DIN 1.2344 Hot Working Tool Steel Bar (2344 Die Steel Rods)

Product Description

1.2344 Tool Steel (H13 Equivalent) is a premium chromium-molybdenum-vanadium hot-work tool steel manufactured in accordance with European standards, offering excellent wear resistance, thermal stability, and toughness. Its balanced microstructure ensures a uniform distribution of primary and secondary carbides within the martensitic matrix, resulting in outstanding performance under high-temperature and high-pressure working conditions.

The typical chemical composition of 1.2344 includes 0.370.43% Carbon (C), 4.805.50% Chromium (Cr), 1.201.50% Molybdenum (Mo), 0.901.10% Vanadium (V), 0.801.20% Silicon (Si), 0.250.50% Manganese (Mn), a maximum of 0.030% Phosphorus (P), and a maximum of 0.020% Sulfur (S). Premium-quality grades often limit sulfur content to 0.005% or lower to achieve improved toughness.

Compared to 1.2343, grade 1.2344 provides superior wear and erosion resistance due to its higher vanadium content, which forms hard vanadium carbides that protect tooling surfaces from abrasive wear and metal washout. It also offers better hot hardness and thermal stability, maintaining strength and hardness at operating temperatures approaching 600C. While 1.2343 exhibits slightly higher fracture toughness because of its lower carbide content, 1.2344 remains the preferred choice for applications where wear resistance and thermal fatigue performance are the primary requirements.

For optimum performance, 1.2344 is typically heat treated using vacuum furnaces with high-pressure gas quenching to minimize distortion and decarburization. Soft annealing is carried out at 820840C, followed by controlled furnace cooling at 1020C per hour to 600C before air cooling, resulting in a maximum hardness of 229 HBW. Hardening involves multi-stage preheating and austenitizing at 10201050C, followed by quenching using high-pressure nitrogen gas, a 500550C salt bath, or oil. Tempering should be performed in a minimum of two cycles, each lasting at least 2 hours at 540620C, with a third temper recommended before nitriding. The final working hardness typically ranges between 46 and 52 HRC.

Thanks to its excellent combination of hot strength, wear resistance, thermal fatigue resistance, and dimensional stability, 1.2344 tool steel is widely used for aluminum extrusion dies, backers, mandrels, press liners, and dummy blocks; high-pressure die casting components such as die cavities, cores, shot sleeves, distributor cones, and ejector pins; injection molds for abrasive glass-filled engineering plastics; and hot forging tools including die inserts, punching pins, and hot shear knives. Its excellent polishability and nitriding capability further enhance its suitability for demanding industrial tooling applications.