Practical Application of Combined Strengthening Treatment Technology for Steel Tools

Technical features and examples of the practical use of technology of combined hardening treatment of steel tools are presented, which includes (1) hardening thermal cycling treatment (HTC) of tool blanks and (2) thermo-hydro-chemical treatment (THCT) of the finally manufactured instruments. THCT creates volumetric hardening of tools by thermal cycling with incomplete solid-phase α ↔ γ transformations, followed by quenching and tempering. HTC creates surface hardening of tools by boiling refractory compounds in hydrosols followed by tempering. As a result of combining THCT + HTC, the service life of cutting steel tools increased by 2–20 times, and that of die tools by 1.9–2.1 times compared to traditionally hardened tools.