The new alloy uniquely fills the demands that many moldmakers have that are not being addressed today in our marketplace. First, this grade provides good polishability without having to be remelted.

This saves on cost for the alloy while still filling the demands of the application. Second, it is a prehardened grade, which saves on heat treatment costs and the concerns that most moldmakers have about the heat treatment sequence and how well that process is performed.

It provides a grade ready to be machined and put into operation, which saves time and money for the moldmaker. Also, should the moldmaker need a stainless alloy prehardened, this grade’s unique chemistry gives an overall better corrosion resistance in the prehardened condition than can be obtained in other 420 stainless alloys.

Finally, every toolmaker knows that taking a prehardened 420 stainless steel and then machining it in the hardened condition can present some unique machining issues. The modifications done to this alloy will help the toolmaker get a more consistent result and, while not as easy to machine as a resulfurized grade, is still an improvement over the current non resulfurized types.

The major applications where this grade can be used is in plastic extrusion tooling where better corrosion resistance is required than a resulfurized stainless alloy can provide.

It also should be considered for plastic injection molding and rubber molding where the toolmaker in the past has had to use a 420 remelted stainless because he wanted better polishability than a resulfurized, free machining stainless could provide, but wanted a prehardened grade and did not have it. It also can be considered for holder applications where surfaces of the holder are required to have good polishability and yet the toolmaker would want decent machinability in other areas of the holder.