Hydraulic Press Tooling Materials

Hydraulic press tooling is made from a range of materials, such as steel, cemented carbide and tungsten-cobalt cemented carbide.

Depending on the type of hydraulic press, the material used for its tooling may differ.

When selecting steel for a machine, performance requirements such as high hardness and wear resistance, good toughness, low quenching deformation tendency and good distribution uniformity must be taken into consideration.

Steel-Bonded Cemented Carbide

Steel-Bonded Cemented Carbide (SBC) is an advanced tool steel composed of one or several refractory carbide powders as its primary constituent and a small amount of metal powder as the bonding agent.

It is widely used in the production of high-speed cutting tools and cold work molds, measuring instruments and other non-impact or wear-resistant parts due to its excellent hardness and toughness, high impact resistance, long life span and low roughness value.

The superior performance of this material makes it ideal for cutting hard and strong materials such as cast iron, nonferrous metals, some plastics and marble. Its cutting speed is four to seven times higher than high-speed tool steel's and its working time more than 10 times longer.

Hydraulic press brake clamp die molds typically utilize tungsten cobalt steel-bonded cemented carbide. However, for molds requiring low impact and high wear resistance, tungsten cobalt-free cemented carbide may also be suitable.

Tungsten-Cobalt Cemented Carbide

Tungsten-Cobalt Cemented Carbide is an extremely hard material used in the production of various tools. It often accompanies blades and cutters for hydraulic press tooling applications.

Tungsten carbide is a refractory compound created by mixing powdered tungsten and carbon at high temperatures. Cobalt is then added to the mix as a binder that holds the particles together, strengthening them further.

Hydraulic press tool material has many uses in the automotive, mining and more industries due to its exceptional hardness and toughness level that allows it to withstand a lot of strain without breaking down. This makes the material ideal for hydraulic press tools.

WC-Co (tungsten carbide-cobalt) is a popular material choice for hydraulic press tooling due to its various alloy compositions that can be utilized to craft various tools. You'll typically find this material in most hydraulic press tooling, as well as metal cutting and grinding applications.

High-Impact Cemented Carbide

Hydraulic press tooling often utilizes cemented carbide for its cutting edges or wear-resistant parts of a die or tool. Additionally, cemented carbide is sometimes utilized in hybrid tools and dies where part of it is made from steel.

High-Impact Cemented Carbide is a type of composite engineering material composed of hard carbide particles held together by metal binder. Common materials use either tungsten carbide (WC), or combinations of WC and cubic carbides like TaC, NbC and TiC with cobalt binder (WC-TiC-Co).

Cemented carbide materials vary in strength and toughness based on their binder phase content and grain size. The higher the binder phase content and larger the carbide grain size, the harder and stronger the material's flexural strength.

High-Toughness Cemented Carbide

Cemented carbide is a two-phase powder metalurgical material composed of hard carbide (WC) and metal binder (Co). With its superior strength, hardness, and toughness properties, cemented carbide meets the demands for most applications.

Hydraulic press tooling applications use it, such as cold drawing dies, punching dies and extrusion dies as well as cold pier dies.

When selecting the correct cemented carbide grade for a given application, one common error is to rely on Transverse Rupture Strength which has little relevance on tool life. Instead, Fracture Toughness provides more reliable insight into a tool's performance.

Therefore, it is essential to have an understanding of ductility when selecting cemented carbide grades. Ductile materials will merely bulge or swell without fracture; in contrast, brittle ones will break through shear or crack formation under compression load.