Custom Tool Steel Parts Machining

What is Tool Steel?

Tool steels are high quality carbon and alloy steels that are particularly suitable for making tools such as cutting tools, measuring tools, dies and wear-resistant tools. Tool steels have a high hardness and the ability to maintain high hardness, red-hardness and hold a cutting edge at high temperatures, as well as high wear resistance and suitable toughness. Therefore, tool steels are suitable for forming other materials such as cutting, machining, stamping or forging.

Tool steel is usually supplied to machinists in an annealed or soft condition. Steel mills provide tool steel in the annealed condition so that machinists can easily machine the tool steel into usable tools. They are usually melted in furnaces and processed to obtain the properties needed to shape other metals into useful components.

Tool steel

The high strength and wear resistance properties make tool steels ideal for a variety of applications. They are often used in everyday products such as automotive exhaust systems, precision surgical instruments and medical implant devices. Here are some industries that use tool steel parts made by kesu:

Automotive

Heavy Equipment

Medical

Food

Food processing

Electronic Products

Construction

Agriculture

Furniture

Classification of Tool Steel

Properties of Tool Steel 

Advantages of machining tool steel parts:

Tool steels are high quality carbon and alloy steels commonly used to make knives, molds, drills and other parts used in the machining or forming of metals, plastics and wood. Typical properties of tool steels include:

High hardness

Abrasion resistance

High red-hardness

Heat resistance

Ability to maintain shape 

Improved toughness 

Withstand heavy loads

Disadvantages:

Low hardenability

Tendency to overheat.

Higher price.

Lower cutting speeds increase the cost of the final product due to slower cycle times.

CNC machining produces parts with excellent mechanical properties, precision and repeatability using metals and plastics. We can provide 3-axis, 4-axis, and 5-axis machining services.

CNC Turning

Another technique for machining tool steel is CNC turning, in which the tool remains stationary while the workpiece moves to produce the desired shape. CNC turning is a highly adaptable machining system used to manufacture many electronic and mechanical components.

CNC Milling

CNC milling is an automated machining that uses computer control to manage the movement and operation of multi-point rotary tools. As the tools rotate and move over the surface of the workpiece, they slowly remove excess material to complete the desired shape and size. Milling can be used to create different design features such as notches, grooves, holes, slots, contours and flat surfaces.

CNC Machining Tool Steel

Finishes and Post-Processing

We offer a variety of finishes for tool steels.

Nickel Plating:

Carbon tool steels can be uniformly nickel plated to improve their corrosion and wear resistance. The process deposits a 0.1 mm thick layer of nickel on the surface of the part.

Powder Coating:

Powder coating creates a solid surface finish and is typically between 0.006 (0.1524 mm) and 0.012 (0.3048 mm) thick. Since bare steel is prone to rusting, it can benefit from powder coating.