A tool is specified by the condition it has to survive: thermal fatigue in die casting and hot forging, high impact in blanking, abrasive wear on cutting edges, acid attack from corrosive resins, red hardness at high cutting speeds. Each condition points to one family, and Fucheng melts, remelts and supplies all five — hot work, cold work, plastic mold, high speed and stainless tool steels.
Send the operating condition — the process, the workpiece material, how the last tool failed — with the block or bar sizes. A grade recommendation with the stock position comes back within 24 hours on a working day.
Match your specific tooling failure mode or operating environment—thermal fatigue, high abrasive wear, high-RPM cutting, or chemical corrosion—to the correct European steel grade instantly.
Cavity and core blocks, mirror work.
Hot work tool steels: 1.2344 / H13, 1.2367 and 1.2714. They cover high-pressure die casting, hot forging and aluminum extrusion dies, where thermal fatigue and heat checking are the primary failure modes.
Cold work and high speed steels: 1.2379 / D2, S7 and 1.3343 / M2. They cover precision stamping, heavy blanking, cold shearing and high-RPM cutting tools such as taps, broaches and hobs.
420, electroslag remelted, because transparent parts, optical surfaces and cosmetic medical housings print every defect in the steel onto every shot. 1.2085 stays off mirror cavities: its 0.05 to 0.10 % sulphur forms sulphides that open up as pinholes at the fine stages of polishing.
1.2085, free machining and delivered pre-hardened at 29 to 33 HRC, for plates, bases and textured or technical surfaces. Where corrosion resistance and polishing matter more than machinability, 420 is delivered pre-hardened at 30 to 34 HRC.
| The mold in front of you | Grade | Delivery condition |
|---|---|---|
| Corrosive resin, cavity hardened afterwards | 1.2316 | Annealed, 245 HB or below |
| Corrosive resin, mirror cavity | 420 | Annealed for hardening, or pre-hardened 30 – 34 HRC |
| Transparent or optical cavity, high shot count | 420 | Annealed for hardening |
| Mold base, plates, large cavity block, no hardening step | 1.2085 | Pre-hardened 29 – 33 HRC |
| Textured or technical surface, free machining priority | 1.2085 | Pre-hardened 29 – 33 HRC |
Mold base, plates, large cavity block.
Five direct tooling applications, read by the working condition and the way each tool fails, and matched to a standard grade and a higher-performance alternative across hot work, cold work and plastic mold steels.
Five applications, matched from the failure mode.
Heat load and wear: the variables behind the grade.
| Application | Core condition | Standard grade | High-performance / heavy-duty |
|---|---|---|---|
| Die casting and extrusion dies | Thermal fatigue and heat checking | H13 / 1.2344 | 1.2367 where crazing sets the life |
| Hot forging and hot trimming dies | Heavy impact and thermal shock | H13 / 1.2344 | H11 where cracking ends the tool; 1.2714 for hammer blocks |
| Metal stamping and blanking dies | Abrasive wear and edge chipping | D2 / 1.2379 | DC53 for high-strength sheet |
| General plastic injection molds | Machinability, no hardening cycle | 1.2085 | 420 pre-hardened, 30 – 34 HRC |
| Corrosion-resistant and high-gloss optical molds | Acid attack from PVC and halogen resins; mirror finish | 1.2316 | 420 ESR for mirror and optical cavities |
Corrosion in a plastic mold shows up in three places, and they fail on different clocks.
The two corrosion-resisting grades here answer that differently.
| Grade | Chromium | Molybdenum | Delivered |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1.2316 | 15.5 – 17.5 % | 1.00 – 1.30 % | Annealed, 245 HB or below |
| 420 | 12.5 – 14.5 % | — | Annealed 245 HB or below, or pre-hardened 30 – 34 HRC |
1.2316 carries both the higher chromium and the molybdenum, and molybdenum raises resistance to localised pitting specifically — the pinpoint attack that starts in a vent or a water line rather than as general dulling across a face.
