Another netizen wants to find alternative mold materials for tungsten steel, and has been receiving frequent inquiries recently.
Just now, a netizen who makes tungsten steel molds called me and said, ‘After watching many of your live broadcasts, I have noticed that you often recommend 8566. Would it be possible to use 8566 die steel instead of tungsten steel?’? I am a bolt and screw product made of cold heading iron material. Currently, I use tungsten steel molds, which are too expensive. I am looking for a die steel with similar performance and lower price to replace tungsten steel.
Firstly, replacing tungsten steel with 8566 die steel is clearly not feasible.
8566 is an anti collapse steel that mainly solves the problem of mold cracking; The anti cracking performance of 8566 is 4 times that of high-speed steel SKH-9, 2 times that of D2, and the hardness is 58-60HRC. Compared with tungsten steel, 8566 has too low hardness and wear resistance. Using 8566 instead of tungsten steel is obviously inappropriate.
8566 can solve high hardness die steels such as D2, DC53, LD, SKH-9, etc. When encountering cracking problems in cold heading molds that cannot be solved, 8566 can be used to solve the cracking problem, but tungsten steel is obviously more suitable for solving wear resistance issues.
Many people use tungsten steel for wear resistance, but some cold heading molds require both wear resistance, crack resistance, processability, and finally, mold price. From the comprehensive requirements of these four properties, using PM23 powder high-speed steel is acceptable.
PM23 contains 6.0% tungsten and 3.0% vanadium V, with a hardness of 64-66HRC. It is a high carbon high alloy with high hardness and wear resistance. Tungsten steel is hard and brittle, but PM23 with advanced powder metallurgy technology not only has high wear resistance, but also high strength. It also has the advantages of easy processing, better toughness, and lower price, and has successful cases, which is the most important.
If you are using tungsten steel for your cold heading and stretching molds, and the cost is unbearable, we recommend using PM23 powder high-speed steel as a substitute. This is a wise choice.
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