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In modern industrial production, blades are indispensable basic tools. From food processing, paper printing, to metal smelting, plastics and rubber to aerospace, blades are almost everywhere. The performance of the blade directly determines the productivity, cutting quality and equipment life. Whether the blade can be stable sharpness and durability, and its selection of materials is closely related.
In many blade materials, Tool Steel occupies an extremely important position. It is different from the low cost and low performance of ordinary structural steel, and different from the high brittleness and high cost of high-end alloy materials (such as cemented carbide or ceramics), but by virtue of its unique comprehensive performance, it has become one of the most common and reliable materials for industrial blades.
In this article, we will systematically explain the basic definition of tool steel, its performance characteristics, classification, commonly used representative steel grades and their performance comparison, as well as its application and selection strategy in industrial blades, to help readers fully understand the value and application logic of tool steel in the field of industrial blades.
What Is Tool Steel?
Tool steel, as the name suggests, is a special class of steel used exclusively for making tools. Compared to ordinary steel, it has higher hardness, strength, wear resistance and a certain degree of toughness, and is able to withstand cutting, stamping, molding and other harsh conditions.
In blade manufacturing, tool steel is mainly used in applications that require a balance of sharpness, wear resistance and cost. It can be heat-treated to obtain a high degree of hardness, but also maintain sufficient impact toughness to ensure that the blade in the cutting process is neither easy to roll edge, nor easy to break.
Commonly speaking, tool steel is a kind of “cutting” material, it is the skeleton and soul of industrial blades.
Understanding the concept of tool steel, we need to further clarify – why tool steel can be so widely used in the field of blades? This brings us to its core performance characteristics.
Key Performance Characteristics Of Tool Steel
The ability of tool steels to be an important choice of material for blades stems from their comprehensive performance advantages. The following aspects are particularly critical:
High Hardness And Wear Resistance
After appropriate heat treatment, tool steel can reach a hardness of HRC 58-65, which ensures that blades are not easily blunted during high-speed cutting and long-term operation.
The increased hardness also brings excellent wear resistance, enabling the blade to maintain a sharp edge for a long time.
Sufficient Toughness And Impact Resistance
When cutting high-strength or high-toughness materials, the blade may be subjected to shock or vibration. Tool steel retains a degree of toughness while maintaining a high degree of hardness, which helps prevent edge chipping.
Good Machinability And Heat Treatability
Tool steel is easy to machine in the annealed condition, allowing for milling, grinding and other blade forming processes.
After tempering, quenching and tempering and other heat treatment processes, its hardness and toughness can be precisely controlled to meet the needs of different blade use.
Heat Resistance And Temper Softening Resistance
Tool steel can still maintain a stable hardness in a high temperature cutting environment, and will not be rapidly annealed and softened, which is particularly important for high-speed cutting blades.
Cost-effective Advantage
Compared with carbide, ceramics and other high-end blade materials, tool steel price is moderate, processing technology is relatively mature, so in many industries is still the mainstream choice.
Since tool steel has such superior properties, how is it categorized? Different types of tool steel have their own characteristics and correspond to different blade application scenarios.
Classification Of Tool Steels
There are various ways to categorize tool steel, and the common bases include chemical composition, heat treatment method, and usage.
Classification By Use
Cutting Tool Steel: Used in the manufacture of cutting tools, drills, milling cutters, industrial blades, etc., requiring high hardness and wear resistance.
Mold Steel: Used in plastic molds, die-casting molds, stamping molds, emphasizing the toughness and wear resistance.
Measuring Tool Steel: Used in the manufacture of calipers, gauges and other measuring tools, requiring high dimensional stability and wear resistance.
Classification By Chemical Composition
Carbon Tool Steel: High carbon content, heat treatment can be obtained after high hardness, but poor toughness and heat resistance, suitable for low-speed cutting blades.
Alloy Tool Steel: Adding chromium, molybdenum, tungsten, vanadium and other alloying elements to improve wear resistance, toughness and heat resistance.
