The Influence of Fracture Toughness on the Fine Blanking Tools Life

Abstract

One of the most important operations in the manufacturing of fine blanking tools from HSS AISI M2, is vacuum heat treatment with uniform high-pressure gas quenching. The importance of optimal heat treatment is the possibility of making the optimum combination of the basic characteristics of fine blanking tools made from HSS for the given working part/fine blanking tool combination. Four different austenitization temperatures and four different tempering temperatures were chosen to produce the correct hardness balance, toughness, cutting properties and wear resistance in the finished tool. The result of the present investigation is important for the optimization of vacuum heat treatments of different tools made from HSS which are under tensile impact stress during exploitation. For them the optimal combination of hardness and fracture toughness are decisive.