LAUSR

Hot-work tool steels have very good mechanical properties, especially strength, hardness and wear resistance at high temperatures. Therefore, hot-work tool steels are used for different applications, such as the high-pressure die casting of light alloys, the extrusion of polymers and forging. Since all these processes are operating at high temperatures, the main focus of this research was to investigate the high-temperature oxidation resistance of tool steels. We investigated the high-temperature oxidation at two different temperatures: 500 °C and 700 °C. The following tool steels were analyzed: HTCS-130, W600, RavnexHD and Dievar. Tests were made in an air atmosphere, while the heating and cooling were made in a controlled argon atmosphere. Simultaneous thermal analysis (STA 449 C Jupiter), scanning electron microscopy (SEM and EDS) and X-ray diffraction were used as the investigation methods. The results showed that during high-temperature oxidation at 500 °C Dievar steel has the best oxidation resistance, followed by RavnexHD, HTCS-130 and W600. However, at 700 °C the results were different, HTCS-130 had the best oxidation resistance, followed by Dievar, W600 and RavnexHD.