Alloying design for high wear-resistant cast hot-forging die steels

The alloying design of cast hot-forging die steels was analyzed. The relationship of the life of cast hot-forging dies with the failure patterns was studied. The thermal wear resistance was believed to be the key property for the alloying design of cast hot-forging die steels. The alloying design parameters were selected and optimized for the cast hot-forging die steel with high wear resistance. The wear resistance of the optimized cast die steel was evaluated in comparison with commercial H13 steels and 3Cr2W8V steel. In the new cast hot-forging die steel, VC is predominant carbide with Cr and Mo as the main solution elements in a-Fe. It is found that the cast die steel has significantly lower wear rate than normal H13 steel and 3Cr2W8V steel, almost the same as that of high purity H13 steel. The high wear resistance of the new cast hot-forging die steel can be attributed to its reasonable alloying design and nonsensibility to the detrimental function of S and P.