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 K353 belongs to the group of conventionally produced 8% chromium steels. It is used in situations where chipper steels like 1.2360 are insufficient in terms of wear resistance and tool steels like 1.2379 (D2) do not have sufficient toughness. BÖHLER K353 is especially suitable for industrial knives for the woodworking industry. It is also used for stamping and cutting tools.
Citește mai multBÖHLER W300 ISOBLOC is a 5% chromium steel and corresponds to material number 1.2343 (X37CrMoV5-1). Produced via the electroslag remelting process (ESR), this tool steel has very high hot toughness as well as good hot hardness and very good resistance against heat-checkings. The combination of these properties makes it a top performer in high- and low-pressure die casting as well as in closed-die and open-die forging. In addition, this material has very good polishability and is therefore also often used as a molding material for plastic injection molds.
Citește mai multBÖHLER W300 ISODISC is a 5% chromium steel and corresponds to material number 1.2343 (X37CrMoV5-1). This common tool steel has good hot toughness as well as a high hot hardness and a high resistance against heat-checkings. The combination of these properties makes it a standard choice in extrusion, forging and low-pressure die casting. This material is also available as W300 ISOBLOC which is a remelted grade with improved cleanliness, homogeneity and toughness.
Citește mai multBÖHLER W302 ISOBLOC is a 5% chromium steel and corresponds to material number 1.2344 (X40CrMoV5-1). Produced via the electroslag remelting process (ESR), this tool steel has very high hot toughness as well as very high hot hardness and a very good resistance against heat-checkings. The combination of these properties makes it a top performer in closed- and open-die forging as well as in high- and low-pressure die casting. In addition, this material has very good polishability and is therefore also often used as a molding material for plastic injection molds.
Citește mai multBÖHLER W302 ISODISC is a 5% chromium steel and corresponds to material number 1.2344 (X40CrMoV5-1). This common tool steel has good hot toughness as well as a high hot hardness and a high resistance against heat-checkings. The combination of these properties makes it a standard choice in extrusion, forging and low-pressure die casting. This material is also available as W302 ISOBLOC which is a remelted grade with improved cleanliness, homogeneity and toughness.
Citește mai multBÖHLER 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.
Citește mai multBÖHLER 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.
Citește mai multBÖHLER W360 ISOBLOC is a material produced by the electroslag remelting process (ESR), which has been specially adapted for use at high tool hardnesses in the range of 51-57 HRC. Although the steel can be classified as a 5% chromium steel, the increased carbon and molybdenum content coupled with state-of-the-art manufacturing technology ensures that BÖHLER W360 ISOBLOC still shows a very good toughness and an exceptionally good thermal resistance, even at high hardness levels. These properties make the steel the perfect choice for smaller components in the die casting sector (e.g., mold inserts, cores, core pins, ejector pins, etc.). The material also is frequently the preferred choice for closed-die and open-die forging tools due to its high wear resistance. Because of this excellent wear resistance and the high toughness, BÖHLER W360 ISOBLOC is also frequently used for cold work applications and as a molding material for plastic injection molds. The Steel also is available as powder material for metal-3D-printing under the brand name BÖHLER W360 AMPO.
Citește mai multBÖHLER W400 VMR is a vacuum remelted material specially developed for tools with complex structures. The steel can be assigned to the 5% chromium steels and has a very high purity due to the special manufacturing technology. Because of its high degree of purity, the excellent homogeneity and the special alloying concept, BÖHLER W400 VMR is one of the hot work tool steels with the highest reachable toughness values. Therefore, this material is a problem solver in many areas when standard grades are no longer sufficient. In addition, Böhler W400 VMR has outstanding polishability. For this reason, the steel is also popular as a molding material for plastic injection molds.
Citește mai multBÖHLER W403 VMR is a vacuum remelted material which was developed as a problem solver for tools for where a standard solution is no longer sufficient. The steel can be assigned to the 5% chromium steels and has a very high purity due to the special manufacturing technology. In addition, the increased molybdenum content leads to improved thermal resistance as well as wear resistance, which makes BÖHLER W403 VMR an all-rounder that is often used for highly stressed dies in the die casting sector. In addition, Böhler W403 VMR has outstanding polishability. For this reason, the steel is also popular as a molding material for plastic injection molds.
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