Enhancement of Wear Resistance of D-3 Piercing Punches by Applying Cryogenic Treatment: Field and Laboratory Investigations

Abstract

Due to excessive shearing and load, punches wear faster than dies in press tools used for cutting operations. The shape and size of components produced by worn punches pose challenges; hence efforts are being taken by industries to extend the punch life and to reduce the cost and time of replacement of punches. The paper reports on an attempt made to investigate effects of cryogenic treatment and tempering cycles on wear life enhancement of D-3 tool steel specimens and punches. Four differently treated groups of D-3 piercing punches and pins were tested in the manufacture of AISI 1055 medium carbon steel chain parts and pinon-disk wear tests were carried out. The punch wear was assessed by capturing images of the punch tips using a machine vision system after manufacturing several chain components and the image processing technique was used in assessing the wear. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and optical microscopy (OM) images of the D-3 specimens were also taken to study effects of the cryogenic treatment. The results show improved wear resistance of the cryogenically treated punches compared to the conventionally heat-treated punches.

Cryogenic Treatment of Martensitic Steels: Microstructural Fundamentals and Implications for Mechanical Properties and Wear and Corrosion Performance

“…These increments may be several tens of per cent [280] but also hundreds of per cent [12,53], depending on the temperature of cryogenic treatment and its duration. It is also worth noting that these results have been used to explain the dramatic increase in the wear performance of D-class tool steels treated in this way, as determined either by laboratory examinations [13,14,25,[158][159][160]282,290,[292][293][294] or by industrial tests [38][39][40].…”

“…A controlled treatment at the boiling point of liquid nitrogen (−196 • C) was suggested much later. This treatment further increased the performance of components, as demonstrated by examples of tools made of cryogenically treated AISI D2 or AISI D3 steel in real industrial performance (stamping dies, furniture manufacturing, powder compaction dies, and piercing or blanking punches) [1,6,[37][38][39][40][41][42]. Consequently, CT has attracted the interest of scientists and has also found notable applications in different manufacturing industries such as automotive, aerospace, defence, mining equipment, and excavators.…”