That is why a PVC or flame-retardant tool goes to 1.2316 even where 420 would be adequate on every other count, and why 420 stays the answer where the requirement is mirror polishing rather than chemical attack.
Pinholes do not appear when polishing starts.
They appear at the fine stages, after the cavity has every one of its machining hours already in it, because the abrasive has finally reached deep enough to open non-metallic inclusions sitting under the surface and pull them out.
What is left is a pit that cannot be polished away, only cut away — and cutting it away means taking the whole cavity surface down and starting again, or scrapping the block. Nothing at the roughing or the first polishing stages predicts it.
That is why every 420 heat here is remelted. Two 15-tonne induction furnaces feed a shop of ten electroslag furnaces running 3 to 12 tonne ingots, and electroslag remelting is what strips the inclusion population and the segregation that a cast ingot carries.
Our EFS grain refining practice is applied across the hot work, cold work and plastic mould grades on top of that.
Both pages carry the process detail; what matters at the order stage is what you can check yourself.
Ten electroslag furnaces, 3 to 12 tonne ingots.
With a mirror-grade 420 order we send an unpolished coupon cut from the same heat as your blocks. There is no polishing operation in this works and we make no claim about what level it reaches — the coupon arrives as steel, and your own polisher takes it down with your own compounds, on your bench, past #2000 where pinholes declare themselves.
If it goes quiet and clean, that heat behaves on your process. If it does not, you know before the cavity is cut rather than after, and nothing has been spent.
The coupon arrives as steel.
The 0.05 to 0.10 % sulphur in 1.2085 is deliberate: it is what makes a heavy plate machine at the rate it does. Those same sulphides are what surface as pinholes above roughly #2000.
Any offcut of 1.2085 already in your warehouse, from any source, will show it in twenty minutes of polishing — which is the same evidence that puts 420 on the mirror cavity line and keeps 1.2085 on the plates and bases where its machinability pays.
Twenty minutes of polishing.
Non-metallic inclusion rating is available as an added item on any heat, rated by whichever method you specify: ASTM E45, DIN 50602 or ISO 4967. The measured rating goes on the EN 10204 3.1 for that heat.
We do not print an acceptance class that was not agreed with you first, and the way to test that is to ask loosely.
What comes back from here is three questions: which standard, which inclusion types, and where your line sits. Then we measure to that and report it.
ASTM E45 · DIN 50602 · ISO 4967.
One more thing decides whether a mirror job behaves consistently: a mold is several pieces, not one.
Each piece marked with its own heat number.
Four lines, and a grade recommendation with the stock position comes back within 24 hours on a working day, written so you can forward it to the tool room that asked.
Pre-hardened plastic injection mold steel leaves here at a measured hardness inside a stated window.
That condition is produced on our own quench and temper line, not bought in pre-hardened. Two pit furnaces, 4,000 mm deep by 1,600 mm diameter, take the heavy plate and block sections that this work needs, which is what lets the pre-hardened band cover the full flat range up to 500 mm thick and 1200 mm wide rather than thin plate only.
The spread between surface and core widens as sections get heavier, so send the thickest piece on your list and the desk tells you which route the material takes rather than leaving you to find it at the first cut. That is also where a heavy block moves from pre-hardened supply to annealed supply plus hardening.
4,000 mm deep by 1,600 mm diameter.
The reading for your batch, not a datasheet.
Machined once, and go to work.
The reason this condition exists at all is the sequence it removes. A mold base and a set of plates bought pre-hardened are machined once and go to work; there is no hardening cycle after the cavity geometry is in the steel, so there is no distortion to chase, no cracked water-line corner and no re-machining of a block that already carries days of spindle time.
