Preface to the Fifth Edition

This Fifth Edition of Tool Steels is a completely revised version of the Fourth Edition. All of the chapters have been completely rewritten, a chapter on surface modification has been introduced, and updated information from the ASM Handbook volumes and other literature has been included. Where possible, data are presented in SI units, and many figures have been redrawn. To accommodate added information, descriptions of testing methods, readily available elsewhere, have been dropped. Also, the AISI/SAE classification of tool steels is used exclusively throughout the text, and references to the three-digit classification system for tool steels used in earlier editions are no longer used.

Tool Steels remains a combination of tutorial explanation and listing of information. The valuable format of previous editions—the introduction of various grades in each class of tool steels by composition, processing, and performance tables—is retained. Following the introduction of a class of tool steels, graphic presentations of the effects of composition and heat treatment processing variations are presented and discussed in terms of principles of microstructural change. Much of the valuable alloy development data presented was generated by corporations that either now no longer exist, have changed their names, or no longer manufacture tool steels. Nevertheless, for the sake of historical recognition, the original source of all information is retained in figure captions or table titles.

The writing of the Fifth Edition of Tool Steels was made possible by a Teledyne Research Assistance Program (TRAP) grant to one of the authors, George Krauss, by Teledyne Industries, Inc., June 1, 1994 to December 31, 1996. Thanks are extended to Teledyne for this support. (In August 1996, Teledyne, Inc. and Allegheny Ludlum Corporation merged to became Allegheny Teledyne, Incorporated.) Also the authors thank John Agren, Royal Institute of Technology; Kjell Bengtsson, Uddeholm Corporation; George Idriceanu, Sun Steel Treating; Leslie Chom and Eleanor Baldwin, ASM International; and Tom Witheford, Wei-Di Cao, John Pridgeon, Mike Antony, Mike Sullivan, and Vickie Griffin, Allvac, for providing specific information or help in planning or preparing part of the manuscript. Many others, too many to recognize individually, have provided encouragement and assistance for the preparation of the Fifth Edition of Tool Steels, but special recognition is extended to John Andrews, President, Allvac (an Allegheny Teledyne company), for his encouragement and support, which led to the initiation of this project.