“…Rock drill steel requires appropriate strength and hardness, high surface wear resistance, and good toughness . From the point of view of production technology, these properties can be achieved through an optimized heat treatment . 23CrNi3Mo, a Cr–Ni–Mo steel, is widely used as rock drill steel at present, which can be heat‐treated to obtain a good combination of strength and toughness by austenizing, quenching, and tempering, because it contains the alloying elements such as Cr, Ni, and Mo, which promote high hardenability .…”