Uddeholm Tyrax ESR Sets a New Standard in Tool Steel Performance

Uddeholm is a leading producer of high-quality powder and customised 3D manufactured parts for demanding tooling applications. Its end-to-end expertise covers material selection, design, printing, heat treatment and coatings, supported by ISO 9001:2015 and AS9120 B certification. The company’s advanced tool steel, Uddeholm Tyrax ESR, is engineered to meet the challenges of modern plastics manufacturing, combining durability, surface quality and compatibility with additive manufacturing technologies.

Plastic materials are changing to meet the higher performance and environmental standards. Modern compounds are reinforced with glass fibres, halogen-free flame retardants, or wood-fibre composites. These new formulations are more aggressive on tooling, increasing the risk of corrosion and abrasive wear, which in turn leads to part defects. Tool users need steels that can withstand these conditions and ensure consistent, high-quality production.

Understanding the Challenge

Defects such as scratches, dull surfaces, dimensional inaccuracies, flash formation, and cracking can result in rejected parts and lost production time. Tool users increasingly recognise that specifying the right steel for their moulds reduces uncertainty, improves reliability, and ensures consistent output.

Using inferior tool steels introduces variability, increases maintenance time and cost, and can cause tool failure and extended downtime. For businesses reliant on long production runs with demanding plastics, these risks directly impact profitability.

A Reliable Solution: Uddeholm Tyrax ESR

Aggressive plastic compounds often force a compromise between tool durability and surface finish. Uddeholm Tyrax ESR removes the need to compromise by combining corrosion and wear resistance with best-in-class polishability. This ensures reliable production while maintaining the required surface finish, even in challenging applications.

Designed for Polishing Performance

High-gloss mould finishes are often required, but many steels are not optimised for polishing due to poor carbide distribution or high impurity levels. Tyrax ESR is produced using electro slag remelting (ESR) technology, removing almost all inclusions that would otherwise hinder polishing. Its matrix-based microstructure enables fast, easy polishing and consistent surface quality.

This structure allows users to achieve an SPI A1 high-gloss finish in three polishing steps, cutting polishing time by 40–50% compared to standard grades such as AISI 420 ESR.

Proven Tool Life Extension

Production testing has shown that tool life can increase by up to 100% in injection moulding applications involving glass-filled and corrosive plastics when using Tyrax ESR. This durability leads to less frequent maintenance and more predictable production.

Performance in Demanding Industries

Sectors such as medical, electronics, and automotive manufacturing impose strict demands on tool reliability, often involving long production runs with highly corrosive or abrasive materials and exposure to humidity. Tyrax ESR provides the consistency and ease of maintenance required to support efficient, uninterrupted production.

Additive Manufacturing Capabilities

Uddeholm Tyrax is also available for additive manufacturing (AM), offering the same corrosion resistance, wear resistance, toughness, and polishability. AM allows precise placement of conformal cooling channels to optimise thermal regulation and improve tool performance.

From a sustainability perspective, AM can shorten the value chain, reduce material waste, and lower energy consumption. Tyrax for AM is available as powder for Laser Powder Bed Fusion (LPBF) and Laser Metal Deposition (LMD) processes.

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