Modern approaches to extend tool life: A review on duplex treatment of AISI H13 tool steel

AISI H13 tool steel serves various high-temperature and high-wear industrial purposes including forging and die casting and extrusion operations. Such operating conditions commonly result in premature wear and thermal stress damage of the material despite its excellent properties. A combination of gas nitriding treatment with following hard coating deposition (including TiC CrN and AlTiN) represents a valuable approach to enhance surface hardness and improve wear resistance and extend tool life duration. The review presents an integrated summary of modern experimental approaches which start with material and sample processing methods before continuing to nitriding parameter plans and coating application techniques and extending through comprehensive surface assessment and mechanical testing stage. The paper explores two statistical optimization approaches called Taguchi analysis together with linear regression modeling for enhancing process optimization. The review investigates how microstructural changes relate to tribo-mechanical performance while proposing new research paths for improving duplex processing methods.