What Are The D2 Steel And Its Applications?

By Author: TGKSSL
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D2 is a popular die steel. D2 steel is a high carbon, high chromium and air hardening tool
steel. This steel is known for its high wear and abrasion resistant properties. D2 tool steel
suppliers can guide you to know more about this steel.
D2 steel is similar to the D3 steel in context of its carbon content, which is 1.5%, that is slight
lesser than D3 steel (3.3%). Molybdenum and Vanadium is added to D2 steel to improve its
toughness and make it harder.
D2 Steel Composition
D2 steel has carbon content of approximately 1.4% to 1.6%, manganese 0.60%,
Chromium 11 to 13%, nickel 0.3%, vanadium 1.1%, and molybdenum 0.70 to 1.20%.
The aim of designing D2 steel is to offer resistance against wear, resistance against
abrasion and achieve good hardenability. To achieve good machinability it is
delivered in annealed condition. To get its service properties it needs to be hardened
after machining.
Benefits of D2 Steel
D2 is considered ideal material for die steel due to its high chromium and high carbon
content. After giving it heat treatment, it ...
... offers excellent wear resistance and it can reach
high hardness easily. D2 steel is considered wear resistant but compared to lower alloyed
steels it is considered soft. Main use of D2 steel is in manufacturing planer blades, cutting
tools for the industrial purpose, and shear blades and knife blades. D2 steel is offers
excellent rust resistance. Knife blades manufactured with D2 steel offers excellent abrasion
resistance and maintains its edge for a longer period compared to the other steels in the
similar price. It offers sharp edge and it cuts without much efforts.
Special care is taken while welding D2 steel because it is crack sensitive. Before welding D2
steel it must be annealed and then after welding it is re-hardened if filler material 938 is
applied to the D2 steel.
Due to its high carbon and high chromium content, experts suggest this steel for the
applications which need corrosion resistance, wear resistance, handle mechanical stress
and high load.
D2 steel gets more fragile when the blades size is bigger,
D3 steel offers better wear resistance compared to D2 steel, so for manufacturing shear
blades D3 steel is preferred. D3 steel is difficult to grind because of its higher wear
resistance. As blade size gets bigger, D2 steel becomes more fragile. For getting maximum
hardness between 62 and 64 HRC, it is tempered between 149 to 177°C. Temper between
260 and 288, it will produce hardness between 58 and 60 HRC, and it will achieve best
balance between toughness and wear resistance.
Compared to M2 steel, both the steel have similar toughness, but M2 steel offers better edge
and its grain structure is better than D2 steel. M2 steel can rust because it is not much
corrosion resistance compared to D2.
The disadvantages of D2 steel is it can easily form carbide. D2 steel is difficult to sharpen
and it takes a long time to sharpen them. D2 steel does not have good machining properties.

For the tools with intricate sections and for the big tools, pre-heating at 566 to 649°C is
recommended.
D2 Steel Applications
D2 steel is considered ideal material for manufacturing cold forming dies, stamping dies,
punches, slitters, thread rolling dies, and trim dies. It is considered ideal material where
much toughness is not required.