In the mold production cost, the material cost is usually 10% to 20%, while the machining, heat treatment, assembly and management cost is more than 80%, so the mold process performance is one of the main factors. Factors affecting production cost and complexity of mold manufacturing.

Machinability

-- Hot workability related to thermoplasticity, processing temperature range, etc.

--Cold workability in relation to machining properties such as cutting, grinding, polishing, cold drawing, etc.

Most of the cold work tool steel is over-eutectic steel and lysite steel, cold and hot processing performance is not very good, so the cold and hot processing process parameters must be strictly controlled to avoid defects and scrap.

On the other hand, by improving the purity of steel, reducing the content of harmful impurities and improving the organization of steel, the cold and hot working properties of steel can be improved, thus reducing production costs, form.

In order to improve the performance of die steel in cold working, since the 1930s, has been studying the addition of light cutting elements such as S, Pb, Ca, Te, etc. in die steel, or lead to steel graphitization. Carbon in die steel Cutting die steel further improves its cutting and grinding characteristics, reduces abrasive consumption and lowers costs.

Hardenability

Hardenability depends mainly on the chemical composition of the steel and the initial state of the tissue before quenching, and hardenability depends mainly on the carbon content of the steel. For most cold work tool steels, one of the main considerations is usually hardenability. For hot work steels and plastic mold steels, the mold size is generally larger, especially for large mold manufacturing, hardenability is more important.

In addition, for a variety of complex shape of the mold in the heat treatment is easy to deformation, in order to reduce the deformation during quenching, often using a quenching medium with weak cooling capacity, such as air cooling, oil cooling or salt bath cooling, etc., larger in order to obtain the required hardening layer hardness and depth, you must use a better hardenability of cast steel.

Deformation processing

In order to facilitate production, the tempering temperature range of the mold steel should be as wide as possible, especially when the mold using flame heating local quenching, due to the temperature is difficult to accurately measure and control, so the need for mold steel. With a wider tempering temperature range.

Mold in the heat treatment process, especially the quenching process, there will be volume changes, shape warping, deformation and other phenomena, in order to ensure the quality of the mold, require mold steel heat treatment deformation is small. Especially the shape of complex precision molds, quenching is difficult to cut. , heat treatment deformation degree requirements are more stringent, should use micro-deformation mold steel.

Sensitivity

In the heating process of the mold, if oxidation and decarburization occur, its hardness, wear resistance, performance and service life will be reduced, so the mold steel must have good sensitivity to oxidation and decarburization. Mold steel with high molybdenum content needs special heat treatment, such as vacuum heat treatment, controlled atmosphere heat treatment, salt bath heat treatment, etc., due to its high sensitivity to oxidation and decarburization.