The Application-Oriented Heat Treatment of Tool Steels

A review of the principal results obtained in the laboratory of metallurgy of the University of Trento is presented in this article. The correlations between heat treatment, surface engineering, microstructure, and properties of hot work and high speed steels in a wide range of applications were evaluated. The basic damage mechanisms of tools and dies were illustrated. The thermal cracking (heat checking) occurring in hot work tool steels for casting/forging dies and in high speed steel work rolls was studied by means of a customary thermal fatigue test. The corrosion by molten metal in die casting dies has been studied by immersion in liquid aluminium. The tribological properties of dies during aluminium hot extrusion were analyzed using a specific simulation test.