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When 1.2344 die steel is used as hot die steel, how to improve the lifetime of die?

1.2344 die steel is the most widely used hot die steel. However, with the development of the aluminum extrusion industry, high- requirement for the extrusion mold is needed.

Effect of chemical composition on properties of 1.2344 die steel

1, C content is directly proportional to the strength of the steel, the increase of C content in the steel will improve the strength of the steel. for hot die steel, it will make the high-temperature strength, thermal hardness and wear resistance, but will lead to the reduction of its toughness.

2. Cr has a favorable influence on the abrasion resistance, high-temperature strength, thermal hardness, toughness and hardenability of steel. When the content is high, the tempering resistance is also high, and the corrosion resistance of steel will be improved obviously when it melts into the matrix.
3. Ti, V, and Mo elements. In the forging or quenching stage, carbide forming elements such as Ti and v. Mo will form alloy carbides insoluble in austenite, thus impeding austenite grain growth and refining austenite grain.

Also, in the tempering process stage, because 1.2344 die steel contains more carbide forming elements (Ti, V, Mo), when the tempering temperature is higher than 500℃, the cementite dissolves, forming a small, dispersed alloy carbide. The secondary hardening of H13 can be caused by the dispersion of alloy carbide.

Microstructure and properties of 1.2344 die steel

1. Spheroidized annealing structure

When H13 steel is accepted in the annealed state, the main structure of steel in this state is pearlite. The morphology of pearlite is different with the different annealing process. Compared with the flake pearlite with the same chemical composition, granular pearlite has lower strength and hardness, but better plastic toughness.

For H13 steel in the annealed state, the original structure is generally required to be a point or granular pearlite to facilitate subsequent machining and forming, and to obtain austenite with refined grain in the quenching stage.

to be continued

Mr Jack Tan

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Email: jack@otaisteel.com

1.2311 steel is a German mold steel. The steel is produced through “ultra-purity” process, pre-hardened. It presents a high degree of micro-purity and excellent homogenous structure, excellent polishing and photo-etching floral properties. It is with good processing and polishing performance, more suitable Electric fire processing. Under conventional smelting, the steel has excellent quenching and tempering heat treatment properties.

1.2311 steel delivery condition: Hardened and tempered, the hardness is 28~36HRC.

1.2311 Reference corresponding grade

Chinese GB / YB standard grade is 5CrMnMo. Japanese JIS standard grade is SKT3. German DIN standard material grade is 1.2311. American AISI standard grade 6G, GOST TOCT standard grade 5XTM.

1.2311 steel related applications

1) Used for die casting molds of zinc, aluminum, magnesium and their alloys.

2) Used for hot stamping dies and various hot forging dies.

3) Used for metal extrusion die base.

4) Suitable for the production of large and medium-sized injection molds, as well as plastic molds with polishing requirements.

5) Used for making general plastic molds and mold bases.

6) Used as plastic mold base, mold base, die-cast mold base.

7) It can be used for plastic molds with tensile stress around 1000Mpa.

8) Suitable for small and medium-sized molds with thickness less than 400mm.

Recently, the price for the plastic mold steel is not very stable because of the virus situation. Now in China, the very busy companies are those ones which are producing the facemask and respirators. As the huge need from different countries, the orders are much more than the production capacity. Consequently, the mold steel material costs are increasing crazily because of the die and tool needed on these machines. So in few weeks ago, the 1.2311 steel price was up to EXW USD857/Ton. Now for supporting the work, our company make the special offer on this 1.2311 steel. The FOB price starts USD770/Ton for the thickness 20-120mm. But the valid time will be until this week 18th-April.

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High-speed steel and alloy steel, which one is suitable for drills ?HSS is used as the drills, Otai provides the M2, M42, M35 steel for our customers.

There are many kinds of drill bits on the market, such as twist drill, inner cold twist drill, step drill, inner cold step drill, and other non-standard drill bits. But the materials used in these drills are generally summed up in two broad categories.

