The most important factors, among others, which can result in a lowering of production costs are a long tool life and low maintenance and stand still costs. This is achieved in practice by using tool materials which, for example, are highly homogenous and have a high micro-cleanliness, causing a significant delay in the onset of heat checking.
In addition, tool life can be dramatically increased in some applications by taking advantage of high thermal stability or inherent toughness. Along with longer tool life, using these modified tool materials gives users numerous supplementary benefits arising from the following factors:
- Longer tool life
- Less tools
- Fewer tool changes
- Lower repair costs
- Longer cycle times between tool repairs