This article describes die wear and failure mechanisms, including thermal fatigue, abrasive wear, and plastic deformation. It summarizes the important attributes required for dies and the properties of the various die materials that make them suitable for particular applications. Recommendations on the selection of the materials for hot forging, hot extrusion, cold heading, and cold extrusion are presented. The article discusses the methods of characterizing abrasive wear and factors affecting abrasive wear. It discusses various die coatings and surface treatments used to extend the lives of dies: alloying surface treatments, micropeening, and electroplating.

This article provides an overview of conventional low-pressure casting and describes types of furnaces, tooling, and cores. It discusses the casting cycle steps, advantages, mechanical properties, and considerations of counterpressure casting. The article describes the vacuum riserless/pressure riserless casting process for casting aluminum.

Drawing is a process by which a workpiece is pulled against a die to produce a wire, bar, or tube with smaller cross sectional area compared with the initial stock. This article discusses the variables that affect the drawing process and the parameters that influence friction, lubrication, and wear. These parameters include process, lubricant, workpiece, and tooling. The article provides information on dry and wet lubrication in wire drawing. The dry lubrication refers to use of solid lubricants while wet lubrication refers to the practice of providing a liquid lubricant to the workpiece-die interface. The article describes the most common types and causes of die wear: abrasive wear, adhesive wear, surface fatigue wear, thermal fatigue wear, and catastrophic failure. It concludes with a discussion on the surface treatment and texturing that are used to reduce die wear in drawing operations.

The measurement techniques for die wear can be classified into the following two categories: direct measurements, which are done using lab techniques; and indirect nondestructive measurements, which are done by plant monitoring. This article describes the details of the plant monitoring techniques, along with comprehensive discussions on the measured wear data based on roughness and hardness of die surfaces. It presents a comparison between the predicted and measured die wear rates.

This article describes the laboratory techniques for direct measurement and quantification of die wear in verifying a proprietary die-wear predictor methodology. This method is based on a theoretical formula that can be used to predict the rate of die wear and the life of a die surface coating, applicable to both mild steel and high-strength steels stampings. The article discusses the behavior of the surface conditions through quantitative measurements and surface analyses conducted throughout the wear tests. The surface conditions include surface roughness, surface morphology, microstructure, interfacial friction, surface temperatures, and wear rate.

Zinc and zinc alloys require surface engineering prior to coating or use to improve adhesion and corrosion resistance. Die-cast zinc parts, in addition, must be trimmed and finished to remove flash and parting lines. This article covers zinc cleaning procedures as well as coating and finishing processes. It explains how to remove parting lines and presents several mechanical finishing methods, including surface polishing, brushing, controlled shot peening, and buffing. It also provides information on solvent cleaning, emulsion cleaning, aqueous detergent or alkaline cleaning), electrocleaning, acid dipping, and zinc conversion coating treatments.

This article discusses the tribology of three main sheet forming processes: deep drawing, bending, and shearing. For each process, the basic principle of the forming process is briefly explained. Tribological phenomena observed in each process, such as wear and galling, are presented. Common methods of using lubricants and coatings in sheet forming processes are also described.

This article discusses the dies, such as shear-face dies, conical-feed dies, and bridge dies, that are used in extrusion of particle-reinforced aluminum composites. It provides an overview of the effects of reinforcements on the properties of aluminum composites.

The designer of die casting tooling must balance the functional requirements of the part being cast with the cost, speed, and quality requirements of the process. In addition, attention must also be paid to the capacity and operating parameters of the casting machines being used and the need and economics of postprocessing. This article examines how design and materials selection address these diverse requirements of conventional die casting tooling. It focuses on the tooling for high-volume processes where the liquid or semisolid metal is forced into the die with high pressure and speed. The article also describes the functions of the tooling which involves supplying of molten alloy to the casting machine and injecting it into the die.

This article provides an overview of some common sheet steel coatings available. It discusses the formability differences between coated and bare steel and provides some general guidelines on the forming of coated steels. Coated steels are classified according to the nature of the substrate, the type of coating, and the method used for its application. The article describes various coating types for steels such as zinc-coated steels, aluminum-coated steels, tin-coated steels, terne-coated steels, and organic-coated steels.

This article discusses the presses, auxiliary equipment, and dies used in the blanking and piercing of commonly used magnetically soft materials, namely, low-carbon electrical steels and oriented and nonoriented silicon electrical steels. It describes the effect of stock thickness and work metal composition and condition on blanking and piercing. The article provides an overview of the influence of burr height on stacking factors and presents a discussion on the lubrication and core plating of electrical steels that ease the process.

Shearing is a process of cutting flat product with blades, rotary cutters, or with the aid of a blanking or punching die. This article commences with a description of some wear and material factors for tools used to shear flat product, principally sheet. Methods of wear control are reviewed in terms of tool materials, coatings and surface treatments, and lubrication. The article discusses tool steels that are used for cold and hot shearing, and rotary slitting. It provides information on the materials used for two main categories of machine knives: circular knives and straight knife cutters. The article also discusses the selection of materials for blanking and piercing dies and provides examples that illustrate the various types of tooling changes for blanking high-carbon steel.

This article lists functions of lubricants common to the majority of applications and processes. It discusses the lubricant candidates widely used in forging: conversion coatings with soaps (stearate compounds) and molybdenum disulfide for cold forging; oil-based thick, film oil or polymerbased lubricants and molybdenum disulfide for warm application; graphite suspensions in oil or water for hot forging steels; and glass films for titanium and superalloys hot forgings. The article describes the applications of lubricants in warm extrusion and forging, hot forging of steel, hot forging of aluminum, isothermal and hot die forging, and the extrusion of steel.

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.