On Monday afternoon, seeing that there were still so many heat-treated hard parts in the workshop ready for shipment put me in a good mood.
We’d already shipped a batch that morning, and with so many left in the afternoon, it meant we had a lot of shipments planned for today. I was especially pleased to see these four 1.5-metric-ton heat-treated 8433 heat-resistant steel parts being shipped.
These four pieces of 8433 were ordered by a manufacturer specializing in the hot forging of 316L stainless steel. These four pieces of 8433 were processed in a dedicated furnace; the heat treatment took quite a long time—the tempering process alone took a whole day. It was exhausting work, taking a total of 5–6 days from start to finish.
With temperatures in Dongguan currently at 31°C, the money we earn from heat treatment is truly earned through hard work and sweat. Looking back now on the times I stood by the heat treatment furnace, drenched in sweat, I have mixed feelings. But seeing these four large pieces—each weighing 1.5 metric tons—being shipped out puts me in a great mood; it’s a testament to the customer’s trust in me.
The heat resistance and stability of 8433 are 2–3 times that of H13, with a hardness of 50–54 HRC. It will not anneal out over its service life, so the hardness will not decrease, and its red hardness is guaranteed—which is the foundation for ensuring your mold does not collapse. This customer performs hot forging of 316L stainless steel. With the original H13 die steel, they could only produce a limited number of parts before the mold collapsed at the R-corner areas. This resulted in products that failed to meet appearance and dimensional specifications, required significant additional machining, and wasted material.
As we all know, competition is fierce across all industries today—not only in pricing but also in every aspect of the manufacturing process. When producing the same product, if you use 2 kilograms of material while your competitor uses only 1.5 kilograms, their costs will be lower, and the customer will place the order with them. In such cases, you must find ways to optimize your molds.
This client is currently facing exactly this situation: the operating temperature of the 316L stainless steel hot forging die is too high, and the cavity dimensions are very complex. The H13 steel is collapsing too quickly, resulting in hot-forged parts that fail to meet dimensional specifications and require significant machining allowances. That’s the least of it—the main issue is the waste of raw materials. If costs can’t be reduced, the product won’t be competitive, and the client won’t place orders with you.
I’m very pleased that the client is willing to place an order with me for 4 pieces of mold steel weighing 1.5 metric tons each. This shows that the client trusts me. Seeing this weighty trust moves me deeply, and I wanted to record a video to share this with everyone.
If your stainless steel hot-forging dies are currently experiencing rapid die collapse with H13, resulting in short die life, and you want to extend die life, reduce the frequency of die repairs, ensure precise dimensions for your products, and save on material costs, then you should try 8433 heat-resistant steel.
Mr. Xing uses 8433 die steel to hot-forge 42CrMo flanges. Even after four mirror-finishing cycles, the tool life remains unchanged, consistently exceeding 10,000 pieces each time. However, when he previously used H13, the die would collapse and crack at the edge after just 3,000 products. As our boss Xin put it, “One 8433 die is equivalent to four of our original H13 dies—and in the long run, my die costs are actually lower.”
When it comes to hot forging dies prone to collapse and cracking, using 8433 die steel is even more satisfying than eating braised pork.
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Wu Dejian’s tool steel, the chief of staff of the user, bought everything he had used.