Press hardening heats steel blanks and forms them in cooled dies, creating ultra‑strong martensitic parts. Using alloyed steels and cooled tooling, the process enables lightweight, crash‑resistant automotive components like pillars, bumpers, and door rings.
Press hardening, also known as hot forming, is a thermo‑mechanical process used to manufacture ultra‑high‑strength steel components with complex geometries. Steel blanks or cold formed shapes—typically made of manganese–boron alloys such as 22MnB5—are heated to around 900–950°C, transforming the microstructure into austenite. The hot blank is transferred into a water‑cooled die set, where forming and quenching occur in a single step(direct process). The indirect process uses a cold formed preform which is adequately heated. Rapid cooling inside the closed tooling converts the austenite into martensite, achieving strengths above 1500 MPa and keeps the shape to close tolerances. Typical tooling is made of a wide range of Hot Work and Cold Work Tool Steels or even HSS, depending on the actual load conditions and process details. Tooling is designed with integrated cooling channels, high‑temperature inserts, and durable coatings to withstand thermal cycling and maintain dimensional precision. Process control includes furnace heating, transfer time, forming speed, and die temperature. Press‑hardened components are widely used in automotive safety structures such as A‑ and B‑pillars, bumper beams, door rings, and roof rails, enabling lightweight designs with superior crash performance and high energy absorption.
BÖHLER W303 ISODISC is a 5% chromium steel and corresponds to material number 1.2367 (X38CrMoV5-3). This tool steel has good hot toughness as well as a very high hot hardness and resistance against heat-checkings. Compared to an X37CrMoV5-1 (material number 1.2343), the steel has an increased molybdenum content, which significantly increases its thermal resistance and thus makes it the ideal material in die closed-die forging, open-die forging and extrusion.
Read MoreBÖHLER W350 ISOBLOC is a material produced by the electroslag remelting process (ESR) which is particularly suitable for use in large casting and forging molds. Although the steel can be classified as a 5% chromium steel, the chemical composition has been chosen to provide the best possible through-hardenability without any loss of toughness or resistance against heat-checkings. These properties make the steel the perfect choice to produce very large die casting molds, for example for mega- or giga-casting.
Read MoreThe BÖHLER W360 AMPO is the powder equivalent of the W360 ISOBLOC. Due to its chemical composition, the material belongs to the product group of hot-work tool steels. After hardening and tempering, it can achieve a hardness of up to 57 HRC with very good toughness properties. Its high temperature wear resistance, heat resistance and toughness characterizes the material. Applications: Printed components with conformal cooling for die casting applications, wear protection layers and repair work in mold making using laser cladding.
Read MoreUddeholm QRO 90 Supreme is a specially premium hot work steel developed by Uddeholm to provide better performance in high temperature tooling. The name “supreme” implies that by special manufacturing techniques, including electro-slag remelting the steel attains high purity and good mechanical properties. This together with the optimum balance of alloying elements in Uddeholm QRO 90 Supreme gives a property profile which is unique among hot work die steel. Benefits Uddeholm QRO 90 Supreme excels as a tool steels where tools tempers down quickly to lower hardness. Uddeholm QRO 90 Supreme has given improved service life in die casting and extrusion. Standard specification AISI H13 / AFNOR 40 CDV 10 (ESR)
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