High-speed steel (HSS) is a tool steel with high hardness, high wear resistance and high heat resistance, also known as wind steel or sharp steel. It means that it can be hardened and sharp even when cooled in the air during quenching. It is also called white steel.
What is High-speed Steel?
High-speed steel is a complex alloy steel containing carbide-forming elements such as tungsten, molybdenum, chromium, vanadium, and cobalt. The total amount of alloy elements is about 10~25%. It can still maintain high hardness under high-speed cutting conditions (about 500℃C), and HRC can be above 60. This is the most important characteristic of high-speed steel: red hardness.
After quenching and low-temperature tempering, carbon tool steel has a high hardness at room temperature, but when the temperature is higher than 200℃C, the hardness drops sharply. At 500°C, the hardness has dropped to a level similar to the annealing state, and the ability to cut metal is completely lost, which limits the use of carbon tool steel to make cutting tools. High-speed steel makes up for the fatal shortcomings of carbon tool steel due to its good red hardness.
High-speed steel is mainly used to make complex thin blades and impact-resistant metal cutting tools, and can also be used to make high-temperature bearings and cold extrusion molds. Such as twist drills, turning tools, hobs, reamers, machine saw blades and high-demand molds.
What is Tungsten Steel?
Tungsten steel (hard alloy) has a series of excellent properties such as high hardness, wear resistance, good strength and toughness, heat resistance and corrosion resistance. In particular, its high hardness and wear resistance remain basically unchanged even at a temperature of 500°C, and it still has a high hardness at 1000°C.
Tungsten steel, ‘s main components are tungsten carbide and cobalt, which account for 99% of all components, and 1% is other metals. So it is called tungsten steel, also known as hard alloy, and is considered to be the teeth of modern industry.
Tungsten steel is a sintered composite material containing at least one metal carbide. Tungsten carbide, cobalt carbide, niobium carbide, titanium carbide, and tantalum carbide are common components of tungsten steel. The grain size of the carbide component (or phase) is usually between 0.2 and 10 microns, and a metal binder binds together the carbide grains. The bonding metal is generally an iron metal, and cobalt and nickel are commonly used. Therefore, there are tungsten-cobalt alloys, tungsten-nickel alloys, and tungsten-titanium-cobalt alloys.
Tungsten steel sintering molding is to press the powder into a blank, then heat it to a certain temperature (sintering temperature) in a sintering furnace, maintain it for a certain time (holding time), and then cool it down to obtain a tungsten steel material with the required performance.
Cemented carbide has high hardness, good wear resistance, and is suitable for high-precision processing. It is suitable for making integral cemented carbide end mills, cemented carbide boring tools, cemented carbide drills, indexable inserts, etc.
Tungsten-Cobalt Cemented Carbide
The main components are tungsten carbide (WC) and binder Cobalt (Co). Its grade is composed of “YG” (the Chinese pinyin abbreviation of “hard” and “cobalt”) and the average percentage of cobalt content. For example, YG8 means a tungsten-cobalt cemented carbide with an average WCoa=8% and the rest being tungsten carbide.
Tungsten-titanium-cobalt Cemented Carbide
The main components are tungsten carbide, titanium carbide (TiC) and cobalt. Its grade is composed of “YT” (the Chinese pinyin abbreviation of “hard” and “titanium”) and the average percentage of titanium carbide. For example, YT15 means a tungsten-titanium-cobalt cemented carbide with an average TiC=15% and the rest being tungsten carbide and cobalt.
Tungsten-titanium-tantalum (Niobium) Cemented Carbide
The main components are tungsten carbide, titanium carbide, tantalum carbide (or niobium carbide) and cobalt. This type of cemented carbide is also called general cemented carbide or universal cemented carbide. Its brand name consists of “YW” (the Chinese pinyin initials of “hard” and “wan”) plus a sequence number, such as YW1. Tungsten steel has a series of excellent properties such as high hardness, wear resistance, good strength and toughness, heat resistance, and corrosion resistance.
In particular, its high hardness and wear resistance remain basically unchanged even at a temperature of 500°C, and it still has a high hardness at 1000°C. Cemented carbide is widely used as a material, such as turning tools, milling cutters, drills, boring tools, etc. The cutting speed of new cemented carbide is equal to hundreds of times that of carbon steel.
HSS Milling Cutters and Cemented Carbide End Mills are Suitable for Processing Scenarios
Applicable Scenarios for high Speed Steel End Mills
- Suitable for low-speed processing, especially on manual machine tools or old CNC machine tools.
- Suitable for intermittent cutting, such as rough machining of cast iron parts or working conditions that require greater impact force.
- Suitable for soft materials such as aluminum alloy, low carbon steel, brass, etc., because of its good toughness and not easy to break.
- Suitable for economical processing, because of its low cost, suitable for small batches or non-continuous production.
Applicable Scenarios for Carbide Milling Cutters
- Suitable for high-speed, high-precision processing, such as CNC machining centers, high-speed engraving and milling machines, etc.
- Suitable for long-term continuous cutting, which can greatly improve processing efficiency.
- Suitable for hard materials such as stainless steel, titanium alloy, hardened steel, etc., can maintain stable cutting performance.
- Suitable for mass production, due to its high wear resistance, which can reduce the frequency of tool replacement and improve production efficiency.
