It has air hardening with good toughness, resistance to abrasion and high red hardness. It resists softening to 550°C and has good resistance to heat checking. Will Nitride with a case hardness over 1000 V.P.N. Generally supplied annealed to HB 230 max.

Equivalent grades:

Typical Chemical Composition of H13 / 1.2344 /SKD61 (%)

Hot Forming:

Forging: 1100 to 900ºC, slow cooling in furnace.

Heat Treatment of H13 / 1.2344 / SKD61 steel

Annealing: 750 to 800ºC, slow cooling in furnace (10-20ºC/hr), down to 600ºC, cooling in air. Hardness after annealing: max. 230 HB.

Stress relieving: 600 to 650ºC, slow cooling in furnace. Hold in neutral atmosphere for 1 to 2hours.

Hardening: 1020 to 1080ºC, oil/air, hold 20 to 30 minutes. Hardness , 52 to 56 HRC in oil, 50 to 54 HRC in air.

Tempering: 560 to 580ºC. Slowly heating to tempering temperature right after hardening. Recommended to temper at least twice. The second tempering temperature shall be approx. 20 to 30ºC lower than the first tempering.

* Hardening temperature: 1050ºC, specimen size: dia50mm

Surface treatment:

Nitriding: Suited for both bath and gas nitriding.

Properties:

Excellent hot tensile properties, high hot wear resistance, good machinability, high toughness and heat checking resistance. Recommended working temperature under than 540ºC.

Applications:

Heavy duty hot work tools and dies: mandrels, dies, and containers for metal tube and rod extrusion; hot extrusion equipment; tools and dies for the manufacture of hollow bodies, screws, rivets, nuts, and bolts. Die casting equipment, forming dies, die inserts, hot shear blades, and plastic moulding dies.

Available size: