Milling and Drilling Evaluation of Stainless Steel Powder Metallurgy Alloys

Near-net-shape components can be made with powder metallurgy (PM) processes. Only secondary operations such as milling and drilling are required to complete these components. In the past and currently production components are made from powder metallurgy (PM) stainless steel alloys. process engineers are unfamiliar with the difference in machining properties of wrought versus PM alloys and have had to make parts to develop the machining parameters. Design engineers are not generally aware that some PM alloy variations can be furnished with machining additives that greatly increase tool life. Specimens from a MANTEC PM alloy property study were made available. This study was undertaken to determine the machining properties of a number of stainless steel wrought and PM alloys under the same conditions so that comparisons of their machining properties could be made and relative tool life determined.