Tool Steel Processing

Cincinnati Steel Treating (CST) is the industry leader in heat treating tool steels. CST regularly heat treats a wide variety of tool steels including A1, A6, D2, D5, O1, H13, and H11.   Our furnaces can heat parts to temperatures up to 1850°F, and we have a wide inventory of fixtures, tools, and set-ups to take care of any tool steel component that is sent to us.

Cincinnati Steel Treating (CST) provides quality tool steel heat treating services from our well-equipped metal treating facility in S.W. Ohio. Oil quenching, water quenching, forced and still air quenching, stress relieving, annealing, or even cold treatments are performed regularly in one of our certified furnaces and refrigeration units.

Tool steel processing presents unique challenges for heat treating.  The steels typically have a high quantity of alloying elements, necessitating a very high temperature for austenitizing or a pre-heat cycle before hardening.  The steels also have high carbon contents making them susceptible to decarburization.  This typically requires them to be heated in a controlled atmosphere with a carbon potential.

CST heat treats tool steel parts weighing up to 5,000 pounds in one of our large furnaces at temperatures up to 1850°F. A wide selection of furnaces is also available for running special cycles.

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Tool Steel Processing Applications

CarbonitridingTool steels are used to manufacture many different components in industry.  They can be used to make knives in industrial shears, rams in beverage can forming machines, dies in cold forging presses, brackets or pins in the arms of tractors or heavy duty forklifts, as well as many other applications where high strength, toughness, and wear resistance are required.  Tool steels can be water, oil, or air-quenced to achieve specific hardness levels.  The austenitizing temperatures are typically higher when comapred to those used for conventional steel grades.  This is a result of the high alloy content which also affects the rate of heating and cooling when heat treating.  Tool steel parts that are put through stress relieving or annealing cycles have to be both heated up and cooled down more slowly to help prevent cracking.


Post-hardening operations typically involve many more steps compared with conventional steels.  Parts often have to be cold treated, double-tempered, or even triple-tempered as well as designing a heat treatment to utilize “secondary” hardening  to achieve specified hardness results.

Cincinnati Steel Treating (CST) has a vast array of knowledge regarding heat treating tool steel.  We have processed industrial knife blades, structural plates, stamping rams, hot work dies, and high strengeth brackets along with many other types of parts.  CST has also nitrided many different types of parts.  We have performed hardening , tempering, annealing, and stress relieving operations.  Consult one of our metallurgists to determine how best to heat treat your tool steel part.

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For over 80 years, we’ve helped our clients across many industries improve production time and parts performance, quickly and efficiently. Turnaround times are fast and quality control is precise. As your outsourcing partner, we provide solutions to take your results to the next level.

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