Title: Machining of austenitic stainless steels - a review

Authors: M. Kaladhar; K. Venkata Subbaiah; C.H. Srinivasa Rao

Addresses: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Praveenya Marine Engineering College, ModavalasaVizianagaram, Andhra Pradesh, 531162, India. ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, Andhra University, Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, India. ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, Andhra University, Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, 500003, India

Abstract: Although austenitic stainless steels have been used in the largest volumes of all the five families of stainless steel, and are characterised by high ductility, high durability and excellent corrosion resistance, they have certain disadvantages that act as constraints in certain applications. These steels are considered as the most difficult-to-cut materials as compared to the other alloy steels due to their high work hardening, low heat conductivity and high built up edge (BUE) formation. Some important concepts in the metallurgy of austenitic stainless steels are briefly introduced in the present paper, and some of the problems associated with the machining of austenitic stainless steels are also brought forward. Also a review is made of the various works of researchers in this context. Finally, this paper concludes with a discussion on future research areas.

Keywords: austenitic stainless steels; difficult-to-cut materials; steel machining; review; metallurgy.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMMM.2012.048564

International Journal of Machining and Machinability of Materials, 2012 Vol.12 No.1/2, pp.178 - 192

Received: 25 May 2011
Accepted: 03 Jan 2012
Published online: 23 Aug 2014 *

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