Steel H11, H13

[bardvlad]

Hallo, I'm looking for answer, why is the steel H13 traditional used in USA and steel H11 in Europe. I have readen, that "once in America" W was replacement due cheeper Mo. So I think in this case, it is on the elements too, but I would like to get some more explanation about it.
I will appreciate any answer.

Hier are the chemical compositions for comperison:
H11: 0,39%C; 5,15%Cr; 1,25%Mo; 0,39%V
H13: 0,40%C; 5,15%Cr, 1,35%Mo; 1,00%V

 

[twistedneck]

Well i know that H13 wears very well. We use it for hot forming steel above 1600F. Its also quite tough.. just not that hard.

 

[metman]

bardvlad --- Are you basing this on your personal experience or on statistics? One company that I worked for in the USA used both of these alloys. We used H13 for plastic injection molds and H11 for plastic extruder barrels.

The H13 has a nice advantage of being weldable for mold repair but if this is true then I should think that H11 would be even more amenable to welding but H11 would not be as deep hardening or as heat resistant as H13 and therefore not as acceptable for some more sever applications where H13 is required. We Nitrided the H11 barrels for wear resistance against 4340 extruder screws with flame hardened flights and hard Chrome plated.

I should think the choice would be application/cost driven rather than tradition or caprice. But who knows? Stranger things have happened e.g. the average Italian eats more pasta than the average American.

You certainly have my curiosity piqued since Tool Steels are my most favorite of all Steel Categories because I am a Metallurgist/Tool Designer/Toolmaker and everything about the making - shaping - heat treatment - properties - application - failure analysis - of Tool Steels fascinates me.

I have read for 5-10 minutes while at work in my Tool Steel Textbook by Roberts and Hamaker but had to get back to the project at hand. So far have not found anything to account for choice of one alloy vs the other besides the comments above but I will keep digging. It could be that Europe has a greater proportion of a particular industry compared to America so that industries' choice for technical reasons is biased to H11 and vis-versa for America and H13.

 

[ehw]

for this specific question may be convienent to post at
NADCA - noth american die casting ass

http://www.diecasting.org/technical

(I'm not related to NADCA)

 

[unclesyd]

Adding a little general information about H11 and H13. H11 moved into mainstream mechanical components early on while H13 stayed mainly with the die industry.

H11 was the was the more prevalent of the two tool steels for many years. We use it mainly for pumps shafts and high strength fasteners in cyclic operations at 600°F with periodic excursions to 1000°F. We were also using H11 for springs a long time before the racing industry picked up on it’s mechanical properties.

Our first experiences with H13 as a mechanical component, for use as pump shafts, was very bad and would have been catastrophic if I hadn’t won a hard fought battle to keep one of the two shafts in each test pump H11 (Vasco Jet 1000). The H13 shafts failed in less than a 1000 hrs of service where a nominal run for the pump would be 12000 hrs. For many years Vasco Jet 1000 was the premier tool steel used for highly stressed mechanical components. Our experience with H13 powder metallurgy was even worse.

The aircraft industry was a big user of H11 also, at one time a big component of landing gear assemblies.

It is interesting to note the statement that H11 was prevalent in Europe while H13 is the predominate material in America. It hasn’t been too many years ago that the English company that produces the above mentioned pumps and shafts was screaming and hollering that H11 bar stock wasn’t available in Europe and it was strictly an American material. They wanted to switch to H13 bar, an off the shelf material in Europe.