Tooling Technology
Tooling Up for
High-Strength
Like your mom always
said, put that coat on.
And when considering
a tool coating, keep in
mind the many ways
that forming high-
strength steel affects
the decision.
BY LOUIS A. KREN, SENIOR EDITOR
dvanced high-strength steels (AHSS)
A require the use of much higher
forming pressures than traditional
carbon steels, and can do quite a num-
ber on tool surfaces. Those high forming
pressures often lead to use of different
tool steels than those typically chosen
for work on traditional carbon steels.
And, forming brings high frictional
forces as the tougher steels are forced to
flow through the tooling. All of these
issues carry huge implications in the
consideration of an ideal tool coating.
To examine AHSS forming from a
Factors that Affect Tool-Coating Choice
Material—Know the heattreat history of the tool; determine if the substrate can
support the material.
Tolerances—A high-temperature coating process changes tool dimensions, so
refitting may be needed.
Function—Look at how tooling fails.
Design—Make sure tooling aligns properly in the press, and be aware of clear-
ances and other tool attributes.
Lubrication—Want to cut costs here? Don’t.
34 METALFORMING / APRIL 2009
Steel
coating perspective, MetalForming inter-
viewed Bernard Janoss, segment man-
ager for forming and molding at Ion-
Bond LLC, Madison Heights MI, a
provider of thin-film PVD, PA-CVD
and CVD coatings. Read on as Janoss
details the factors that metalformers as
well as tool designers and builders
should consider.
Tool Material
Know the heattreat history of the
tool, in particular the tempering tem-
perature. Tempering temperature influ-
ences the type of coating that can be
deposited on the tool. “In most cases,
especially assuming a PVD coating, you
don’t want the coating temperature to
exceed the tempering temperature of
the tool steel,” Janoss says. “That leads to
tool softening and size change.”
Also, the choice of substrate materi-
al influences coating choice.
“You must determine if the substrate
can support the coating sufficiently,”
says Janoss. “For example, A2 tool mate-
rial, even with a coating, cannot handle
the pressure in forming DP 600. We
would tell such tool users that, at a min-
imum they need to consider nitriding in
addition to the coating. Just placing TiN
on A2 to form DP 600 will just wear out
the tooling almost right away, because the
substrate cannot support the tooling.”
Tool Tolerances
Tolerances play a role in choosing
whether to employ a high-temperature
coating process, as such a process can
change tool size.
“Trends point to manufacturers,
especially among manufacturers in
Europe and Japan, and increasingly
automakers in North America, not hav-
ing the core capabilities, or interest, in
refitting tools back into dies,” explains
Janoss. “Very simply, tolerances dictate
whether you can use high-temperature
coating processes such as CVD or ther-
mal diffusion. Lower-temperature coat-
ing processes ease refitting.”
Tool Function
Look at how tooling fails. Blanking
or trim steels typically fail because cut-
ting edges become dull, resulting in
burring on parts. Draw steels tend
toward friction-based failure: galling,
scoring and tearing of the part due to
inadequate material flow in the die.
“Harder coatings are ideal for trim
www.metalformingmagazine.com
steels as they will keep the tool edger Optimize Coating Selection to meet your needs.
sharper for a longer period,” Janoss Janoss summarizes tool-coating “Clearly in today’s world,” he con-
explains. “For draw steels, we would selection for high-strength steel work: tinues, “economics plays a big role. With
recommend a coating with greater “Design the right clearances, use the coatings comes a tradeoff of produc-
toughness and lubricity. With draw right lubrication and choose the right tivity versus expenditure.”
steels, harder is not always better.” mechanical support, referring to A good coating solution costs money,
whether to nitride the substrate or select but attention to detail in developing
Tool Design tool materials that can better handle the tools and means of forming AHSS
Without good tool alignment in the compressive pressure. Such decisions ensures that you’ll get the best bang for
press, tool coating is not worth the cost, allow a broader choice of tool coatings the buck. MF
Janoss cautions. Address alignment first.
Tool clearance is a big issue. Does the
tooling maintain enough punch-to-die
clearance to make coating worthy of
the investment?
“Stampers and tool builders may
assume sufficient material clearance
between the punch and die,” says Janoss,
“but forming can thicken parts in unan-
ticipated areas. The result: less clearance
than intended, leading to higher form-
ing pressure. This places extreme lubric-
ity and toughness demands on the coat-
ing so that it will not crack under the
pressure. So we ask customers if they
intended to iron material and under-
stand why that occurred. If not, that
issue must be addressed before a coat-
ing can be used successfully.
“We look at other tool attributes,
too,” he continues, “such as die radius,
which provides an indication of relative
pressure level. Very tight radii indicate
the need for a tough coating due to
high pressures as material has nowhere
to flow except down the sides of the die.”

Lubrication
Lubrication often is the target of
efforts to cut costs or reduce cleaning
prior to secondary processes such as
welding, but Janoss stresses that form-
ing AHSS demands its use. “Forming
AHSS imparts a lot of energy into the
material,” he says, “which comes off as
heat. Coatings, even those with lubri-
cation characteristics, cannot reduce
that heat. In such cases, lubricant is
almost as important from a cooling
standpoint as it is from a friction-reduc-
tion standpoint. I would not advise
forming dual-phase or TRIP steel, or
even 54-ksi high-strength low-alloy
material without lubrication.”

www.metalformingmagazine.com METALFORMING / APRIL 2009 35