Cutting

Stainless steel has various types and grades. Each one comes with its own mechanical and physical properties, thus giving it various methods and procedures for cutting. It is vital to follow set out procedures for cutting stainless steels as this will avoid very common problems that could complicate the process.

There are various cutting procedures such as sawing, which is done at high speed with high quality blades. Hand hack-sawing is generally used for cutting random objects such as a pipe, tube, small diameter bar or light gauge material.

Cold Forming

Cold forming is a process whereby steel sheets are pressed or rolled into products. The common processes consists of, roll forming, coining, bending, piercing, blanking, spinning, pressing and deep drawing. The general equipment that's used is press brakes, guillotines and presses which is used for carbon steels but can also be used for stainless steels.

The processing of stainless steel requires a lot more power which puts a great demand on the forming tool. As a result of the above mentioned power, lubrication during these processes is of vital importance. Dependent on the type of forming operation used, there are many forms of lubrication’s available such as pastes, oils and waxes.

Machining

Due to the higher alloy content of stainless steel, the machining of stainless steel is more difficult than that of carbon steels. The machining process consists of turning, drilling, threading and milling. Each type of steel has its own type machinability, as the duplex and austenitic steels have different machining characteristics than that of ferritic, carbon steel and martensitic steels.

Because of the strength and ductility of austenitic and duplex steels it makes chipping more difficult. This increases the risk of vibrations which can lead to damages to the surface and its shelf life.