Question from a viewer during the 295th live stream: Boss, for stamping 0.3-thick 201 stainless steel small parts with a 5-millimeter-high shallow draw, what type of die steel is best? Daily production is 60,000 cycles.
The biggest concern with stainless steel drawing dies is wire drawing. Fortunately, this is 0.3 mm stainless steel—a thin material—with a shallow 5 mm draw height, so the drawing process isn’t particularly difficult. Based on past experience, SKH51 high-speed steel is sufficient for these conditions.
SKH51 is a tungsten-containing high-speed steel with a hardness of HRC 62–64. It offers high hardness and wear resistance. Well-smelted SKH51 has good microstructural uniformity and is suitable for drawing dies.
Mr. Cai’s bag-cutting and drawing die involves shallow drawing and cutting of 0.2mm-thick stainless steel strips. Previously, he used cemented carbide (tungsten steel), which could withstand 600,000 cycles but developed small chips at the cutting edge. While it performed adequately, it was difficult to machine and had high costs. He was looking for a die steel with good wear resistance, no chipping at the corners, easier machinability, and lower costs.
After Mr. Cai contacted me, I recommended SKH51 high-speed steel. After a month of testing, he told me, “The material you recommended is really excellent. We’ve already completed 100,000 drawing cycles, and so far, we haven’t encountered any issues.”
The netizen mentioned 0.3-thick 201 stainless steel, with a 5mm-high shallow draw on the blank. The drawing material and die conditions are similar to Mr. Cai’s. Currently, Yuhui’s SKH51 high-speed steel can withstand 100,000 drawing cycles, which meets the netizen’s production capacity requirement of 60,000 cycles per day.
Of course, for drawing dies, where cost is a major consideration, carbide (tungsten steel) is the most suitable material. However, it costs five to six times as much as SKH51, is very difficult to machine, and any die fracture would result in significant losses. You need to factor these considerations into your estimates.
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Wu Dejian’s tool steel, the chief of staff of the user, bought everything he had used.