Influence of Increasing Notch Radius on Properties of Nitrided Hot Work Tool Steels

Tool steels are a very large group of complex alloys which have evolved for many diverse hot and cold forming applications and they constitute a class of strategic materials. Hot work tool steels fall into groups which have either chromium, tungsten, or molibdenum as the major alloying element. The medium carbon and the relatively high alloy content make these steels air hardenable and resistant to impact and softening during repeated exposure to hot working operations. In this work the impact properties of Charpy U-notch samples with increasing notch radius are presented and discussed. The samples were manufactured with AISI HI3 hot working tool steel and a modified composition, and were tested in the as quenched state and after nitriding. After the impact test, the microhardness properties were evaluated and correlated to the heat treatment. The notch radius strongly affect the impact resistance of the samples, namely at the lowest values. The microstructure details and the fracture morphology were observed by light microscopy and SEM.