The ability of a material to deform plastically without fracturing, is called ductility. In the materials usually machined in our shops, ductility is measured by determining the percent of elongation and the percent reduction of area on a specimen during a tensile test. Our earlier post about Ductility showed how ductility can impact our shops. In…
Cold work is an important factor in the production and successful fabrication of our precision machined products. Cold work is defined, explained, and coldworking processes identified.
Three primary criteria for selecting bar steels are 1) suitability for end use, 2) suitability for manufacturing process, 3) economical delivery of the requirements. Buyers may want to get the cheapest price per pound of steel purchased; Savvy buyers want to buy the steel that results in the lowest cost per finished part- assuring that costs are minimized for the total cost of production of their product.
Free Machining Steels in the 12XX series- 12L14, 1215, etc., are selected in order to reduce the time needed to make large volumes of complex parts. This reduces the cost per part. The factors that make these steels highly machinable also influence behavior of the products in service.
Nitrogen can be a hidden factor that affects your shops ability to ge tsurface finish, production, mechanical properties, and parts that may or may not crack during cold work.