1. High-speed steel

High-speed steel (HSS) is a tool steel with rigid hardness, high wear resistance, and high heat resistance. High-speed steel tool is a tool than ordinary tools to be tough, easier to cut, high-speed steel than carbon tool steel has better toughness, strength, heat resistance, cutting speed than carbon tool steel (iron-carbon alloy) is much higher, so it is called high-speed steel; And hard alloy is better than high – speed steel, cutting speed can be increased 2-3 times.

Features:

High-speed steel red hardness up to 650 degrees.

HSS has good strength and toughness, sharp cutting after sharpening, stable quality, and is generally used to make small and complicated cutting tools.

2. Cemented carbide(alloy steel)

The carbide bit is mainly made of tungsten carbide and cobalt carbide, which account for 99% of all the components and 1% of other metals, so it is called tungsten steel (cemented carbide). Tungsten steel is a sintered composite material consisting of at least one metal carbide. Tungsten carbide, cobalt carbide, niobium carbide, titanium carbide, tantalum carbide are common components of tungsten steel.

features:

The red hardness of cemented carbide can reach 800-1000 degrees.

The cutting speed of cemented carbide is 4-7 times higher than that of HSS, and the cutting efficiency is high.

The disadvantages are low flexural strength, poor impact toughness, high brittleness, and low shock resistance.

Commonly speaking, HSS is used as the drills, Otai provides the M2, M42, M35 steel for our customers. Welcome to send me an inquiry.

Mr Jack Tan

Tel: 0086-769-23190193

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Email: jack@otaisteel.com

42crmo4 steel is the key product of Otai company, it is popular among our customer. I wound like to talk about 42crmo4 steel applies in the Gear making.

42crmo4 steel is the key product of Otai company, it is popular among our customer. It can be used in different industry. I wound like to talk about 42crmo4 steel applies in the Gear making.

Key performance requirements for high quality gear

High quality gear steel is mainly shown in three aspects: narrow end quenching zone, high purity and fine and uniform grain.

(1) end quench band

The stability of the hardenability of the end has a great influence on the quantity of heat treatment deformation of gear steel.

(2) purity

Purity mainly refers to the decrease of oxygen content and other harmful elements. The influence of oxygen content on the fatigue life of gears has been paid more and more attention. In order to improve the purity and reduce harmful inclusions, the content of Ti in gear steel should be limited, It is the source of fatigue crack.

(3) grain size

Grain size is another important index of gear steel, because coarse grain makes the concentration of penetration layer relative increase, resulting in the increase of brittleness, make the product strength decline, the tooth surface easy to peel off. If mixed crystals appear, the heat treatment deformation between the aging teeth may lose its rules and cannot be matched. In the aspect of structure control technology of gear steel, fine austenite grain is important to the stability of steel and its products, and is the basic property of high quality steel.

why is the 42crmo4 steel applies in the Gear making.

42CrMo4 steel material is a high quality Quenched and Tempered Alloy Structural steel . It belongs to the high quality medium carbon alloy steel, Oil Quenched & Tempered Hardenss is 28-34 HRC .  Annealing delivery hardenss less than 250HB . This materials was the best choose for produce gears .It has high creep strength and durable strength at high temperature. Its hardenability is high, it has good toughness, the possibility of  quenching deformation is  small.

Mr Jack Tan

Tel: 0086-769-23190193

Fax: 0086-769-88705839

Email: jack@otaisteel.com

P20 mold and OT718 can be distinguished by the following formula: P20 + 1% Ni = OT718.

P20 mold and OT718 mold steel are universal pre-hardened mold steels, which are usually used for large and extra large plastic molds. OT718 die steel is equivalent to domestic steel number 3Cr2NiMo. P20 die steel is equivalent to 3Cr2Mo.Compared with P20 mold, OT718 die steel adds a small amount of Ni element. From P20 400mm maximum size to 1000mm maximum size, greatly improved Hardenability.

