Uddeholm

Vancron®

SuperClean
 Uddeholm Vancron® SuperClean
Uddeholm Vancron SuperClean is a nitrided powder tool steel, which
means that a “surface coating” is already integrated into the finished
tooling material. The result is a tool surface with very low friction that
reduces galling or sticking of the material.
Uddeholm Vancron offers the possibility of eliminating time- and
cost-consuming surface coatings like PVD or TD. This is achieved
already in the manufacturing process of Uddeholm Vancron by
introducing an extra nitriding operation.
Benefits for the tool user include improved and consistent quality of
the manufactured parts, especially regarding the surfaces. More reliable
delivery time and higher utilization of the production equipment are also
benefits, with fewer disturbances and interruptions in production.
Further improvements include simplified maintenance, which can often
be made in-house as no surface coating is required; and as well, total
tool life is increased.
The tool maker can produce a high quality tool that does not require any
surface coating, which means a shorter delivery time and freedom to
make adjustments after the heat treatment.
In total this means that the product quality will be uniform from the first
part produced to the last and that a tool manufactured in Uddeholm
Vancron will make it easier for you to keep your promises.

© UDDEHOLMS AB
No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted for commercial purposes
without permission of the copyright holder.

This information is based on our present state of knowledge and is intended to provide
general notes on our products and their uses. It should not therefore be construed as a
warranty of specific properties of the products described or a warranty for fitness for a
particular purpose.

Classified according to EU Directive 1999/45/EC

For further information see our “Material Safety Data Sheets”.

Edition 4, 01.2020
 Uddeholm Vancron SuperClean

CRITICAL TOOL STEEL APPLICATIONS

PROPERTIES Uddeholm Vancron is a cold work tool steel
with an excellent galling/adhesive wear pro-
FOR GOOD TOOL PERFORMANCE file, which makes the steel ideal for severe
In many cold work applications tools are production conditions and/or long run pro-
surface coated in order to prevent galling duction in applications where surface coated
and adhesive wear. tool steel is needed. The work materials in
these applications are often soft/ad-herent
Furthermore it is important to have the
materials such as austenitic and
correct hardness for the applications as
ferritic stainless steel, mild steel, copper,
well as a sufficient ductility and toughness
aluminium, etc.
in order to prevent premature failure due to
chipping/crack formation. Uddeholm Vancron should be used in cold
work applications where the predominant
Uddeholm Vancron is a nitrided powder
failure mechanisms are adhesive wear or
metallurgical tool steel offering an excellent
galling.
combination of galling resistance and
adhesive wear resistance. Typical applications are:
• Blanking and forming
FOR TOOL MAKING
• Cold extrusion
• Machinability
• Deep drawing
• Heat treatment
• Powder pressing
• Grinding
• An alternative to tooling when coatings
• Dimensional stability in heat treatment
and cemented carbide used to be the
• Surface treatment only solution
Tool making with highly alloyed tool steel
means that machining and heat treatment
are often more of a problem than with the GENERAL
lower alloy grades. This can, of course, raise Uddeholm Vancron is a Cr-Mo-V-N alloyed
the cost of tool making. cold work tool steel, which is characterized
by:
The powder manufacturing route used for
Uddeholm Vancron means that its machi- • Very high adhesive wear resistance
nability is superior to that of similar conven- • Very high galling resistance
tionally produced grades and some highly
alloyed cold work tool steel. • Good chipping and cracking resistance

The dimensional stability of Uddeholm • High compressive strength

Vancron in heat treatment is good and • Good through hardening properties
predictable compared to conventionally
• Good dimensional stability in hardening
produced high alloy steel.
• Very good resistance to tempering back
Uddeholm Vancron is designed to be used
without surface coating as it contains a high • Good WEDM properties
amount of low friction vanadium rich nitrides
in the matrix. Typical C N Si Mn Cr Mo V
analysis % 1.3 1.8 0.5 0.4 4.5 1.8 10
Standard
specification None
Delivery
condition Soft annealed to approx. 300 HB
Colour code Green/Dark blue

