The SIHARD S471 cold-work tool steel produced by SIJ Metal Ravne is a medium-chromium, air-hardening tool steel providing a very good combination of wear resistance and toughness. It is available primarily in round bars for cold-work tooling applications.

The SIHARD S471 steel excels itself in the following properties:

• a very good combination of wear resistance and toughness
• high hardness
• nitridability
• high dimensional stability

The SIHARD S471 is a premium tool steel with high wear resistance and toughness. Compared with the conventional SIHARD 2379 (AISI D2) steel, SIHARD S471 has a higher wear resistance, better hardenability and it can achieve higher hardness and toughness. Toughness is important to prevent cracking and chipping resulting in a catastrophic failure of tools. Toughness is better than in the conventional SIHARD 2379 (AISI D2) type of cold-work tool steel.

Abrasion resistance is critical when tool is exposed to hard foreign particles (crushing tools, tablet stamps) or metals containing hard phases such as carbides (stamping and cutting tools), whereas chipping resistance is important for all cutting tools and knives.

When in sliding contact with hard moving parts, steel is subject to adhesive wear (bushings, guide pins and shafts), which is mitigated by the rate of surface adjustment or run-in. When working with much softer materials (deep drawing, coining, stamping, upsetting tools …), galling is the predominant wear mechanism.