High Speed Tool Steel

We sell a wide variety of high speed tool steels in sheet, plate and cut to size pieces. Standard high speed steels are used in high speed cutting tool applications. We carry M type, T type and CPM grades of high speed steels. The M type steels are typically lower in initial cost, followed by the T type and finally the CPM grades. Below is a list of what we carry, and a summary of their key characteristics.

Molybdenum or M series steels contain molybdenum, tungsten, chromium, vanadium, cobalt and carbon as the principle alloying elements. M series steels are typically tougher than T series steels at the same hardness. Otherwise, their properties are similar. The T series steels use tungsten, chromium, vanadium, cobalt and carbon as the principle alloying elements. T type steel exhibit high red hardness and wear resistance. They are also less susceptible to decarburization at high temperatures than M type steels. The high alloy content of T type steels produces a large number of hard, wear resistant carbides.

We carry four CPM grades of high speed steel. CPM M-4 and CPM T-15 are well known and have similar chemistries to wrought M-4 and T-15. The main difference is the fine carbide structure that the CPM process produces makes grinding these grades much easier. CPM Rex-76 and CPM Rex121 are highly alloyed grades that cannot be manufactured by conventional steelmaking. CPM Rex-76 offers a good combination of toughness and high red hardness and also makes an excellent substrate for coatings such as TiAlN. CPM Rex-76/ can be heat treated to Rc 68 to 70. CPM Rex 121 is a high vanadium cobalt-bearing tool steel designed to offer the highest combination of wear resistance, attainable hardness and red hardness available in a high speed steel. See our data sheets for more details.

CPM and Rex-76 are registered trademarks of Crucible Industries LLC