Cold working die steel includes die for cutting (blanking die, trimming die, punch, scissors), cold heading die and cold extrusion die, bending die and drawing die etc. Cold working die steel is the most widely used in fastener industry. It is widely used in blanking, drawing, cold heading, wire rolling and other processes. The material of the cold mold should have high hardness, strength and wear resistance, enough toughness and less heat treatment deformation.

Cold working die steel of powder metallurgy is a new type of cold working die steel. The molten steel is atomized into fine steel powder by powder metallurgy and water atomization. At the same time, this method can also produce high carbon and high alloy cold working die steels which are difficult to be produced by traditional metallurgical methods. The steel contains more hard carbides VC, such as C (V) 10% high carbon high vanadium powder cold working steel CPM1OV, (C)=2.45%, (V)=10%, (Cr)=5%, (Mo)=1.3%, with higher wear resistance.

It is best to arrange the cutting and elimination of cold working die before heat treatment and quenching (unless the die is too complicated), in order to avoid the tensile stress formed on the surface during the machining process, resulting in the reduction of the fatigue performance of the die.