3
 Uddeholm Vancron SuperClean

PROPERTIES HEAT TREATMENT

PHYSICAL DATA SOFT ANNEALING
After hardening and tempering to 61 HRC. Protect the steel and heat through to 900°C
(1650°F). Then cool in the furnace at 10°C/h
Temperature 20°C 200°C 400°C (20°F/h) to 650°C (1200°F), then freely in air.
(68°F) (390°F) (750°F)

Density STRESS RELIEVING

kg/m3 7 440 7 397 7 342
lbs/in3 0.268 0.267 0.265
After rough machining the tool should be
heated through to 600–700°C (1110­–1290°F),
Modulus of
elasticity holding time 2 hours. Cool slowly to 500°C
MPa 236 000 – – (930°F), then freely in air.
psi 35.2 x 106
Coefficient of HARDENING
thermal expan-
sion per The hardenability for Uddeholm Vancron
°C from 20°C 10.9 x 10-6 11.4 x 10-6 12.3 x 10-6
°F from 68°F 6.05 x 10-6 6.3 x 10-6 6.8 x 10-6
is equivalent to Uddeholm Vanadis 23, which
ensures good through hardening properties
Thermal
conductivity at quenching in salt bath or gas quenching in
W/m •°C   – 25 27 vacuum furnace.
Btu in/ft2 h °F – 146 173

Specific heat
Pre-heating in two stages: 600–650°C (1110–
J/kg °C 490 544 617 1200°F) and 850–900°C (1560–1650°F).
Btu /lb °F 0.11 012 0.14
Austenitizing temperature: 950–1150°C
(1740–2100°F) normally 1080°C (1980°F).
Holding time: 30 minutes (10 minutes at
COMPRESSIVE STRENGTH
1100°C (2010°F) and above.
Approximately compressive strength vs.
hardness is shown in the table below. We always recommend a sub-zero
treatment when a hardening temperature of
Hardness Compressive yield strength 1100°C (2100°F) or above has been used,
HRC Rc0.2 (MPa)
see chapter Sub-zero treatment page 6.
58 2200
60 2500 The tool should be protected against decar-
62 2750 burization and oxidation during hardening.
64 3000
Uddeholm Vancron can be heat treated to
give a wide range of hardness. To achieve
UNNOTCHED IMPACT ENERGY a hardness between 58–64 HRC the auste-
Unnotched impact energy for Uddeholm nitizing temperature is varied in the range
Vanadis 4 Extra, Uddeholm Vanadis 23, 950–1150°C (1740–2100°F).
Uddeholm Vancron and an AISI D2 type of
steel is shown below.

Unnotched impact energy,

relative comparison
61-63 HRC

Uddeholm Uddeholm Uddeholm AISI D2

Vanadis 4 Vancron Vanadis 23
Extra

4
 Uddeholm Vancron SuperClean

The recommended austenitizing temperature Hardness, HRC

is 1080°C (1980°F) with 30 minutes holding
66
time followed by quenching and tempering at Tempering =540°C (1000°F)/3 x 1h
540°C (1000°F)/3 x 1 h resulting in a hard- 64

ness of 63–64 HRC. 62

60

58
56
950 1000 1050 1100 1150
Austenitizing temperature °C

CCT-GRAPH (CONTINUOUS COOLING)

Austenitizing temperature 1080°C (1980°F). Holding time 30 minutes.

