homogeneous, and improve cold working
properties

Spheroidizing
Spheroidizing: Spheroidite forms when carbon steel
is heated to approximately 700 C for over 30 hours.
Spheroidite can form at lower temperatures but the
time needed drastically increases, as this is a
diffusion-controlled process.
The result is a structure of rods or spheres of
cementite within primary structure (ferrite or
pearlite, depending on which side of the eutectoid
you are on).
The purpose is to soften higher carbon steels and
allow more formability.

 Critical temperature: At which transformation

occurs
Cooling rate:
Hardenability: when quenched from its
hardening temp.
Stress relieving: heating to suitable temp.
holding a long time and slow cooling, temp is
slightly below the critical temp.

 Stablizing: combat the dimensional changes

first heat then cool and frozen cycle of 4 or 5
times and final finishing is done

Quenching

To harden by quenching, a metal (usually steel or cast iron) must be heated above
the upper critical temperature and then quickly cooled.
Depending on the alloy and other considerations (such as concern for maximum
hardness vs. cracking and distortion), cooling may be done with forced air or other
gases, (such as nitrogen).
Liquids may be used, due to their better thermal conductivity, such as water, oil, a
polymer dissolved in water, or a brine. Upon being rapidly cooled, a portion of
austenite (dependent on alloy composition) will transform to martensite, a hard,
brittle crystalline structure.
The quenched hardness of a metal depends on its chemical composition and
quenching method. Cooling speeds, from fastest to slowest, go from polymer
(i.e.silicon), brine, fresh water, oil, and forced air.
However, quenching a certain steel too fast can result in cracking, which is why
high-tensile steels such as AISI 4140 should be quenched in oil, tool steels such as
ISO 1.2767 or H13 hot work tool steel should be quenched in forced air, and low
alloy or medium-tensile steels such as XK1320 or AISI 1040 should be quenched in
brine or water.

Tempering
Untempered martensitic steel, while very hard, is too brittle to be useful
for most applications.
A method for alleviating this problem is called tempering. Most
applications require that quenched parts be tempered.
Tempering consists of heating a steel below the lower critical
temperature, (often from 400 to 1105 F or 205 to 595 C, depending on
the desired results), to impart some toughness.
Higher tempering temperatures, (may be up to 1,300 F or 700 C,
depending on the alloy and application), are sometimes used to impart
further ductility, although some yield strength is lost.
Tempering may also be performed on normalized steels.
Other methods of tempering consist of quenching to a specific
temperature, which is above the martensite start temperature, and then
holding it there until pure bainite can form or internal stresses can be
relieved

Decarburization
Loss of C on the surface
Surface should be remove before use
Removing decarburized surface by using of a
machine tool called barking