Strictly Control the Quality of Die Steel Open-Die Blanking to Consolidate the Metallographic Struct

The quality foundation of hot forging dies is laid from the open-die forging blanking process. The forging penetration degree and internal structure uniformity of die steel directly affect the service life and crack resistance of subsequent dies, and there is no room for the slightest deviation in quality control.

Previously, a batch of H13 die steel suffered from loose forging ratio control. After being made into dies and delivered to customers, die cavity cracking occurred within less than three months of use. Although we remade the products for customers free of charge afterwards, it also affected the brand reputation. Taking this as a lesson, the factory has formulated strict quality control specifications: for all steel blanks for hot forging dies, the forging ratio must be strictly controlled in the open-die forging process, and products with unqualified metallographic testing shall never flow into the next process.

At present, each batch of die steel blanks strictly implements the three-time upsetting and drawing process. Forging workers accurately control the temperature range throughout the process, and never carry out forging before reaching the forging temperature range, so as to avoid coarse grains caused by excessive temperature or insufficient forging penetration caused by low temperature. After forging forming, each furnace of products shall be sampled for metallographic testing. Indicators such as grain size, porosity degree and carbide distribution shall be checked item by item against standards. As long as any item fails to meet the standard, the whole furnace of products shall be returned to the furnace for re-forging, and the control standards will never be relaxed.

At the initial stage of control, some views held that adding testing links would prolong the production cycle. However, the effect of quality improvement has gradually emerged after long-term operation. The currently delivered die steel blanks have dense and uniform internal structure. For the hot forging dies made by subsequent processing, customers feedback that the average service life has been significantly improved compared with before, and the problem of early cracking has been greatly reduced.

In the final analysis, the reputation of hot forging dies is built on solid quality control. Starting from the first blow of open-die forging, every process is strictly implemented, so that customers can use them more confidently and the brand reputation can be more stable.