Heat treatment is a process that uses controlled heating and cooling of automotive mold materials to improve their mechanical properties, especially strength and toughness.

Quenching: In the early stages of heat treatment, the quenching process is usually used. Quenching is to rapidly cool the mold material to quickly change it from a high temperature state to a low temperature state to obtain a high hardness surface. This step is crucial to improve the strength of the mold because it forms a stronger martensite structure. However, the quenching process may result in some internal stresses, so subsequent steps need to address this.

Tempering: In order to improve the toughness of the mold, quenching is often followed by the tempering process. Tempering is performed by heating the quenched mold to a lower temperature and then slowly cooling it to adjust the organizational structure, reduce hardness, and increase toughness. The purpose of this step is to enable the mold to maintain a certain hardness while being tough enough to resist external forces such as impact and vibration during actual work.

Reasonable annealing process: Annealing is another commonly used heat treatment method. It heats the mold at a lower temperature and then cools it slowly to adjust the crystal structure, reduce internal stress, and improve the toughness of the mold. This is particularly important for large, thick-walled molds, as they are more prone to internal stresses and have stricter toughness requirements.

Surface treatment: In addition to the treatment of core materials, surface treatment is also one of the key steps to improve the strength and toughness of automotive molds. The use of surface treatment methods such as carbide coating, carburizing, and nitriding can improve the wear resistance and toughness of the surface layer while maintaining high surface hardness. This helps slow surface wear and extends mold life.