ABSTRACT
Over recent decades, engineering materials have been greatly developed. These materials such as hardened steels, stainless steels, super alloys, carbides, ceramics, and fiber-reinforced composite materials are frequently applied in modern industry. The cutting speed and the material removal rate when machining such materials using traditional methods such as turning, milling, grinding, and so on, tend to fall. It is no longer possible to find tool materials that are sufficiently hard to cut such materials. To meet these challenges, new processes with advanced methodology and tooling have to be developed. These are the non-traditional processes, which are capable of machining a wide spectrum of these difficult-to-cut materials irrespective of their hardness. This chapter deals with the machining of stainless steels and super alloys.
The machining and the machinability rating of different categories of stainless steels and super alloys using traditional machining operations are discussed. The correct cutting tools and coolants are selected in each case. The machinability of free- and non-free-machining stainless steels is highlighted. Finally, the machining of both alloys using non-traditional techniques is covered.
