Experimental Investigation of Cryogenic and Heat Treated H11 Die Steel

Accompanying the development of mechanical industry, demands for alloy materials having high hardness, toughness and impact resistance are increasing. Wire EDM machines are used to cut conductive metals of any hardness or that are difficult or impossible to cut with traditional methods. Machine tool industry has made exponential growth in its manufacturing capabilities in last decade but still machine tools are not utilized at their full potential. This limitation is a result of the failure to run the machine tools at their optimum operating conditions. The problem of arriving at the optimum levels of the operating parameters has attracted the attention of the researchers and practicing engineers for a very long time. The hot die steel H-11 is extensively used for hot- work forging, extrusion, manufacturing punching tools, mandrels, mechanical press forging die, plastic mould and die-casting dies, aircraft landing gears, helicopter rotor blades and shafts, etc. The working ranges and levels of the WEDM process parameters are found using one factor at a time approach.