°F °C
2000 1100
Austenitizing temperature 1080°C (1980°F)
Holding time 30 minutes
1800 1000

900
1600 A c = 850°C
1
f
1560°F
800 A c = 810°C
1s
1400
Carbides 1490°F

700 Pearlite
1200
600
Cooling Hardness T800-500
1000 curve no. HV10 (sec)
500
1 783 28
800
400
2 800 140
600 300 3 775 280
Bainite
4 772 630
400 200
Martensite 5 753 1030
200 100 6 811 1390
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 7 705 3205
1 10 100 1 000 10 000 100 000 Seconds

1 10 100 1 000 Minutes

1 10 100 Hours

Air cooling of
0.2 1.5 10 90 600 bars, Ø mm

5
 Uddeholm Vancron SuperClean

QUENCHING MEDIA SUB-ZERO TREATMENT

• Vacuum furnace with high speed gas at For the highest requirements on dimensional
sufficient overpressure (2–5 bar) stability sub-zero treatment is recommended
• Martempering bath or fluidized bed at after quenching.
approx. 550°C (1020°F) The tool should be sub-zero treated
• Forced air/gas ­immediately after quenching to at least -70°C
(-95°F), soaking time 1–3 h, followed by three
Note 1: Quenching should be continued until temperings at 540°C (1000°F) 1 hour.
the tem­perature of the tool reaches approx.
50°C (120°F). The tool should then be tempe- For a high hardening temperature, >1080°C
red imme­diately. (1980°F), we always recommend sub-zero
treatment followed by three temperings at
Note 2: For applications where maximum 520°C (970°F) 1 hour, in order to minimize the
toughness is required use a martempering retained austenite and improve the dimensio-
bath or a furnace with sufficient overpress- nal stability.
ure.

TEMPERING
For cold work applications tempering should
al­ways be carried out at 540°C (1000°F)
irrespec­tive of the austenitizing temperatu-
re. Temper three times for one hour at full
tem-perature. The tool should be cooled to
room temperature between the tempers.
The retained austenite content will be less
than 2% after this tempering cycle.

DIMENSIONAL CHANGES
Dimensional changes after hardening and Adhesive wear.
tempering.
Heat treatment: austenitizing between
950–1150°C (1740–2100°F)/30 minutes and
tempering 3 x 1 h at 540°C (1004°F).
Specimen size: 50 x 50 x 50 mm (2” x 2” x
2”) and 100 x 40 x 20 mm (4” x 1.5” x 0.8”).
Dimensional changes: growth in length, width
and thickness +0.03% to +0.12%.

Galling.

6
 Uddeholm Vancron SuperClean

SURFACE
TREATMENTS
Note: Uddeholm Vancron is designed to be
used without surface coating as it contains
a high amount of nitrogen and has already a
PM 4V
form of internal surface coating.
Some cold work tools are given a surface
treatment in order to reduce friction and
increase tool wear resistance.
If extremely good resistance to galling is
required in severe forming operations,
Uddeholm Vancron can be surface coated.

NITRIDING Vancron
A brief immersion in a special salt bath to SuperClean
produce a nitrided diffusion zone of 2–20 µm
is recommend­ed. This reduces the friction on
the envelope sur­face of punches and has
various other advantages. TRIBOLOGICAL PROPERTIES –
CASE STUDY
PVD Cold forming die for producing a part of
Physical vapour deposition, PVD, is a stainless steel for pump housing. Courtesy:
method of applying a wear resistant coating Grundfos A/S, Denmark.
at temperatures between 200–500°C (390–
930°F). As Uddeholm Vancron is high temp-
erature tempered at 540°C (1000°F) there is
no danger of dimensional changes during
PVD coating.

