AISI O1

AISI O1 is a versatile oil-hardening, non-shrinking cold work tool steel known for its excellent combination of wear resistance, toughness, and machinability. Here's an overview of its characteristics:

• Composition: AISI O1 contains approximately 0.95% carbon, 1.1% chromium, 0.5% manganese, 0.6% tungsten, and small amounts of silicon and vanadium. This composition gives O1 its hardness, wear resistance, and machinability.
• Hardness: It can achieve a high level of hardness, typically around 60-62 HRC (Rockwell hardness scale) after heat treatment. This high hardness provides excellent wear resistance, making it suitable for cutting, forming, and shaping applications.
• Wear Resistance: AISI O1 offers good wear resistance, particularly in applications where tools are subjected to abrasive wear and moderate impact loads. It retains its cutting edge well, prolonging tool life in demanding cold work environments.

• Toughness: O1 possesses good toughness, allowing it to withstand moderate shock and impact without fracturing or chipping. This toughness makes it suitable for applications where the tool may encounter occasional impact loads.
• Cold Work Applications: O1 is widely used in cold work applications such as blanking dies, forming dies, punches, knives, and cutting tools. It is particularly favored for applications that require a high level of precision and dimensional stability.
• Heat Treatment: O1 is typically hardened through oil quenching from austenitizing temperatures (around 800-900°C). The steel is heated uniformly and then quenched in oil to achieve maximum hardness. Subsequent tempering is performed to reduce internal stresses and improve toughness.
• Machinability: AISI O1 exhibits excellent machinability in the annealed condition, making it easy to machine into intricate shapes and forms. It can be ground, drilled, milled, and turned with relative ease, allowing for the production of complex tooling components.
• Dimensional Stability: O1 demonstrates good dimensional stability during heat treatment, minimizing distortion and warping. This makes it suitable for producing precision components with tight tolerances.

In summary, AISI O1 is valued for its excellent wear resistance, toughness, machinability, and dimensional stability, making it a popular choice for a wide range of cold work tooling applications, particularly in industries such as metal stamping, die cutting, and precision machining.