What Is Free-Machining Steel?
Free-Cutting Steel is a nickname for carbon steel with additional alloying elements for the sole purpose of improving their machinability and chip control. They are also nicknamed Free-Cut or Free-Cutting materials.
Free-Machining Steels Are Divided Into 3 Sub-Groups
l 11xx series: the amount of Sulfur (S) is increased from 0.05% in plain carbon steels to 0.1%. It adds about 20% to the machinability when compared with the equivalent materials in the 10xx series. On the other hand, the tensile strength decreases by about 10%, and the material is more brittle.
l 12xx series: Sulfur (S) content is further increased to 0.25%, and Phosphorus (P) content is increased from 0.04% in the 10xx series to 0.5%. As a result, the machinability increases by another 40% at the price of further decline in mechanical properties.
l SAE 12L14 is a free cutting steel where the Phosphorus is replaced by 0.25% of Lead (Pb), which boosts the machinability by another 35%. This improvement happens because the Lead melts locally at the point of cut, thus reducing friction and providing natural lubrication. However, many material manufacturers and machine shops try to avoid lead supplements due to environmental damage and health risks.
How to choose free cutting steel
Jindalai Steel is a fully stocked and leading metal manufacturer, supplier, exporters, distributors of steel mill-product forms such as pipe, tubing, bar and rod. The steel products provide by us shall be fabricated from prime quality raw materials and is fully certifiable to industrial specifications like ASTM and ASME or other relevant standards. Jindalai Steel supply and stock a large inventory of ASTM 12L14, AISI 12L14, SAE 12L14 (SUM24L / 95MnPb28 /Y15Pb) round bar mechanical parts like instruments and meters, watch parts, automobile, machine tool and other kinds of machines on the use of standard parts, such as bolts, cutting tool, bushing, pin, and the machine screw, plastic molding, surgical and dental equipment, etc. For more information, please contact us.
