Selection of Materials for Deep-Drawing Dies

The selection of material for a drawing die is aimed at the production of the desired quality and quantity of parts with the least possible tooling cost per part. This article discusses the performance of a drawing die. It contains tables that list the lubricants used for deep drawing, and the typical materials for punches and blank holders. The article describes the typical causes of wear (galling) of deep-drawing tooling. It analyzes the selection of a harder and more wear-resistant material, the application of a surface coating such as chromium plating to the finished tools, and surface treatments such as carburizing or carbonitriding for low-alloy steels or nitriding or physical vapor deposition coating for tool steels.