Studies on wear resistance enhancement of cryogenically treated d hyphen3 piercing punches

Abstract

newline In sheet metal press tool cutting operations, punches are more prone to wear than the dies and the punch wear will affect the quality of the components produced. Due to severe market competition, industries are looking for methods by which punch life could be extended and thereby reducing changeover time and punch costs. Cryogenic treatment can be applied to tool steels to improve its properties favouring increased tool life. Conventionally tool steels are heat-treated to acquire required high hardness and wear resistance. There will be retained austenites in the microstructure of the conventionally hardened tool steel which could reduce the tools life. Cryogenic treatment is an additional process to the conventional heat treatment introduced between quenching and tempering which will promote the transformation of retained austenites into the martensites and precipitation of fine carbides. Cryogenic treatment contributes to the improvement of wear resistance, hardness and strength in tool steels. Several researchers have reported improvement in performance of cryogenically treated cutting tool materials on turning, milling and drilling by conducting standard wear tests like Pin-on-disk, Sliding wear test etc.. However, not much work has been carried out on the performance of D-3 cold work tool steel in the actual shop floor test. newline newline newline newline