The hardness of P20 mold is 4HRC lower than that of OT718 mold steel.
OT718 has better polishing performance and can be used to manufacture plastic molds with polishing requirements. P20 mold steel can usually be used for plastic molds or plastic molds that are not required.
There are also improved P20 die steels, one is to add Ni to improve the uniformity and corrosion resistance. And the other is to add S to improve the workability  and make it more suitable for mass production. As the most commonly used plastic mold steel in China, the domestic technology is already very mature.And most steel mills have produced high-quality products. As long as the purity of the mold steel reaches the standard, and the domestic production is also very easy to use.

1.2738 is a commonly used German standard plastic mold steel, usually referred to as 738 for short. This steel is more popularly called OT718. It is generally tempered and pre-hardened to HRC28 ~ 36. After being processed into a mold, it is used directly without heat treatment.
OT718 Performance characteristics.
①Excellent polishing and photo-etching performance.
②Good machining performance.
③High purity and uniformity.
④ Uniform hardness.
⑤ Subsequent nitriding treatment or local flame quenching can be carried out to improve surface strength and surface wear resistance, and reduce surface failure.

Compared with the traditional plastic mold steel P20, 1% nickel is added to OT718,  has better toughness and hardenability. And it is more excellent in large cross-sectional molds. This steel type is suitable for large-scale plastics, especially those with thickness greater than 400mm.

Recently, the mould steel  request are increasing for fulfilling the mould tools on the different machines used on the anti-coronavirus.For supporting the work , our company make the special offer on the P20 steel plate during these days. It is the very good time to seize the rare chance to purchase this mold steel if you have any purchasing plan recently.

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Europe Steel situation effected by COVID-19 with price ,trading issue…

The long-term producer Steel Plant (BMZ) has reduced processing capacity in the next round and wire orders of European and auto and auto parts manufacturers. This may reduce production this year by 300,000-350,000 metric tons, and encourages BMZ to carry out a three to a four-month renovation of the soot processing device that was originally scheduled to collect exhaust gas from the second electric arc furnace in 2021. The plan will be in 2020 The fourth quarter of the year, according to sources close to the company.

Price and trading volume

Steel prices are facing downward pressure due to the temporary shutdown of automobile manufacturers in most parts of Europe and the reduction in trade activity in the construction and other steel industries, which has led to the interruption of trade flows. Despite Europe ’s import protection measures, some key steel prices have reached a three-year low in 2019. At that time, the European market was oversupplied. Despite the import protection plan, imports to the EU remained at historical highs, and prices are now even Close to 2009 levels.

The Nordic HR coil ex-works price (Ruhr) started in January 2020 at a price of Eue435 ($ 469.80) / mt, even lower than Eur450 / mt in January 2009, and has risen to Eur474 / mt since the beginning of March 2020 . The impact of production cuts.

S & P Global Platts Energy Information research shows that imports are picking up, and Asia is actively providing imports to Europe. International prices are under pressure, but due to long delivery times and current trade and logistics uncertainties, many buyers have not considered imports. Nordic steel mills hope to provide hot-rolled coil CFR (North Africa) at a lower price because they seek to unload outside the EU to maintain domestic market prices.

Source Xiaomi Finance is integrated from Xinhua Net, Economic Observation Net, Overseas Steel, Tyco Steel, etc.

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Regarding analysis about the steel due to COVID-19

CIS

Regarding analysis about the steel due to COVID-19 Ukraine

In the last week of March, ArcelorMittalKryviy Rih worked in Ukraine, temporarily suspending the No. 1 blooming mill and the No. 3 light rolling mill at one of its two flowering plants. The facility will remain idle until the quarantine caused by a coronavirus in Ukraine on April 24. The plant will continue to operate mills 1 and 5, while mill 5 will maintain half of its capacity. The company said that in April and May, the output of its main products (long products, billet and pig iron) will be 20% lower than normal.Given that last year, the plant’s average monthly saleable output was 390,000-393,000 tons, and the monthly output from April to May may fall by 80,000 tons to 310,000-313,000 tons/month.

