Investigation of the efficiency for ESD coating with stainless steel on die surfaces

Carbon steel, tool steel and casting alloys, which are preferred in sheet metal dies, are widely used in the automotive industry. However, in order to reduce the wear due to the cost of production, ESD coating with a cost-effective stainless steel electrode was experimented on the sheet forming die materials. Thus, the surface conditions of Ck45, 1.2379 and EN JS 1050 die materials, which are widely used in sheet metal forming dies, were modified with stainless steel electrodes by using the ESD coating method. The characterisation of the samples that were obtained as a result of the coating process using different parameters was also carried out with OM and SEM. The interlayer formed by the ESD coating and die material was analysed by using SEM-EDX. As a result of the findings, ESD coatings made with stainless steel have proven successful for small size maintenance of die steels.