Plastics ThroughStainless Steel.
What each material is, how it behaves under a tool, and the thing that catches people out. Written from the machine side, not the catalogue side.
- Alloys /
- 15 we run
- Families /
- 6
- Range /
- Engineered plastics → stainless
- Sourcing /
- To your spec or ours
Machine Tech Services machines materials ranging from engineered plastics through stainless steel, in components up to approximately 40 inches in diameter. Material choice drives more of a part’s cost than any other single decision after tolerance — 316 stainless cuts at roughly half the rate of carbon steel, and Inconel at a fraction of that again.
The everyday structural and general-purpose grades.
1018 Mild Steel
machinability ~78%1018 is a low-carbon mild steel that machines and welds easily, used for general-purpose parts where high strength is not required.
Read →12L14 Free-Machining Steel
machinability ~160%12L14 is a leaded, free-machining carbon steel that cuts faster and finishes better than any other common steel, at the cost of strength and weldability.
Read →A36 Structural Steel
machinability ~72%A36 is a low-carbon structural steel specified by its minimum yield strength rather than a fixed chemistry, used for plate, structural shapes and weldments.
Read →Higher strength through alloying and heat treatment.
4140 Alloy Steel
machinability ~65%4140 is a chromium-molybdenum alloy steel that combines good strength and toughness with the ability to be heat treated, making it one of the most widely used shaft and fixture materials in machining.
Read →4340 Alloy Steel
machinability ~55%4340 is a nickel-chromium-molybdenum alloy steel used where high strength and toughness are needed in heavy sections, particularly under shock loading.
Read →8620 Carburizing Steel
machinability ~78%8620 is a low-carbon alloy steel designed to be carburized, giving a hard, wear-resistant surface over a tough, relatively soft core.
Read →Corrosion resistance, at a cost in machinability.
304 Stainless Steel
machinability ~45%304 is the most widely used austenitic stainless steel, offering good corrosion resistance and excellent weldability at moderate cost.
Read →316 Stainless Steel
machinability ~40%316 is an austenitic stainless steel containing molybdenum, which gives it markedly better resistance to chlorides and salt water than 304.
Read →303 Stainless Steel
machinability ~78%303 is a free-machining austenitic stainless steel with added sulphur, which makes it far easier to cut than 304 at the cost of some corrosion resistance and weldability.
Read →17-4 PH Stainless Steel
machinability ~48%17-4 PH is a precipitation-hardening stainless steel that combines high strength with good corrosion resistance, and can be hardened by a single low-temperature ageing treatment after machining.
Read →Heat, pressure and corrosive service. Difficult on purpose.
Inconel 625
machinability ~18%Inconel 625 is a nickel-chromium-molybdenum alloy with outstanding resistance to corrosion, pitting and high temperature, used where stainless steel is not enough.
Read →Inconel 718
machinability ~15%Inconel 718 is an age-hardenable nickel alloy that retains very high strength at elevated temperature, widely used in turbine and downhole components.
Read →Light, fast to cut, and softer than people expect.
Where metal is the wrong answer.
UHMW Polyethylene
UHMW is an extremely tough, low-friction polyethylene used for wear strips, guides and bushings where metal would gall, corrode or damage what it touches.
Read →PEEK
PEEK is a high-performance engineering thermoplastic that keeps its strength at temperatures and in chemical environments where most plastics fail, and is used where an insulating or non-galling part must still perform.
Read →Not sure which material your part needs?
Tell us what it does and where it lives. We will tell you what we would run it in and why.