Metinvest, a Ukrainian mining and steel group, said this week that if the operations of its Italian plant will not return to normal soon, it will have to cut output from its Ukrainian steel plant. Since March 24, due to the coronavirus pandemic, its business has decreased significantly.  The production of utility steel from Italian medium and heavy plate coil producers Ferriera Valsider and Trametal, owned by Metinvest, has decreased by 40,000 metric tons.

The steel mill is scheduled to restart on April 3, but if the Italian government resumes quarantine, Metinvest will also be forced to reduce the output of its Ukrainian steel mills, mainly in Azovstal, which supplies slabs to Italian steel mills. If the situation continues, Metinvest does not rule out the temporary suspension of Azovstal’s slab continuous casting. The company may also consider blowing down No. 3 blast furnace in Azovstal and postponing the restart of the refurbished No. 4 blast furnace until May (expected to begin in April).

Although the two-week quarantine work began on March 30 in the Karaganda region where it is located, the Temirtau steel plant in Kazakhstan is still operating normally. “The company is in steel production, coal and iron ore mining as well as continuing to fulfill its obligations to customers.”

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Europe countries ‘ situation effected by COVID-19 Part two

Since April 7th, ArcelorMittal has begun preparations for the temporary closure of blast furnace A at its Gijon plant in Asturias. The plant has two blast furnaces with a total annual output of 4.2 million tons of crude steel. According to S & P Global Platts Energy Information, the annual crude steel production capacity of furnace A is about 2.7 million tons per year.

On the morning of March 31, Basque (Sestao) temporarily shut down the electric arc furnace to balance supply and demand. Sestao’s crude steel design capacity is about 1.4 million tons/year, but since September last year, the annual output has been 300,000 tons/year for the automotive industry.

Last week AM stopped production of its 250,000-ton / year steel rolling mill in Lesaka, which produces organic coated coils for the automotive sector. It also closed its Sagunto rolling mill, and its annual production capacity of galvanized products is about 600,000 tons, accounting for 70% of the automotive industry.

AM’s Olaberria-Bergara production line for the automotive and construction industries is running.

the other europe countries’ situation analysis effected by COVID-19

United Kingdom

Steel producers are still working, but due to restrictions imposed by the government, production has been adjusted to reduce demand. The total output is usually 7.3 million tons/year. Major producers Tata Steel (Talbert Port has a production capacity of 3.5 million tons/year), British Steel (2.5 million tons/year) and Free Group reported that production in product areas related to the automotive industry has been reduced.

Tata Steel said: “We will continue to operate all four blast furnaces at our two steelmaking centers-IJmuiden in the Netherlands and Port Talbot in Wales. However, due to the sudden drop in steel production, liquid Steel production will decrease. Demand. ”

British Steel continues to operate two blast furnaces with an annual output of approximately 2.5 million tons.

Freedom Group continues to produce approximately 1.2 million shares of crude steel through two furnaces in Rotherham, England. Once the customer’s plan is completed and the plant and equipment are shut down, Liberty will only suspend operations at Liberty Pressing Solutions, Liberty TubeComponents and Liberty Aluminium Technologies related to the automotive industry, and restart effectively when needed.

Belgium: Liberty Liege-Dudelange closed the three production bases of Flemalle, Tiller, and Dudelange on March 21, and stated that it will continue to deliver finished products to customers.

Austria: Voestalpine, which has an annual capacity of 5 million tons, has idled a blast furnace in Linz and announced short-term work.

Poland: In view of the current market uncertainty, Poland ArcelorMittal Poland has postponed the restart of its Krakow blast furnace (expected to resume production in the second half of March).

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Europe countries ‘ situation effected by COVID-19 Part one

Germany

Germany is the largest steel-making country in the European Union, producing 39.7 million tons of crude steel in 2019. With the closure of the country’s automotive industry, several steel mills announced a reduction in production capacity.

