Increased passenger safety and the reduction of the fuel consumption of vehicles are conflicting targets. However, the combination of lightweight construction with high strength steels or aluminium sheets is a promising approach to reach this goal. Very hard forming die surfaces are necessary for forming high strength steels. A new technology for generating very hard surfaces with high abrasion resistance is laser particle injection, also known as laser dispersing. During laser particle injection, ceramic particles are brought into the forming die surface. Laser particle injected layers are highly resistant against abrasive and adhesive wear. If damage should occur, the hard particles move with the ductile matrix but do not separate from it. At the Laser Zentrum Hannover e.V. (LZH), zirconium dioxide (ZrO2) is currently under close investigation. ZrO2 has the great advantage that the coefficient of thermal expansion is similar to steel. The paper presents an overview about possibilities and limits of laser particle injection for wear resistance, using ZrO2.