Machinability refers to the ease of machining a material without excessive tool wear or effort. Factors such as physical qualities and cutting machinery affect machinability, with high-performance materials often being difficult to machine. Machinability ratings can provide a general idea of difficulty, and techniques such as altering the material or cutting process can improve machinability.
Machinability is a quality that typically indicates the relative difficulty involved in machining a material. A material with good machinability is usually easy to cut or work with, does not cause excessive wear to the tools that are used on it, and accepts a finish without excessive effort. When a material has all of these qualities, it is often referred to as free machining. One disadvantage often inherent in free-machining materials is that they can suffer performance and wear. Advances in engineering can improve the design of tools to increase the machinability of materials that also offer high performance.
The process of determining the machinability of any given material can be quite complex. Many factors can be taken into consideration, such as the physical qualities of the material and the condition and properties of the cutting machinery. Factors such as tensile and yield strength, hardness and microstructure can all be important. Typically, materials with high tensile and yield strengths offer high performance but are also difficult to machine. Some metalworking tools may also offer benefits that can make a particular material easier to work with.
Since so many variables can affect the processability of a material, individual assessments are typically performed for each job. A variety of methodologies can be used to determine whether a material will be free machining, including those that estimate tool life, determine the amount of energy consumed, or relate to surface finish. Tool-based ratings usually depend on the type of cutting attachments you will need to use or how quickly they will wear out. Surface finishing methods typically involve determining how easily a material will accept a finish.
To give a general idea of how difficult certain materials can be to machine, machinability ratings may be available. A system might assign a value of 100% to a particular steel grade, effectively making it a standard by which others can be judged. In a system like this, materials with a rating of less than 100% would be difficult to machine, while those with substantially higher percentages could be considered free machining.
Several techniques can be used to improve machinability, usually by altering the material or the cutting process. Some types of steel can be considered free machining, while other low carbon steels can be soft and difficult to machine. Aluminum is another material that can be easier to machine depending on its composition, as some alloys are intentionally made more brittle for this purpose. Other materials, such as thermoplastics, may be easier to machine with equipment that includes coolant, while rubber is typically machined using liquid carbon dioxide or other low-temperature coolants.
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