Why Heat Treatment Is Essential in Injection Mold Tooling

For a mold to perform consistently under pressure, steel hardness and toughness must be perfectly balanced. That’s where heat treatment comes in. At Dongxinda, we treat core and cavity steel to exact specifications to ensure long-term strength and wear resistance.

Benefits of Proper Heat Treatment:

• Increases surface hardness

• Prevents deformation under injection pressure

• Enhances resistance to wear, corrosion, and thermal fatigue

• Reduces risk of cracking or dimensional change over time

We apply several treatments based on tool steel selection and client needs:

• Vacuum hardening

• Tempering for internal stress relief

• Nitriding for enhanced surface hardness

• PVD coatings for abrasive materials

FAQs:

• Is heat treatment always necessary?
  For hardened steel molds, yes. For soft tooling like aluminum, not required.

• Do you handle heat treatment in-house?
  We partner with certified providers and verify hardness post-process.

• What’s the typical hardness range for mold cores?
  48–52 HRC for most high-volume molds using H13 or equivalent steel.