Grade O2/ 1.2842
O2 / 1.2842 is an oil-hardening cold-work tool steel known for its excellent machinability, uniform hardness, and superior dimensional stability during heat treatment. It is widely used in the manufacturing of precision tools and cutting instruments where fine edges and consistent performance are required. Compared to O1, O2 offers improved toughness and stability, making it a reliable choice for applications involving tight tolerances.
One of the major advantages of O2 tool steel is its ease of machining. It can be efficiently milled, turned, ground, and polished in its annealed condition, making it ideal for intricate tooling and detailed component design. Its oil-hardening property ensures a simple and controlled heat treatment process, achieving hardness levels between 58–62 HRC with minimal distortion.
O2 also provides high dimensional stability, ensuring that components maintain their exact size and shape after heat treatment. This makes it particularly suitable for gauges, jigs, fixtures, and measuring tools where precision is critical. While its wear resistance is lower than high-alloy steels like D2, it performs reliably in medium-duty cutting, punching, and shearing applications.
With its balanced composition, O2 offers good toughness and resistance to chipping or cracking under moderate loads. It also provides excellent edge retention, making it suitable for blades, woodworking tools, and industrial knives. Its versatility and consistent performance make it a popular choice across tooling and manufacturing industries.
Key Properties
- Excellent Machinability: One of the most machinable cold work tool steels, suitable for milling, turning, grinding, and polishing operations.
- Uniform Hardening & Easy Heat Treatment: Oil quenching enables hardness of 58–62 HRC with minimal distortion, ideal for precision applications.
- High Dimensional Stability: Maintains accurate dimensions during heat treatment, making it suitable for gauges and precision tools.
- Good Wear Resistance: Performs reliably in medium-duty cutting, punching, and shearing applications.
- Good Toughness: Offers better resistance to chipping and cracking compared to high-carbon chromium steels like D3.
- Fine Edge Retention: Provides sharp and durable cutting edges, ideal for blades and woodworking tools.
Common Applications
- Punches, dies, and blanking tools
- Shear blades
- Gauges, jigs, and fixtures
- Industrial cutting and trimming tools
- Woodworking tools (chisels and plane blades)
- Industrial, custom, and craft knives
- Reamers, broaches, and taps
- Measuring tools requiring tight tolerances
PUROHIT STEEL is a trusted name in the tool steel industry, with humble beginnings dating back to 1965 and over three decades of expertise in delivering high-quality materials and solutions. Today, the group operates multiple well-established units, maintaining a vast inventory ranging from hot work and cold work tool steels to specialized materials. Known for reliability and strong technical support, PUROHIT STEEL caters to the diverse requirements of small, medium, and large-scale industries. The company specializes in manufacturing moulds and tooling components using premium grades such as Grade O2/ 1.2842 which is ideal for applications including injection moulds (medium to large size), blow moulds, low-pressure die-casting dies, automotive moulds, tooling plates, extrusion dies, machine parts, shafts, and general tooling components. With a focus on quality, performance, and precision, PUROHIT STEEL continues to deliver durable and efficient tooling solutions.