Pre-hard vs through-hard: which workflow, when

When to buy stock at 40-44 HRC and machine to net, when to soft-machine and through-harden to 48-52 HRC, and the application boundaries where each call is wrong.

6 min readLesson 4 of 13

Knowledge check

A shop buyer offers pre-hard H13 at 42 HRC for a hot-trim insert that will see 80K cycles in steel forging service. The lead time is two weeks shorter than the through-hard path. Take the workflow or push back?