Full Circle

Hart's president, Jim Riley, points to the steel rule die industry, where lasers have been used for several years to add localized hardness to blade edges and bevels. The trade-off there, however, would be the cost to diemakers to purchase the lasers vs. what printers and converters are willing to pay for a "laser-hardened" tool. On the flip side, however, Riley says even though the laser process creates an extremely hard edge—to about a 70 Rockwell hardness—the remainder of the die remains at a constant desired hardness.