Influence of the nitriding time in the wear behaviour of an AISI H13 steel during a crankshaft forging process

Based upon laboratory results, performance tests on hot-forging tools were carried-out under industrial conditions. Crankshaft forging dies were sursulf nitrided during 7 and 13 h, for which the number of forged parts was 4065 and 10381, respectively. These results showed that increasing the nitriding time and thus the thickness of nitrided layer give rise an increase of the forging die durability.