Exclusive Daido Steel partnership. Technical specialists.
When hot work tooling fails before it should, the grade selection is often the reason.
DH31-EX is a Daido Steel hot work grade engineered for toughness and thermal fatigue resistance — where commodity grades leave die life on the table.
Hot work die failure is expensive, not just in the cost of the die itself, but in the unplanned downtime, regrind cycles, and production delays that follow. When a hot work die fails ahead of schedule, the first question to ask is whether the grade was right for the application.
DH31-EX is a Daido Steel hot work die steel available exclusively through International Mold Steel. Compared to commodity hot work grades, DH31-EX is formulated for improved thermal fatigue resistance and toughness under cyclic heating and cooling, the conditions that determine die life in high-volume press operations. IMS has 35+ technical specialists who can evaluate your specific application and recommend the right grade. That is an engineering conversation, not a sales call.
What IMS and DH31-EX Bring to Your Tooling Program
- DH31-EX: Daido Steel hot work die steel engineered for thermal fatigue resistance and toughness under cyclic press conditions.
- Available exclusively through IMS: not accessible through general steel distributors.
- Technical staff with application engineering capability — grade selection based on your specific application, not just inventory.
- Full-service support beyond raw material: machining, heat treating, polishing, texturing, welding, and coating.
Contact an IMS technical specialist to evaluate your hot work application.