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Premium & Industrial Tool Steel Solutions

a mix of steels offered by voestalpine High Performance Metals

Plastic molding requires unique properties from the tool material. With the outstanding knowledge provided by our tool steel experts at BÖHLER and Uddeholm we are able to support you facing the challenges accross the entirety of the plastic molding value chain. Every tool has its own specific requirements – especially when it comes to the highly differentiated processing of plastics. Depending on requirements, various classic tool steels and remelted or powder metallurgically produced high-performance materials are used. Our brands offer the plastics industry a range of tool steels, proven and tested in practice and customised for the respective application. These guarantee high tool life, maximum precision during processing and perfect quality of the plastic surfaces.

BÖHLER and Uddeholm plastic mold steels are used for tools and tool parts in numerous plastics processing methods, e.g. injection molding and extrusion. Above all, we are the market leader in the most versatile, stainless material programme for the plastics processing industry.

Our materials meet the special requirements for mold materials in plastics processing, including, but not limited to:

  • Supreme wear resistance, hardness when processing certain plastics (GRP) and at temperatures up to approx. 400°C
  • High corrosion resistance when processing certain plastics (e.g. PVC) and under critical cooling conditions
  • High mechanical strength and toughness (fracture resistance and resistance to plastic deformation)
  • Tools almost always need to be cooled
  • Partly very large dimensions
  • High Polishability

Our Top Products

This group of steels is specifically intended for use as corrosion-resistant tool steel in plastics processing.
Pre-tempered steels are steels that are already quenched and tempered by the steel supplier, usually with hardnesses of 30 to 40 HRC, and are then delivered to tool production in this condition. By omitting the heat treatment in the course of tool production, the economic efficiency can be significantly improved. With the delivery hardness in the range of approx. 30 to approx. 40 HRC, there is a good compromise between machinability and wear resistance or compressive strength (edge stability), which is sufficient for many applications in plastics processing.

Steels in this product group are usually selected martensitic stainless steels with approx. 13 to 17 % Cr , alloyed with Mo and Ni and a C content of approx. 0.30 to 0.40%.
In the production of these steels, special consideration is given to the needs of plastics processing with regard to polishability and corrosion resistance in terms of purity, homogeneity and analytical balance.
In special cases, the microstructure is specifically optimised by a special analytical balance, and sulphur is added in small proportions (0.10 to approx. 0.20%) to improve machinability. However, due to the addition of sulphur, losses in corrosion resistance and polishability have to be taken into account.

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