Material
Tool Steel M2 (1.3343, SKH51)
Tool steel M2 ships in a soft, machinable annealed state and can be hardened and tempered afterward to become the industry-standard high-speed steel, balancing wear resistance, toughness, and red-hardness.
Manufacturing processes
About
M2 (1.3343, SKH51) is supplied annealed for machining; it is soft enough to mill, turn, and drill with standard tooling. After machining, it can be hardened and tempered, and it becomes the most widely used high-speed steel grade, balancing wear resistance, toughness, and red-hardness (the ability to stay hard at cutting-edge temperatures up to roughly 600 °C).
Tool steel M2 isn't the toughest option (S7 suits shock loading better) nor the hardest (M42 goes further at a cost to toughness), but its balance makes it the default choice for most cutting tools.
Technical Details
- Accuracy
- ±0.2% (lower limit of ±0.13 mm)
- Density
- 8.2 g/cm³
- Min. wall thickness
- -
Technical Properties
- Embossing
- min. 0.3 mm
- Engraving
- min. 0.3 mm
- Warping risk
- N/A