Hot and semi‑hot forging form steel, aluminum, or titanium alloys under high temperature and pressure. Durable dies and controlled heating enable strong, fatigue‑resistant parts used in automotive, aerospace, and industrial components.
Hot and semi‑hot forging are deformation processes in which metal is shaped under compressive loads to achieve high strength and precise geometries. In hot forging, billets are heated above recrystallization temperature, allowing maximum formability and eliminating strain hardening. Semi‑hot forging operates at slightly lower temperatures, reducing scale formation and improving surface finish and tolerances while still enabling significant shape complexity. Commonly processed materials include steel, aluminum, and titanium alloys selected for strength, toughness, and thermal stability. Tooling ,usually made of Hot Work Tool Steels, consists of robust dies, punches, inserts, and lubrication systems designed to withstand high loads, thermal cycling, and wear. Controlled heating, press force, and die design ensure accurate grain flow, low porosity, and high fatigue resistance. Key applications include automotive suspension parts, crankshafts, connecting rods, gears, aircraft structural components, and safety‑critical fasteners where superior mechanical properties and durability are essential.
BÖHLER 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.
Read MoreBÖHLER 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.
Read MoreBÖHLER 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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