Author: wudejian

Early this morning, Boss Zhang—whom I hadn’t been in touch with for five years—sent me a message. He’s working with stainless steel, which is prone to chipping at the corners, and asked me to send over a sample to test.  After asking a few questions, I learned that he’s punching 2mm-thick stainless steel with products…

Mr. Zhang said, “The 8566 die steel we used last time was great. Things are going much more smoothly now. Thank you, General Manager Wu.”  Receiving praise from a long-time customer really lifts my spirits.  Mr. Zhang’s mold is used for the cold trimming process after hot forging. The original DC53 punch was prone to chipping…

I have to admit, the current “Four Copies 8566” has done a very thorough job of copying—it’s a good student.  I saw that you wrote right at the beginning that 8566’s resistance to chipping is four times that of SKH-9 high-speed steel and twice that of D2, with a hardness of HRC 58–61. It’s primarily…

During the 298th live stream, a viewer asked: What type of steel is best for hot-forging punches?  Hot-forging punches require high resistance to thermal wear. Thermal wear resistance is a comprehensive property that requires not only high heat resistance and high red hardness but also high hardness to ensure excellent thermal wear resistance. At the…

Which mold steel doesn’t stick to aluminum chips? A question from a viewer during the 298th live stream.  When mold steel sticks to aluminum chips, it is due to adhesive wear caused by material adhesion—specifically, segregation issues in the mold steel. The microstructure contains a large number of microscopic cracks invisible to the naked eye. When aluminum…

A viewer asked during the live stream: What type of die steel should be used for stamping 2.0mm-thick TC4 sheet metal?  Someone asked this same question during the last live stream as well, which shows that many people are encountering problems with this type of application.  Many people underestimate the stamping of TC4 titanium sheets, assuming…

I really didn’t expect that LG die steel could replace low-alloy steel for high-strength shafts—and with such good results.  This is a part subject to impact, requiring high toughness as well as wear resistance. Previously, low-alloy structural steels such as 42CrMo, 38CrMoAl, and even 20CrMnTi were ineffective—even with surface coatings—as the shafts would bulge and deform upon…

A user commented in a live stream asking, “What materials are recommended for pre-hardened steel with a hardness of HRC 40?” There are two main types of pre-hardened steel with a hardness of HRC 40: NAK80 and FDAC. NAK80 is a time-hardening, pre-hardened plastic mold steel with a composition of 10Ni3MnCuAl and a hardness of HRC 40.…

The forming of certain critical load-bearing components requires integral die forging to ensure that the fiber structure (flow lines) of the die-forged part is not severed; the quality of such forgings is superior to that of open-die forgings.  The direction of metal flow in high-stress areas of die-forged parts should align with the direction of…

During last night’s 298th live stream, a viewer asked which die steel would be more durable for machining 0.6 301 stainless steel. Currently, they’re using SKH-51 high-speed steel, but it breaks easily. The product has sharp corners and is a hard material; combined with these three factors, the first material that comes to mind is 8566 chipping-resistant steel.…

Mr. Liu contacted me to inquire about a high-strength, high-toughness steel. For small cores in injection molds for automotive connectors, we typically use various mold steels such as SKD61, SKD11, DC53, ASP23, VIKING, UNIMAX, and others. The part dimensions are 3 × 4 × 72; since the part is so small, it’s prone to breaking.…

Today I attended a seminar on expanding into Vietnam organized by the Guangdong Machinery and Mold Association. After listening to presentations by industry experts, I gained a general understanding of Vietnam. Vietnam has a total population of over 100 million—equivalent to that of China’s Sichuan Province. The average working-age population is 38.8 years old, indicating…