High Speed Steel (HSS): Containing tungsten, molybdenum, vanadium and other alloying elements, in high-speed cutting conditions can still maintain the hardness and wear resistance.
Categorized by heat treatment performance
Water quenching tool steel: Water cooling quenching, high hardness but easy to deformation and cracking.
Oil quenching tool steel: Quenched by oil cooling, high hardness, toughness is better.
Air-quenched tool steel: Quenched by air, deformation is small, suitable for precision blades.
After understanding the classification, it is necessary to further look at what are the specific representative tool steel species, and their differences in performance.
Comparison Of Commonly Used Tool Steel Representations And Properties
The following types of tool steels are most commonly used in industrial blade manufacturing:
T10 Carbon Tool Steel
- Advantages: High hardness, good sharpness, low cost.
- Disadvantages: Insufficient wear and heat resistance, suitable for low-speed cutting and less demanding blades.
Cr12MoV Alloy Tool Steel
- Advantages: Good wear resistance, good hardenability, suitable for the manufacture of punching dies and slitting blades.
- Disadvantages: Toughness is relatively general, easy to collapse in the impact environment.
Skd11 (Japanese Standard, Equivalent To D2 Steel)
- Advantages: High wear resistance, good corrosion resistance, suitable for long life industrial blades.
- Disadvantages: More difficult to process, the price is higher than ordinary alloy steel.
Skh-51 (High-Speed Steel M2 Type)
- Advantages: Excellent heat resistance, still maintain the hardness in high-speed cutting.
- Disadvantages: Higher cost, but suitable for blades requiring high cutting efficiency.
Powdered High-Speed Steel (Such As Asp23, Asp30)
- Advantages: Both high hardness and toughness, uniform organization, wear resistance.
- Disadvantages: Expensive, mostly used for high-end blades or special working conditions.
Performance Comparison Summary:
- Carbon tool steel: Economical and practical, but poor heat resistance.
- Alloy tool steel: Good overall performance, suitable for most industrial blades.
- High-speed steel: High temperature resistance, suitable for high-speed cutting blades.
- Powdered HSS: Best performance, but high cost.
Applications Of Tool Steel In Industrial Blades
The central role of tool steel in industrial blades is due to its balance between performance and cost. Different tool steels have a wide range of applications in blade manufacturing in a variety of industries, as follows:
1. Paper And Printing Industry
Paper industry blades (such as paper cutting knives, slitting knives, circular cutting knives) need to handle a large number of paper, cardboard and special packaging materials for a long period of time, the wear resistance and kerf neatness requirements are extremely high.
- Commonly used materials: Cr12MoV, SKD11
- Reason: These tool steels have high chromium content, excellent wear resistance and dimensional stability, and can maintain a sharp edge over long periods of time.
- Typical applications: Web slitting knives, paper cutters, offset printing cutters.
2. Plastic And Rubber Industry
Plastic crushing knife, rubber cutting blade is often in high impact, high friction working environment. Blades should not only keep sharp, but also to withstand strong impact load.
- Commonly used materials: SKD11, high-speed steel (such as SKH-51)
- Reason: SKD11 has good wear resistance and toughness, while high-speed steel ensures that the hardness is maintained under high friction and temperature.
- Typical applications: plastic recycling crushing knives, rubber cutting knives, granulator blades.
3. Metal Processing Industry
Metal cutting has the highest requirements for blades. Whether it is cold rolled steel, aluminum slitting, or stainless steel plate shear, the blade needs to have very high wear resistance and impact resistance.
- Commonly used materials: High-speed steel (M2, M42), powder metallurgy high-speed steel (ASP23, ASP30)
- Reason: High-speed steel can still maintain the hardness at high temperatures, while powder high-speed steel has achieved an excellent balance between wear resistance and toughness, life is significantly higher than traditional steel.
- Typical applications: Slitting knives for longitudinal shears, shearing machine knives, metal punching and cutting mold knives.
