M35 tool steel is a popular variety of high-speed steel. Its specialty lies in the alloys, including molybdenum, tungsten, vanadium, cobalt, and the like. These industry-grade materials have become a popular choice by dint of certain properties, such as exceptional wear resistance, hot hardness, and hardness. All these features make it the perfect material to manufacture heavy-duty cutting tools. This is why this variety of tool steel often finds its utility in the making of taps, milling cutters, drills, and similar high-precision cutting tools.
However, it is important to audit the hardness of the tool steel even without posing any distortion. This is where accurate treatment, while processing M35 tool steel, comes in. To understand the concept of heat treatment in this variety, it is crucial that you have the preliminary knowledge of the hit cycle for processing this variety.
Understanding M35
Before getting into the details of the heat treatment, you could get some help by understanding the real properties and contents of M35 tool steel. It typically comes with:
- 4.5-5.5% molybdenum.
- 0.85-0.95% carbon.
- 4.5-5.5% cobalt.
- 4.0-5.0% tungsten.
- 1.7-2.2% vanadium.
With these alloys present, M35 achieves its special properties like exceptional wear resistance, hardness, and hot hardness properties.
Cycles of Heat Treatment
For M35 variety of tool steel, the different cycles of heat treatment involve stages like:
- Preheating: The steel gets heated to a range of temperatures, usually 600-700°C or 1112-1292°F. This helps relieve just about any kind of internal stress. It also ensures uniformity in heating.
- Austenitizing: Here, the steel gets heated to a range of temperatures between 1176 and 1220°C, which is 2150-2228°F. This helps in dissolving the carbides to form austenite.
- Quenching: Next, the steel is quickly quenched in a salt bath or oil. This helps the metal to cool down to as low as 500-600°C, or 932-1112°F.
- Tempering: The steel now gets heated once again to a relatively low range of temperature, about 550-650°C or 1022-1202°F. This helps in relieving the internal stresses. This, in turn, helps the metal to achieve the hardness level that the tool makers desire.
Hardness; No Distortion
To get optimum hardness while keeping the shape intact, it is important to monitor the cycle of heat treatment and control the procedure carefully. This is where the leading M35 steel supplier, like TGKSSL, makes no consideration. The metallurgists consider several factors. These include:
- Making certain that the temperature for preheating remains even throughout the metal. This prevents maximum thermal stresses.
- Keeping optimal control of temperature, which is correctable to about 5 degrees Celsius, is essential. This helps to prevent overheating of the metal, which can otherwise lead to warping or distortion, or grain growth whatsoever.
- Choosing a medium for quenching is important to maintain a uniform rate of cooling. This helps in preventing any type of distortion. However, in the case of M35 steel, oil quenching is more common than other media.
- Using optimal temperature and making necessary controls to achieve the desired results.
In Conclusion
There is more than one way why appropriate heat treatment is necessary for M35 tool steel. This is where the assistance of seasoned M35 tool steel suppliers comes in. Apart from technical assistance, it is also necessary to have the help of the experts for seamless supply and best advice on the choice of metals.