Tool steel

Tool steel is carbon or alloy steel formulated for making tools, dies, and molds. Its composition and heat treatment balance hardness, wear resistance, and toughness.

Heat treatment: Controlled heating and cooling alter a metal’s microstructure and properties. Tool steel’s final hardness and toughness depend strongly on its heating and cooling cycle.
Cold work steel: Tool steel designed to shape materials at temperatures that do not substantially heat the workpiece. Its wear resistance suits blanking, punching, and cold forming.
Stainless steel: Steel containing enough chromium to develop substantial resistance to atmospheric corrosion. Tool steels prioritize working properties, while stainless grades emphasize corrosion resistance.
Abrasive wear: Material loss caused when hard particles or surface asperities plow or cut a material. Tool steel hardness and carbides resist the abrasion that dulls edges and wears dies.
Benjamin Huntsman: An English clockmaker and inventor who developed a process for producing crucible steel in the eighteenth century. Crucible steel improved the consistency and quality of early tool materials.
Martensite: A hard, metastable iron-carbon phase formed when austenite cools rapidly. Quenching can form martensite, giving tool steel high hardness before tempering.
Hot work steel: Tool steel designed to retain useful strength and resist thermal damage during hot forming or casting. It serves dies exposed to repeated high-temperature contact and cooling.
Structural steel: Steel produced for load-bearing structures such as buildings, bridges, and frames. Structural grades target economical strength and weldability rather than tool-edge wear resistance.
Hot hardness: A material’s ability to retain hardness as its temperature rises. High-speed and hot-work steels must resist softening during heated service.
Robert Forester Mushet: A British metallurgist known for developing self-hardening steel in the nineteenth century. Mushet steel helped establish alloy steels that could harden without water quenching.

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