From Flat Bars to Finished Tools: Understanding Tool Steel Product Forms

Tool steel is considered the most important aspect of multiple industrial manufacturing processes. Exceptional hardness and the power to retain its cutting edge even at very high temperatures make it special.

This carbon alloy steel is manufactured into various product forms through a specialized process in the Electric Arc Furnace. The recycled steel scrap is melted and mixed with different alloys such as tungsten, chromium, molybdenum, and vanadium. Understanding the various product forms offered by a tool steel supplier is essential. It helps select the right provider for your industrial needs.

Brief Description of the Various Product Forms

Steel Bars and Rods: These are the commonest forms produced by the hot rolling or forging process.

• In the rolling process: The raw material is passed through a series of rolling mills. These are designed to produce rods and bars of specific dimensions.
• In the forging process: The material is processed through rotary forging machines or hydraulic presses. This helps to compress it into different cross sections.

Sheets and Plates: These are flat product forms manufactured by the rolling process. These are used in shear blades, forming dies, lamination dies, and blanking dies.

Billets and Ingots: These are semi-finished product forms designed to undergo further processing. At the factory, these are to be moulded into specific shapes to use in different heavy-duty applications. These are commonly used as raw materials to make large forging dies and die-casting die blocks.

Hollow Bars: These are highly specific tool steel product forms achieved by specialized forging and drawing. These help create machine parts with tighter tolerance levels. The industrial applications include sleeves, collets, and other kinds of tubular components.   

Powders: Tool steel powders are prepared by advanced metallurgical processes and are further consolidated for different specialized requirements. Using the powder is a standard process when you need to create parts with complex geometries, with extremely precise requirements. The powder is consolidated using a process called Hot Isostatic Pressing or HIP, and it results in segregation-free, highly uniform products.

Powder metallurgy is an advanced process that involves the gas atomization of the molten metal into a fine powder. It might require the application of additive manufacturing. 3D printing is used to create complex machine parts.   

Understand the uses

Tool steel is used in cutting and machining, and heavy-duty manufacturing. It is also extensively used in the Plastic Injection Moulding process due to its inherent ability to withstand repeated thermal cycling and abrasion. It is also consistently used in forming and stamping, for producing diverse components like computer parts and window frames. 

Selecting the best

When selecting the right supplier, you need to focus on certain key aspects, such as the quality of the product and the availability of upgraded steel in the stock. Kushal Metal is a reputed tool steel supplier capable of handling your unique industrial requirements with confidence.  Kushal Metal has been in the business for more than 30 years and can provide both hot work tool steel and cold work tool steel.