Materials database

The simplest and cheapest tool steel — plain high-carbon steel with no significant alloy additions. Water-hardening with shallow hardening depth. Used for cold chisels, center punches, hand tools, scribers, woodworking tools, and simple cutting tools where only the surface needs to be hard.

Air-hardening medium-alloy cold work tool steel, known as AISI A2. 5% Cr provides good through-hardening and excellent dimensional stability during heat treatment — minimal distortion compared to oil-hardening grades. Hardened to 57–62 HRC. Good combination of wear resistance and toughness — tougher than D2 (1.2379) at similar hardness. Used for blanking dies, trimming dies, forming tools, gauges, shear blades, coining tools and precision components requiring minimal distortion.

High-carbon high-chromium ledeburitic cold work tool steel — AISI D2. 12% Cr + 1.5% C forms massive M7C3 carbides giving outstanding wear resistance and cutting edge retention. Air-hardening with minimal distortion. Lower toughness than H13. Used for blanking/stamping dies, thread rolling dies, cold forming tools, slitting cutters, and wear parts. Also popular as high-end knife steel.

High-performance cold work tool steel with 12% Cr for exceptional wear resistance and good toughness. Air or oil hardening. The most widely used high-alloy cold work steel for demanding stamping and forming applications. Achieves 58-62 HRC. Used for blanking dies, punching tools, cold-forming dies, thread rolling dies, deep drawing tools, and industrial knives for heavy-gauge sheet. Similar to AISI D2 but with optimized V content.

High-carbon high-chromium cold-work tool steel. Excellent wear resistance and dimensional stability after heat treatment. Used for blanking and forming dies, drawing mandrels, gauges, shear blades, and thread rolling dies. Not suitable for impact loading.

Tungsten-alloyed hot work tool steel (AISI H21) with 9% W for exceptional high-temperature strength and resistance to tempering. Low thermal conductivity makes rapid cooling unacceptable — tools must be preheated to ~300°C before use. Achieves 44-50 HRC. Used for die casting dies for copper alloys (brass/bronze), hot forging dies, hot extrusion tooling, hot shear blades, and mandrels. The go-to steel for copper alloy die casting where H13 would soften. JIS: SKD5.

Chromium-molybdenum hot work tool steel (AISI H10) with high Mo content for excellent resistance to thermal softening and thermal fatigue. Can be safely water-cooled in service, unlike tungsten hot work steels. Achieves 50-52 HRC. Used for hot forging dies, die casting dies (especially aluminum), hot extrusion tools, hot punches, and hot shear blades. Superior thermal fatigue resistance compared to H11/H13 in continuous high-temperature service above 600°C. EN designation: 32CrMoV12-28.

Pre-hardened corrosion-resistant mould steel (30–36 HRC as delivered). 16% Cr provides stainless-like corrosion resistance — no surface pitting during storage, no rust contamination of moulded parts. Sulfur addition improves machinability. Used for moulds processing corrosive plastics (PVC, acetals, flame-retardant compounds), food packaging moulds, moulds stored in humid environments and prototype tooling. Can be directly machined in pre-hardened state without additional heat treatment.

Chromium hot work tool steel, known as AISI H11. Similar to 1.2344 (H13) but with lower V content (0.30–0.50% vs 0.85–1.15%) giving better toughness at the expense of slightly lower wear resistance. Better suited for applications requiring maximum toughness — large forging dies, die casting dies for light alloys, extrusion tools. Air-hardening to 50–54 HRC. Preferred over H13 when thermal shock resistance is the primary concern.

Premium hot work tool steel — higher Mo (2.7-3.2%) than H13/1.2344 (1.1-1.5%) for superior hot strength and temper resistance. Better thermal fatigue life in demanding die casting. Often specified for aluminum high-pressure die casting where H13 life is insufficient. Used for Al/Mg die casting dies, hot forging dies, and extrusion tools requiring longer life than H13.

THE hot work tool steel — AISI H13 / JIS SKD61. 5% Cr + Mo + V for outstanding thermal fatigue resistance, red hardness above 40 HRC at 600°C, and excellent toughness. Air-hardening — uniform hardness in large sections with minimal distortion. Used for aluminum/zinc die casting dies, extrusion dies, forging dies, hot shear blades, and plastic molds. ESR grade available for critical applications.

Nickel cold-work tool steel with exceptional toughness from ~4% Ni content. Excellent through-hardenability, polishability, and impact resistance. Used for plastic injection molds (high-gloss), embossing dies, scrap shear blades, punches, cutlery dies, and bending tools.

High-toughness nickel-alloyed tool steel for plastic molds and cold work applications. 4% Ni provides exceptional impact toughness at hardness levels of 48–54 HRC. Through-hardening up to very large cross sections. Used for injection mold frames, blow mold inserts, cold stamping tools requiring high toughness, tire molds and machine knives. Polishable to mirror finish. Can be nitrided for improved surface hardness.