Key Metals | Buy Tool Steel, Aluminum, Alloy, Carbon, Stainless, Precision Ground Flat Stock and Drill Rod (2024)

FAQs

What are the 6 grades of tool steel? ›

There are six groups of tool steels: water-hardening, cold-work, shock-resistant, high-speed, hot-work, and special purpose.

Tool steels are composed of various combinations of carbide-forming metals such as chromium, molybdenum, tungsten, and vanadium. These iron-based alloys have relatively high carbon content for strength and carbide formation. Substitutional solutes like nickel and cobalt are added for high-temperature strength.

Examples of common alloying elements and their roles include Chromium (Cr), which increases hardness and wear resistance, and improves heat and corrosion resistance; Molybdenum (Mo), which contributes to hardness, toughness, and heat resistance; and Nickel (Ni) and Manganese (Mn), which improve toughness and impact ...

Drill rod is tool steel, which is referenced by the following grades, per AISI standards: W‑1, O‑1, A‑2, S‑7, D‑2, M‑2, and H‑13. Certain grades of tool steel have similar alloy properties to 4140, but not all tool steel is 4140.

The hardest tool steels are those with a high vanadium content. The tool steel category with the highest percentage of vanadium is the cold working tool steel, which has excellent wear resistance.

Carbon Steel

The more carbon is used to manufacture steel, the harder the alloy will be. On the other hand, small amounts of carbon make for an alloy that is easier and cheaper to manufacture. Carbon steel is often used to produce tools and mechanical elements but is best known as a structural building material.

Low alloy steels are used in a wide range of industries due to their extreme strength, machinability, cost-effectiveness and availability. They are found in military vehicles, construction equipment, ships, pipelines, pressure vessels oil drilling platforms and in structural components.

M2 tool steel is the most commonly used grade of the high speed category. It is a molybdenum tungsten grade with excellent toughness, wear resistance and red hardness, making it preferable in applications where it is exposed to high heat condition from high machining speeds.

In the food and catering industry, stainless steel is used to manufacture kitchen accessories, cookware, and cutlery. Utensils such as knives are made using less ductile grades of stainless steel. The more ductile grades are used to make grills, cookers, saucepans, and sinks.

O1 grade steel is an oil-hardening, non-deforming tool steel. It is considered to be a "non-shrinking" steel and it can be hardened to a Rockwell Range of C 65 through use of relatively low temperatures.

What are the elements in aluminum? ›

It is a silvery-white, soft, non-magnetic and ductile metal in the boron group. The required elements for aluminum are aluminum and oxygen. Aluminum is typically produced from bauxite ore, which is refined into alumina, and then smelted to produce pure aluminum metal.

The highest quality carbon steel is often referred to as tool steel. Tool steel typically has a very high carbon content, ranging from 0. 6-1. 4%, and it also contains other elements, such as chromium, manganese, tungsten, and molybdenum, that give it certain desirable characteristics.

Drill rods are manufactured from tool steel that has been ground to a tight tolerance diameter. While typically round, drill rods may also be fabricated in square shapes. They are also often tempered prior to machining. This process involves heating the steel to relieve the hardness and to make the steel more workable.

Drills are made of alloyed high speed steel (HSS). With this tool steel, application temperatures of up to 600 °C can be reached, which can occur when cutting e.g. steel or metals. As the hardness of the material increases, you can use high speed steel with a higher cobalt content (5% or more).

High-speed steel comprises tungsten, chromium, carbon, and vanadium. Consequently, these drill bits have higher hardness, strength, wear resistance, and heat resistance. They have the nick High-Speed Steel due to their ability to drill at high speed. They are suitable for drilling metal and hardwood.

A6 de-carb free tool steel is an air hardening tool steel with higher manganese and lower chromium and carbon than A2, offering moderate wear resistance and toughness. It has the advantage of hardening from a lower austenitizing temperature for easy heat treatment.

LSS 4140 and 4142HT are versatile, alloy steels that are used in a variety of tooling and other industrial applications.

A2 tool steel is often regarded as a “universal” cold work steel, offering a combination of good wear resistance and high toughness. D2 tool steel is harder and more wear-resistant, but less tough. Both can be used for cutting and forming tools, or other applications where high hardness are valued.

Type S1, S5, and S6 steels are oil quenched and type S2 steels are water quenched. Type S7 steels are usually air-cooled, but the larger sections are oil quenched. The primary alloying elements in shock-resisting tool steels are the following: Molybdenum.