A mold order is a parts list, so what matters is which parts of it come off the shelf. Plastic injection mold steel is stocked here as flat product first, because that is the shape a base, a plate and most cavity blocks start as.
| Part of the mold | What is held | Typical route |
|---|---|---|
| Base and support plates | 1.2085 pre-hardened flat, common thicknesses | Shelf, 7 – 10 days |
| Cavity and core blocks, mirror work | 420 flat and round, common sections | Shelf, 7 – 10 days |
| Cavity blocks for corrosive resins | 1.2316 flat and round, common sections | Shelf, 7 – 10 days |
| Heavy or off-band sections | Up to 500 mm thick, 1200 mm wide, Ø 600 mm | Made for the order, 25 – 35 days |
Add 2 days where the list is sawn to length, 5 days where faces are ground or milled, and work to drawing is quoted per drawing.
A size drawn down by a large set is replaced out of our own melt shop rather than bought in, so the same parts list answers at the same speed the next time it comes round.
Steel leaves in one of four surface conditions, and the choice is worth making per line rather than per order, because it decides how much work the tool room does before it starts on the mold.
| Operation | What it holds |
|---|---|
| Cut-to-length | ±2 mm |
| Ground thickness | ±0.05 mm |
| Milled surfaces, flatness | 0.1 mm per metre |
For plates and bases those figures are the ones that decide whether a stack goes straight onto the machine or through a squaring operation first, and six-face milled plate is bought here for exactly that reason.
Precision sawing, grinding, milling and machining to drawing are all run in our own finishing bays, so a cut list and a surface spec travel on the same order as the steel and under the same heat number.
Straight onto the machine, or through a squaring operation first.
Sawing, grinding, milling, machining to drawing.
Every batch ships with an EN 10204 3.1 material test certificate, signed by a quality department that reports to the general manager rather than to production, and written to survive being forwarded to a tool room that will test the steel again.
Non-metallic inclusion rating by ASTM E45, DIN 50602 or ISO 4967, and the quench test sample for material that will be hardened downstream.
Grain size, carbide distribution and inclusion rating are reported as measured. We do not declare a default acceptance class on any of them, because a class printed without agreement is a specification commitment made on your customer's behalf by someone who has not seen their part.
Tell us the class the tool room works to and the material is measured and reported against it.
Records are kept for ten years against the heat number. When a block behaves unexpectedly two years into a programme, the file for that heat still exists and the handling of nonconforming material and disputed results is set out in full on the home page.
Three grade choices arrive already made that will not survive the mold they are meant for, and each one costs at a different point.
It machines beautifully, which is usually how it got onto the drawing, and it fails at the last operation before the mold ships.
The sulphides come out as pinholes at the fine polishing stages, and by then the block carries its full machining cost.
It polishes and it holds hardness, and it pits — in the vents first, then the water side.
The tool comes back for welding and repolishing early in its life, and the argument about who pays for that lands on whoever supplied the steel.
Every hour of cavity work is at risk in the quench, and a crack at a water-line corner or a distortion beyond the polishing allowance writes off the block, not just the cycle.
We supply distributors, stockholders and wholesalers, and the tool rooms and molders they serve remain their accounts.
A set is not held whole while one plate waits.
Plastic mold grades move differently from the rest of the range: they go out as mold sets rather than as bar, they are asked for by resin as often as by grade name, and the person asking usually needs an answer the same day.
Mixed lists are handled line by line rather than as one order. Stocked sections are confirmed against the 7 to 10 day window and the rest is scheduled to production, so a set is not held whole while one plate waits. A first order can run as a trial before a programme depends on the supply, and it is answered on the same terms as a repeat.
A first order can run as a trial.
Hot work, cold work and plastic mould grades.
Send the resin, the shot-count band, the section list and the surface target, and a grade recommendation, the stock position and the lead time come back within 24 hours on a working day.
Add the mirror requirement to the enquiry and the unpolished coupon from your heat is arranged with the order.
Working days, Monday to Friday 09:00–18:00 GMT+8. We supply distributors, stockholders, wholesalers and buyers procuring at scale.
Or write directly: wonderful@fcstoolsteel.com
WhatsApp: +86-18972782802