A2 Tool Steel Heat Treat

By james croxon a2 tool steel can be difficult to heat treat.

A2 tool steel heat treat.

Heat treatment a2 tool steels are heated slowly to 788 c 1450 f and this is followed by increasing the temperature to 954 c 1750 f. Heat treatment of tool steels tool steels are usually supplied in the annealed condition around 200 250 brinell about 20 hrc to facilitate machining. This widely used tool steel has low distortion in heat treatment good machinability good toughness for severe service high abrasion resistance and deep hardening properties in large sections. Aisi a2 tool steel is high carbon high alloy tool steel designed to have excellent wear resistance and toughness.

A2 has a fully spheroidized structure and has exceptionally low inclusion levels. A2 steel is an air hardening cold work tool steel. Like d2 it is incredibly resistant to distortion during heat treating and is moderately machinable and grindable. It s highly wear resistant and moderately tough.

A2 tool steel is an air hardening cold work chromium alloy die steel that is preferable to o1 tool steel in applications requiring greater size stability machinability and safer hardening. The wear resistance properties and cost place a2 between that of o1 and d2 tool steel making it a good all purpose grade for many applications. A 5 chromium steel which provides high hardness after heat treatment with good dimensional stability. In this condition most of the alloy content exists as alloy carbides dispersed throughout a soft matrix.

The steel is composted of 1 percent carbon 3 percent silicon 6 percent manganese 5 3 percent chromium 1 1 percent molybdenum and 2 percent vanadium. These steels must be heat treated to develop their characteristic properties. By way of example a2 tool steel is annealed by heating to 1550 degrees f soaking for two hours at temperature furnace cooling 50 degrees f per hour to below 1200 degrees f followed by air cooling. A2 tool steels are further held at 954 c 1750 f for 30 to 45 minutes and finally removed from the furnace and cooled.

A2 is intermediate in wear resistance between o1 oil hardening tool steel and d2 high carbon high chromium tool steel.