Effect of vacuum isothermal high-pressure gas quenching on heat treatment deformation control and hardness of Cr12MoV dies

Abstract Heat treatment produces cumulative deformation of the dies, and it is particularly important to control deformation through appropriate heat treatment processes. The influence of vacuum gas quenching on the heat treatment deformation control of Cr12MoV cold working dies is explored. The heat treatment deformation and hardness of Cr12MoV dies by different heat treatment processes were tested. The dimensional deformation of dies was measured by the three-dimensional detection method. A characterization method for the deformation rate was designed based on the shape characteristics of Cr12MoV dies. The results indicate that the vacuum isothermal gas quenching process contributes to controlling deformation while maintaining the high hardness of the die. The dimensional deformation rate is controlled below 0.05% and the hardness of the sample reached 59.0 HRC after quenching and tempering.