Pros and Cons of Shear Blades Made of Different Materials

What are shear blades made of? Various hydraulic shear manufacturers use different types of steel to make blades. However, all the types of steel used to make shear blades must have a high degree of strength and toughness. The blade material must also have good wear resistance. Die steel is a good example.
Read this article to learn about the different shear blade materials and their advantages and disadvantages.
 

Manufacturing process of shear blades

Manufacturing shear blades involves the use of hardened steel materials that can resist tearing and wear over a long period of time. To do this, manufacturers must consider the type of material, the maximum shear capacity, and the strength and thickness of the drill pipe to be sheared. This helps them to make shear blades with the best shear performance.
 

Common shear blade materials

The following materials are commonly used to manufacture shear blades
LD Cold Work Die Steel. This material was originally developed for use in cold heading dies. It is strong, challenging, and has good wear resistance.
Hot work die steel. This is an air-cooled hardening die steel with good toughness and resistance to hot and cold fatigue.
Alloy Tool Steel. It is a combination of chromium-silicon steel and a specific amount of tungsten to increase hardness for hardening.
High speed tool steel. This material consists of high alloyed high carbon steel. It is mainly used to make cutting inserts for heavy loads and high cutting speeds.
 

Advantages and disadvantages of each material

The materials used for shear blades are beneficial in drilling operations. However, they also have some disadvantages. The following are the advantages and disadvantages of shear blade materials.
 

LD Cold Work Die Steel

Pros: It has high strength, toughness and wear resistance and can be usedto make a variety of cold work shear blades.
Disadvantages: The cost of this shear blade material is relatively high.
 

Hot work tool steel

Advantages: It has a high vanadium content, which makes its temperature properties better than some materials.
Disadvantages: It is only suitable for hot shearing of steel plates at temperatures below 800 degrees Celsius.
 

Alloy Tool Steels

Pros. Contains tungsten, which helps preserve fine grains during quenching. Alloy tool steel makes hydraulic shear blades susceptible to impact loads.
Disadvantages: Common only in shear blades for cutting common steel.
 

High Speed Tool Steel

Pros: It has high hardness and incredible wear resistance. Most importantly, it can cut other materials at high cutting speeds.
Cons: Despite these benefits, he shear blade material is also very expensive.