OREANDA-NEWS. December 31, 2013. At present, the first batch of medium to high carbon alloy tool steel strip 30CrMo produced through short process of CSP in WISCO was inspected and each performance parameter met the international standards. It symbolizes that WISCO succeeded in the quantity production of high carbon alloy tool steel strip by short process.

The thickness of 1100mm-wide steel strip is only 1.4mm which sets a world record as the thinnest hot-rolled medium to high carbon alloy tool steel strip.

The medium to high carbon alloy tool steel strip, mainly used to manufacture the measuring tools, cutting tools, impact-resistant tools, cold / hot dies and tools for specific purposes, are produced by adding alloy elements like chromium, molybdenum, tungsten, vanadium, etc. into the carbon tool steel to improve the hardenability, ductility, abrasive resistance, heat resistance. However, because of the complicated techniques of sheet shape, segregation, decarburized layer, WISCO kept the stable quantity production of medium to high carbon alloy tool steel strip by traditional process instead of short process previously.

As the key member and major unit of research, development and manufacturing of collaborative innovation center in Hubei province, together with WUST (Wuhan University of Science and Technology) and HeiXuanFeng Saw Co., Ltd, WISCO developed the medium to high carbon alloy tool steel strip 30CrMo and overcame the technological problems like bleed-out, surface flaws, unstable rolling, etc. with the great assistance of research institute, manufacturing department and CSP sub-plant of general long product plant, etc. The first batch of products in the contract was produced successfully at a time in CSP sub-plant of general long product plant. With the highly accurate size and good shape, these products passed the quality inspection, WISCO broke the technological bottlenecks, achieved quantity production of medium to high carbon alloy tool steel strip by short process and improved the product quality by solving the problems of temperature, size and performance. At last, WISCO set a world record as the thinnest hot-rolled medium to high carbon alloy tool steel strip with 1.4mm thickness and 1100mm width.

The total demand for medium to high carbon alloy tool steel strip is about 2 million tons annually in China, 60% of which depends on the import. CSP sub-plant of general long product plant is the nationwide newest production line specialized in short process with the first-in-the-nation device configuration.  Because the production difficulties increase with the width-thickness ratio, other steel plants in the world can not produce the 1100mm-width and less-than-2.0mm-thickness medium to high carbon alloy tool steel strip. However, WISCO successfully produced the strip with 1.4mm-thickness and overcame the most complicated technological problems.

The market price of the medium to high carbon alloy tool steel strip is 600rmb per ton more than that of the ordinary hot-rolled steel products. Moreover, the first batch of medium to high carbon alloy tool steel strip 30CrMo has seen the marginal benefit by low-volume production. Therefore, the considerable benefits are expected by large-scale production which will be significant to boost the product structure adjustment of WISCO.