Wear of Tool Steels as Cropping Blades

Wear performance of some tool steels such as cold working steel (AISI D2) and high speed steel (AISI M2) in high speed cropping are investigated for four groups of work materials, viz., (i) low carbon steel (AISI 1023), (ii) medium carbon steel (AISI 1039), (iii) ball bearing steel (AISI 52100), and (iv) austenitic stainless steel. The tool wear profiles and wear volumes are monitored through a digital technique at long intervals and the resulting deterioration of the billet quality was noted. The results confirm the trend found in other fabrication processes that the wear is much lower for the materials in Groups a and b as compared to the other two groups containing high alloying elements. The wear mechanisms, as observed through SEM images, are found to be quite different for these cases. Another observation relates to the fact that within the range investigated, the billet quality remains unaffected with the exception of the blade face angularity. Thus, the blades have surprisingly high tool life.