WEAR RESISTANCE
ADHESIVE WEAR
Wear resistance comparison.
Component: laboratory test strip.
Tool type: blanking punch.
RESULTS
Tool dimension: 10 x 40 mm.
Uddeholm Uddeholm Uddeholm
Work material: AISI 304 stainless steel 1 mm Steel /Surface Vanadis 23 PM 10V Vancron
thick. coating Uncoated Uncoated Uncoated

Part
Produced 83 000 1 900 000 >18 000 000
Wear loss, µm2
Hardness HRC 62 64
10000
Failure
mechanism Galling Still running
8000

6000
Uddeholm Uddeholm Vanadis 23
Steel /Surface CVD
4000 coating Salt bath nitriding PVD TiN TiC/TiN
Part
2000 Produced 160 000 130 000 2 000 000

Hardness HRC 62

PM 4V Uddeholm Vancron Failure Delamina-

mechanism Galling tion

7
 Uddeholm Vancron SuperClean

CUTTING DATA MILLING

FACE AND SQUARE SHOULDER MILLING
RECOMMENDATIONS
Milling with carbide
The cutting data below are to be considered Cutting data parameters Rough milling Fine milling
as guiding values which must be adapted to
Cutting speed (vc)
existing local conditions. m/min 80–100 100–120
f.p.m. 262–330 330–396
Further information can be found in the
Feed (fz)
Uddeholm publication “Cutting data mm/tooth 0.2–0.4 0.1–0.2
­recommendations” or in the Uddeholm inch/tooth 0.008–0.016 0.004–0.008

­machining app. Depth of cut (ap)

mm 2–4 –2
inch 0.08–0.16 –0.08
Carbide
TURNING designation ISO
K20* K15*
Coated carbide Coated carbide
Turning with carbide Turning or cermet
with HSS
Cutting data Rough Fine Fine * Use a wear resistant Al2O3 coated carbide grade
parameters turning turning turning

Cutting END MILLING

speed (vc)
m/min 110–160 160–200 20–25
Type of mill
f.p.m. 361–525 525–660 22–83
Carbide
Feed (f) Cutting data Solid indexable High
mm/r 0.2–0.4 0.05–0.2  0.05–0.3 parameters carbide insert speed steel
i.p.r. 0.008–0.016 0.002–0.008 0.002–0.012
Cutting
Depth of cut (ap) speed (vc)
mm 2–4 0.5–2 0.5–3 m/min 40–50 70–90 12–151)
inch 0.08–0.16 0.02–0.08 0.02–0.12 f.p.m. 132–164 230–297 40–501)

Carbide Feed (fz)

designation ISO
K20* K15* – mm/tooth 0.01–0.22) 0.06–0.22)   0.01–0.32)
inch/tooth 0.0004–0.0082) 0.002–0.0082) 0.0004–0.0122)
Coated Coated
carbide carbide Carbide
or cermet designation
ISO – K153) –
* Use a wear resistant Al2O3 coated carbide grade
1)
For coated HSS end mill vc = 20–30 m/min. (66–99 f.p.m.)
2)
Depending on radial depth of cut and cutter diameter
DRILLING 3)
Use a wear resistant Al2O3 coated carbide grade
HIGH SPEED STEEL TWIST DRILL

Drill diameter Cutting speed vc Feed f

mm inch m/min. f.p.m. mm/r i.p.r.

– 5 –3/16 12–14* 40–46* 0.05–0.10 0.002–0.004

5–10 3/16–3/8 12–14* 40–46* 0.10–0.20 0.004–0.008
10–15 3/8–5/8 12–14* 40–46* 0.20–0.25 0.008–0.010
15–20 5/8–3/4 12–14* 40–46* 0.25–0.35 0.010–0.014

* For coated HSS drill vc = 22–24 m/min. (72–79 f.p.m.)

CARBIDE DRILL

Type of drill
Cutting data Indexable Solid Brazed
parameters insert carbide carbide1)

Cutting
speed, vc
m/min 140–160 80–100 50–60
f.p.m. 462–528 264–330 165–197

Feed, f
mm/r 0.05–0.152) 0.10–0.252) 0.15–0.252)
i.p.r. 0.002–0.0062) 0.004–0.0103) 0.006–0.0104)
1)
Drill with replaceable or brazed carbide tip
2)
Feed rate for drill diameter 20–40 mm (0.8”–1.6”)
3)
Feed rate for drill diameter 5–20 mm (0.2”–0.8”)
4)
Feed rate for drill diameter 10–20 mm (0.4”–0.8”)