The ArcelorMittal Bremen plant has a production capacity of 3.6 million tons and one of the two blast furnaces has been idle. The work of Bottrop and Eisenhuettenstadt reduced working hours.

Thyssenkrupp, Germany’s largest steel producer, will enter short-term production and cut production.

Salzgitter reduced flat steel output. Saarstahl and Dillinger have a pig iron production capacity of 4.6 million tons per year. Due to the high idling cost and the need for more maintenance work, their crude steel output is kept at the lowest technically possible productivity. Salstar ’s 500,000 t / y long steel mill capacity is 50%. Cold rolling mills are reducing production due to insufficient supply due to the shutdown of steel and automobile factories.

Italy

Italy is the second largest producer in the European Union. In 2019, crude steel production was 23 million tons per year. Except for the factories of Taranto and Arvedi of Angelor Mittal, all The steel mills have shut down their operations in accordance with government regulations against COVID-19.

Italy ’s largest flat steel producer Taranto has closed its 2 million ton / year blast furnace No. 2 and No. 1 smelting plant, but has obtained permission to keep No. 1 and No. 4 blast furnaces operating. Continuous cycle production capacity, so it is produced at a historically low level of approximately 8,500 metric tons per year.

Arvedi, a Lombardy electric arc furnace (EAF) steel producer with an annual capacity of 4 million tons per year, has also been allowed to continue production, but only at a reduced speed during the weekend.

France

ArcelorMittal has stopped the production of two blast furnaces, one of which is located in Foss-sur-Mer, and the other is located in Dunkirk, with about 4 million tons of crude steel rolled off the line every year.

The Beltrame Group, Europe’s largest commercial steel bar producer, closed its French business Lamines Marchands Europes (LME) in Trith Saint Leger in northern France, with an annual capacity of 850,000 tons of electric furnaces and two steel mills until the end of March. It is understood that the closure is under review.

Spain

The Spanish Steel Industry Association UNESID is seeking clarification from the Ministry of Industry on what is an important industry. Fighting the coronavirus in tougher measures will only allow “strategically important departments” to continue to operate. During the measures taken, many consumer factories (such as car manufacturers) have been closed.

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Europe Steel Industrial have effected by COVID-19

European industries  affected by the pandemic

The European steel industry was severely hit by the coronavirus pandemic. Experts report that the automotive industry is the second largest consumer industry for steel, temporarily closed. while the construction industry (the most consumed industry) slowed sharply in the UK in the last week of March. It can be expected that the current crisis (still intensifying) will have the same impact on the steel industry as the global financial crisis, or even greater. According to data from the World Steel Association (world steel), the financial crisis led to the EU ’s crude steel production in 2009 A year-on-year decline of nearly 30% to 139 million tons.

European steel price affected by the pandemic, the demand and capacity are reduced.

Jefferies International analysts Simon Thackray and Abraham Akra said this week: “The dislocation of COVID-19 steel demand should bring capacity utilization back to [Global Financial Crisis] levels and Steel production will be significantly affected. “During the COVID-19 pandemic, auto factories have been closed. We expect construction activities to slow down accordingly. Some governments are now exempt from lock-in operations. The mid-term demand blow from the pandemic will lead to unemployment. The rate is rising and it is expected that it will take several months to restore the locked state. ”

According to the International Iron and Steel Association, 28 countries/regions in the EU produced 159.4 million tons of crude steel in 2019. Sources from well-positioned steel makers say the current crisis may shut down the steelmaking capacity of major EU mills by as much as 50%. Agent SP Angel estimated on Friday that the European blast furnace with an annual capacity of 19 million tons has been closed and the capacity of other blast furnaces is decreasing. Other furnace shutdowns will occur in the next few days. Brazilian miner Vale said mid-week that European iron ore demand had been cut by 18 million tons.

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