AISI - H13

AISI H13 is a versatile hot work tool steel known for its excellent combination of high temperature strength, toughness, and wear resistance. Here's a description of AISI H13:

• Composition: AISI H13 typically contains around 0.35-0.42% carbon, 4.75-5.50% chromium, 1.10-1.75% molybdenum, 0.80-1.20% vanadium, and small amounts of other alloying elements such as silicon and manganese. This composition provides H13 with its exceptional properties for hot work applications.
• High-Temperature Strength: H13 exhibits excellent high-temperature strength and thermal fatigue resistance, making it suitable for use in applications where tools are exposed to elevated temperatures during operation. It maintains its hardness and mechanical properties at temperatures up to 600°C (1112°F).
• Wear Resistance: AISI D2 offers outstanding wear resistance, particularly in applications involving cutting, shearing, and forming of abrasive materials such as wood, plastics, and non-ferrous metals. It retains its cutting edge well, prolonging tool life in demanding cold work environments.

• Toughness: AISI H13 possesses good toughness, allowing it to withstand thermal shocks and mechanical stresses encountered during hot work operations. This toughness helps prevent cracking and deformation of the tooling under demanding conditions.
• Wear Resistance: H13 offers excellent wear resistance, particularly at high temperatures. This property is crucial for maintaining the cutting edge and prolonging the tool life in hot work applications involving shaping, forging, extrusion, and die casting of metals.
• Hot Work Applications: AISI H13 is widely used in hot work applications such as die casting dies, forging dies, extrusion dies, hot shear blades, and hot punches. Its combination of high temperature strength, toughness, and wear resistance makes it suitable for demanding industrial processes.
• Heat Treatment: H13 is typically hardened through austenitizing, followed by quenching in air, oil, or salt baths to achieve full hardness. Subsequent tempering is then performed to improve toughness and reduce internal stresses. The specific heat treatment process may vary depending on the application requirements.
• Machinability: AISI H13 has good machinability in the annealed condition. However, its high hardness after heat treatment can make machining challenging. Pre-hardened or tempered H13 may be easier to machine for certain applications.
• Dimensional Stability: H13 exhibits good dimensional stability during heat treatment, minimizing distortion and warping. This property is essential for producing precision tooling components with tight tolerances in hot work applications.

In summary, AISI D2 and similar 8% chromium cold work tool steels are valued for their excellent wear resistance, hardness, and dimensional stability, making them suitable for a wide range of cold work tooling applications, especially in industries such as metal stamping, die cutting, and precision machining.