8
 Uddeholm Vancron SuperClean

HARD MILLING COMPARISON

250
625 min Milling cutter: Mitsubishi VC-2SSB Ø mm, Z= 2
Axial depth of cut: ap= 10 mm
Radial depth of cut: ae= 2.5 mm
Feed rate: 0.06 mm/tooth
200
Machined volume [cm3]

150

102 min
Uddeholm Sverker 21, 60 HRC Uddeholm Vancron, 61 HRC
100
160 min

Uddeholm Vanadis 4 Extra, 61 HRC

31 min
50
25 min

8 -10 min
18 min
0
10 30 50 70 90 110

Cutting speed [m/min]

GRINDING POWER SETTINGS

General grinding wheel recommendation is A coarse pass with high power can result in
given below. More information can be found release of nitrogen from the steel causing pit-
in the Uddeholm publication “Grinding of ting. As a general rule of thumb the EDM’ing
Uddeholm Tool Steel”. of Uddeholm Vancron should be done with
medium or fine passes using lower power
Annealed Hardened setting.
Type of grinding condition condition
Face grinding A 46 HV B151 R50 B31) FLUSHING
straight wheel A 46 HV
Face grinding
N-alloyed PM steels put higher demands
segments A 36 GV A 46 GV on the flushing conditions. The On/Off time
Cylindrical grinding A 60 KV B151 R50 B31) ratio should be low, i.e. shorter On time and
A 60 KV longer Off time.
Internal grinding A 60 JV B151 R75 B31)
A 60 IV A general rule of thumb is that Off time
Profile grinding A 100 IV B126 R100 B61)
A 100 JV
should be twice the On time. When possible,
use flushing through the electrode or through
1)
If possible use CBN wheels for this application holes in the work piece. Higher viscosity of
the dielectric liquid is also preferable due to
better transportation of removed particles
ELECTRICAL DISCHARGE (can also give shorter EDM time and better
MACHINING – EDM surface finish).
Tools of Uddeholm Vancron can be produced
with Electrical Discharge Machining (EDM) as
ELECTRODES
long as the EDM layer is carefully removed. For rough EDM operations graphite electro-
Fine grinding and polishing, and retempering des are recommended, preferably of high
the tool at approx. 510°C (950°F) is recom- quality (small grain size, and/or Cu impreg-
mended. nated). A switched polarity might reduce
sticking on electrode if that happens. For
Due to the extremely high nitrogen content in
fine EDM use Cu or W/Cu electrodes. When
the steel, there are some general recommen-
Graphite electrodes must be used in fine
dations to be followed.
EDM, high quality (small grain size, and/or
Cu impregnated) is recommended.

9
 Uddeholm Vancron SuperClean

RELATIVE COMPARISON OF
UDDEHOLM COLD WORK TOOL STEEL
MATERIAL PROPERTIES AND RESISTANCE TO FAILURE MECHANISMS

Hardness/ Resistance to Fatigue cracking resistance

resistance Dimensional Ductility/ Toughness/
Uddeholm grade Machinability Grindability
to plastic stability Abrasive wear Adhesive wear resistance gross cracking
deformation to chipping resistance

Conventional cold work tool steel

Arne
Calmax
Caldie (ESR)
Rigor
Sleipner
Sverker 21
Sverker 3
Powder metallurgical tool steel
Vanadis 4 Extra*
Vanadis 8*
Vancron*
Powder metallurgical high speed steel
Vanadis 23*
Vanadis 30*
Vanadis 60*
Conventional high speed steel
AISI M2
* Uddeholm PM SuperClean tool steels

FURTHER
INFORMATION
Please contact your local Uddeholm office
for further information on the selection, heat
treat­ment, application and availability of
Uddeholm tool steel. For more information,
please visit www.uddeholm.com.

10