Increasing Solidification Rate of M2 High-Speed Steel Ingot by Fusible Metal Mold

As one of the most popular used high-speed steels, M2 possesses excellent hardness and toughness as cutting tools. Networks of eutectic carbides distributing in the inter-dendritic region are academically considered to be the typical microstructure of M2, which can be refined by increasing cooling rate. In this paper, a novel casting method named fusible metal mold (FMM) is employed to refine the microstructure of M2 high-speed steel. Results show that FMM casting method can improve cooling rate by 100% without any contamination of the melts’ composition.