4. Food Processing Industry
Food blades not only require sharp and wear-resistant, but also emphasize corrosion resistance and safety to avoid contamination of the blade material on the food.
- Commonly used materials: Tool steel with high chromium content (such as SKD11), and in some cases will also be used after special treatment of high-alloy steel.
- Reason: To ensure sharp cutting while effectively resisting corrosion caused by moisture, salt, and acidic and alkaline environments in food products.
- Typical applications: Meat cutting blades, bread slicing knives, vegetable and fruit processing knives.
5. Wood Processing Industry
Woodworking blades such as planer knives, tenoning knives, cutting knives, not only to ensure sharp cutting wood, but also to have a certain toughness to prevent breakage in high-intensity cutting.
- Commonly used materials: T10 carbon tool steel, Cr12MoV
- Reason: T10 is inexpensive, good sharpness, suitable for general wood cutting; while Cr12MoV is more suitable for hardwood, high-density plate cutting.
- Typical applications: Woodworking planer knives, plywood cutting knives, saw blade teeth.
6. Plastic Film And Packaging Industry
Packaging industry slitting knives, cross-cutting knives require a smooth cut and fast, especially in the BOPP film, PET film cutting, blades need to be long life and high precision.
- Commonly used materials: SKD11, high-speed steel
- Reason: SKD11’s wear resistance ensures continuous operation for a long time, while high-speed steel can withstand the frictional heat caused by high-speed slitting.
- Typical applications: Film slitting circular knives, heat sealing cutter.
7. Textile And Chemical Fiber Industry
Textile blades used to cut fibers, yarns, fabrics, etc., the requirements of sharp and wear-resistant blade, especially in the chemical fiber industry, the cutting process is prone to high-temperature friction.
- Commonly used materials: High-speed steel, Cr12MoV
- Reason: High-speed steel can still keep sharp under high temperature environment, and the wear resistance of Cr12MoV is suitable for high-frequency cutting.
- Typical applications: Fiber cutting knives, fabric cutting knives, filament-splitting circular knives.
The application of tool steel in industrial blades covers almost all processing industries. Different steel grades are widely used in all kinds of cutting tools due to their differences in hardness, wear resistance, toughness, corrosion resistance and heat resistance. It can be said that from paper to food, from wood to metal, from plastics to fibers, almost every industry can be found in tool steel blades.
How To Choose The Right Tool Steel Blade?
Choosing the right tool steel blade requires a combination of the following considerations:
Type Of Material To Be Cut
- Soft materials (such as paper, wood): Carbon tool steel or mid-range alloy tool steel can be selected.
- High hardness or high toughness materials (such as metals, plastics): SKD11, high-speed steel or powder high-speed steel is recommended.
Cutting Conditions
- High-speed cutting: Heat resistance must be considered, preferred high-speed steel or powder high-speed steel.
- High impact load: Alloy tool steel with good toughness is required.
Blade Life And Cost Balance
- If the pursuit of low cost, can choose T10, Cr12MoV.
- For long life and high stability, consider powdered HSS such as SKD11 and ASP23.
Maintenance And Machining Convenience
- Tool steels require regular resharpening. Choosing a steel grade with better machinability will help reduce maintenance costs.
Industry Standards And Customer Requirements
- Some industries, such as the food industry, have stringent material requirements that require additional consideration of corrosion resistance and safety.
Tool steel, one of the core materials for industrial blades, is widely used in many industries due to its high hardness, wear resistance, toughness and machinability. From low-cost carbon tool steel, to high-performance high-speed steel, to high-end powder metallurgy high-speed steel, each type of tool steel has its own unique value.
When choosing a blade, companies need to combine the cutting material, the use of the environment, life requirements and cost budget, to make a scientific judgment. Only in this way can we maximize the effectiveness of the blade, improve productivity and reduce overall operating costs.
Tool steel will not be easily replaced, it is both the cornerstone of traditional manufacturing and the backbone of the modern industrial blade field.
