Large Section Mold Steel Alloy Composition
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current plastic injection mold tooling sets lack sufficient hardenability and hardness, especially in large sections, and suffer from reduced machinability and polishing characteristics, leading to inconsistent performance across entire mold parts.
Innovation Solution
A low carbon mold steel alloy composition with specific weight percentages of carbon, manganese, silicon, chromium, nickel, molybdenum, vanadium, aluminum, phosphorus, and sulfur is used, combined with a double melt process, to enhance hardenability, machinability, and surface finish, while maintaining uniform hardness across large sections.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If currently available commercial mold steels are used, then machinability is maintained, but hardenability and hardness are insufficient in large sections
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies parameter changes by modifying the chemical composition parameters of the mold steel, specifically increasing carbon content to 0.20-0.40% (preferably 0.25-0.35%) and adding specific ranges of alloying elements (manganese: 0.60-1.10%, chromium: 1.00-2.00%, nickel: 0.15-1.00%, molybdenum: 0.20-0.55%, vanadium: 0.05-0.20%) to achieve both improved hardenability and hardness in large section mold steels while maintaining machinability
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates a composite material system by combining multiple alloying elements (carbon, manganese, silicon, chromium, nickel, molybdenum, vanadium, aluminum, phosphorous, sulfur) in specific proportions to produce a mold steel that achieves synergistic effects, where the combination of elements provides enhanced hardenability, hardness, and machinability that cannot be achieved by single elements alone
2Strength
If high carbon content is used to increase hardness, then wear resistance improves, but machinability deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent optimizes the carbon content parameter to a specific range of 0.20-0.40% (preferably 0.25-0.35%), which is higher than conventional mold steels but controlled to maintain machinability. This parameter change, combined with controlled levels of alloying elements, achieves the balance between wear resistance and machinability by ensuring sufficient hardness while avoiding excessive carbon that would make the steel difficult to machine
3Volume of moving object
If mold blocks are made larger to accommodate bigger parts, then part size capacity increases, but uniform hardness across the section becomes difficult to achieve
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the compositional parameters by increasing carbon to 0.20-0.40% and adding hardenability-enhancing elements (manganese: 0.60-1.10%, chromium: 1.00-2.00%, nickel: 0.15-1.00%, molybdenum: 0.20-0.55%, vanadium: 0.05-0.20%) to achieve uniform hardness throughout large section mold blocks, ensuring consistent mechanical properties from center to surface
Solution Approach 2:
The patent employs a composite material composition with multiple alloying elements working synergistically to achieve uniform hardening in large sections. The combination of carbon, manganese, chromium, nickel, molybdenum, and vanadium creates a material that hardens uniformly throughout the entire section, eliminating the non-uniform hardness problem that occurs in conventional steels when made larger
4Reliability
If alloy content is increased to improve hardenability, then hardening properties improve, but cost and complexity of manufacture increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the alloy composition parameters to specific, optimized ranges (carbon: 0.20-0.40%, manganese: 0.60-1.10%, chromium: 1.00-2.00%, nickel: 0.15-1.00%, molybdenum: 0.20-0.55%, vanadium: 0.05-0.20%) that achieve the desired hardenability without excessive alloy content. These controlled parameter changes balance performance improvement with manufacturing feasibility and cost control
Data Source
AI summary
Uniform hardenability is achieved in plastic injection mold and die block tooling of 20 inches and larger by the use of 0.05-0.20 vanadium in conjunction with low carbon steel in which ingots are hot worked to form mold and die blocks having cross sections of 20 inches and larger followed by water quenching and tempering.