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Hydraulic Forming Die Steel Suggestions

NismoGT

Plastic
Joined
Nov 29, 2018
Hello Everybody,
So I just about done putting my 80T c-frame hydraulic press together for bending in the shop and, most importantly, setting rivets in steel. Although I have the means to hot press rivets, I would rather cold press them (hence the 80T of force), because my hydraulic pump would most likely take too long to fully extend before the rivet cools down too much. With my current 20T press, I had some dies made from H13 tool steel, mainly because hot pressing these rivets would certainly require that type of tool steel. My question is: Now that I am going to mainly cold press the rivets, what type of tool steel should I choose? (O, A, D, ???) Or could I choose an alloy steel (4140, 4130, ???) Or should I just choose H13 for all the dies I make so I still have the option to hot press, when needed? Your thoughts?

Here is a pic of my button dies.
Capture.jpg
 
I cold press everyday making dies we use presses up to 500 tons. I use h13 for some of this work and it has been fine. I also like s7 and d2
 
Usually A-2 is used for general work in relatively low production runs of under 10,000 pieces. I'd make it out of whatever is low cost for you, case hardened or pre-hard may work for your application in cold working. Hot work may require H-13, only you can determine if the added cost will be worth it or not. I'd stay away from D-2 unless you really need the added abrasion resistance it offers. D-2 is not particularly pleasant to grind and more expensive. D-2 is my choice for some die components but only if it's high volume runs. This sounds like low volume and in-house production so this is a good opportunity to experiment if you have some extra stock.
 
Hello Everybody,
So I just about done putting my 80T c-frame hydraulic press together for bending in the shop and, most importantly, setting rivets in steel. Although I have the means to hot press rivets, I would rather cold press them (hence the 80T of force), because my hydraulic pump would most likely take too long to fully extend before the rivet cools down too much. With my current 20T press, I had some dies made from H13 tool steel, mainly because hot pressing these rivets would certainly require that type of tool steel. My question is: Now that I am going to mainly cold press the rivets, what type of tool steel should I choose? (O, A, D, ???) Or could I choose an alloy steel (4140, 4130, ???) Or should I just choose H13 for all the dies I make so I still have the option to hot press, when needed? Your thoughts?

Here is a pic of my button dies.
View attachment 265180

These appear to be very simple shapes. I would make them from h13 pre hardened core pins. They are cheap and readily available in many sizes and hardness. Cut to length and hard turn with good carbide . A carbide ball end mill will do the end.Edwin Dirnbeck
 
I recently made a set of cold-forming dies from S7. The material is expensive but machines nicely, and the heat-treat is a bit more involved than some other alloys, especially in larger cross-sections. The dies are performing well, though and we'd probably use S7 again for similar applications.
 
These appear to be very simple shapes. I would make them from h13 pre hardened core pins. They are cheap and readily available in many sizes and hardness. Cut to length and hard turn with good carbide . A carbide ball end mill will do the end.Edwin Dirnbeck

Not exactly sure what those are.


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I recently made a set of cold-forming dies from S7. The material is expensive but machines nicely, and the heat-treat is a bit more involved than some other alloys, especially in larger cross-sections. The dies are performing well, though and we'd probably use S7 again for similar applications.

It’s not going to be a high speed, high impact cold press scenario. S7 might be a little outside of the requirements, hence why I didn’t suggest that.


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