Fine blanking is a manufacturing process combining forming and blanking operations to produce metal parts from coils with high dimensional accuracy, smooth edges, and minimal post-processing requirements. However, challenges such as unexpected tool wear and fluctuations in material properties can lead to unplanned machine downtimes, increased scrap production, costly finishing treatments, and...
The requirements for tool steels have increased in recent years. For example, the trend in the automotive industry towards stronger sheet metal for the automotive industry is leading to higher tool loads in cold work applications, such as fine blanking, punching, and cold forming. A comprehensive understanding of the properties of these steels is therefore essential for the development of such...
For most metalworking tools, cutting-edge loads fluctuate at high levels during the industrial application, leading to material fatigue and tool failure. Usually, fatigue crack propagation is observed on cracks emanating from large, through-specimen-width notches that average a large number of microstructural features along the crack front, which does not represent reality. To address the...
Designing a powder metallurgical high speed steel (PM-HSS) means defining the best compromise between toughness, hardness at room or high temperature, wear resistance, grinding ability etc. The best compromise depends on final application. In this context, Erasteel developed a solution intended for tools that suffer mainly from mixed adhesive/abrasive wear and/or chipping/cracking together...
