Hot forming, what are some choices for tooling material?

[Cordon]

This is what I have found on S7 material, "It possesses good softening resistance at high temperatures which gives it hot work capabilities."

We are looking at doing some hot forming in house and heat treating while the part is still hot. We have all the info we need on the heat treating process, just wondering if there are some other tooling materials that might be better than S7? Parts will be heated to 1550/1600F.

[Mark Paul]

Do you mean, 1375° warm forming?
If so try Novex out of michigan.
They know this type of tooling.

[Cordon]

Originally Posted by schmudy

Do you mean, 1375° warm forming?
If so try Novex out of michigan.
They know this type of tooling.

The parts to be formed will be heated to 1550/1600 degrees and then formed to the desired configuration. After that the parts will be quenched to obtain the desired hardness and so on.

We will be making the tooling in house, I was just wondering if the S7 material is a good choice or maybe something similar for cheaper? As always I like to post here to get different opinions

I will check out Novex, Thanks!

[Kevin H]

I beleive that most of the hot-work tool steels begin with an H designation - examples would include H-11, H-12, H-13. S is for shock resistant tool steels. What sort of forming are you planning to do and what grade of steel is involved? 1550/1600 F is on the low side for traditional hot work, and you'll lose heat to your die to begin with, so could potentially quench below austenitc just from die contact - at least at process start-up.

[Cordon]

Originally Posted by Kevin H

I beleive that most of the hot-work tool steels begin with an H designation - examples would include H-11, H-12, H-13. S is for shock resistant tool steels. What sort of forming are you planning to do and what grade of steel is involved? 1550/1600 F is on the low side for traditional hot work, and you'll lose heat to your die to begin with, so could potentially quench below austenitc just from die contact - at least at process start-up.

Thanks for the info on the tooling material Kevin. Sorry, I can't elaborate on the rest but you are correct in what you say, it's a fine line.