TOOLOX® 44

TOOLOX® 44 – The pre-hardened steel for extrusion dies and engineering components

Toolox® 44 pre-hardened steel is suitable for extrusion dies and engineering components that require high strength. It possesses good workshop properties.
Toolox® 44 is a pre-hardened engineering and tool steel. Despite its high hardness, Toolox® 44 combines very good machinability with dimensional stability during machining. Its nominal 450 HBW/45 HRC hardness makes Toolox® 44 your ideal choice for demanding mold and die applications. The high steel cleanliness gives Toolox® 44 very good polishing, A2 gloss, and texturing capabilities.
In applications that demand additional surface hardness to counteract wear, you can nitride and PVD coat Toolox® 44 to customize the mold or die properties. Surface engineering can be carried out as long as the deposition temperature does not exceed 590°C (1,094°F).

Toolox® 44 helps rev up productivity in the automotive industry

A specialist in the manufacture of forged parts for the automotive industry, Krenhof Schmiedetechnik AG produces its own tools to make batch production parts. The tools are mostly surface engineered to give them the high wear resistance and durability they need.

The challenge
Even when surface engineering is performed properly, cracking can pose a problem. Material can get caught on the edges of the cracks during the forging process, leaving scar-like marks on the forged items. This results in more rejects than good parts, especially in smaller production batches.

The solution
“With SSAB’s Toolox® 44, we’ve finally found the material we had long been searching for – a material that isn’t surface engineered, yet still has the same properties,” says CEO Matthias Hartmann. The first success of the new tool steel has been achieved with the construction of prototypes. Every year, the company manufactures 100 different components for new vehicle models – and these are now produced exclusively using tools made of Toolox® engineering and tool steel.

Customer benefits
“You normally need to compromise on hardness if you want to achieve a high level of crack resistance, yet Toolox® enables us to achieve the right balance between hardness, toughness, and heat resistance,” adds Hartmann.
Krenhof has also started using Toolox® 44 in the shear blades used for rod cutting. Breakages have almost been eliminated and the blades’ lifetime has increased tenfold.

ThyssenKrupp Tallent extends die life and productivity with Toolox® 44

ThyssenKrupp Tallent UK is a leading manufacturer of pressed components for some of the biggest names in the automotive industry. The company manufactures its products cost efficiently using assembly lines with automated robotic welding.

The challenge
ThyssenKrupp Tallent depends on just-in-time deliveries to keep production up and running. The unavailability of components can bring the entire manufacturing process to a halt, resulting in serious cost consequences. Premature cracking of the company’s blanking die threatened to jeopardize its ability to consistently produce quality components and secure future orders — and lose business altogether.

The solution
The company turned to Toolox® 44, deciding to produce and nitride a new die to protect the edges during blanking. Soon after the Toolox® die was put into production, it became obvious that it was far superior to dies that use conventional tool steels. Toolox® 44 remained intact and the die became a major success, receiving more than 255,000 blows without any negative effects.

Customer benefits
Using Toolox® 44 has significantly improved the die life, bringing greater productivity, improved profitability and more on-time deliveries. The company has also seen a reduction in die manufacturing time, resulting in lower production costs.
And because the heat treatment is carried out by SSAB, high quality and consistency are guaranteed in every piece of steel. In fact, when a customer buys Toolox®, SSAB guarantees that all of the properties in every piece of steel meet stringent quality standards — a unique offering in the market today.