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The sheet metal industry is rapidly growing, now involving various industries. For any sheet metal part, there is a certain processing process involved. The processing and operations of stainless steel sheet metal require clear regulations. Depending on the unfolding drawings and batch sizes, different blanking methods are chosen. The methods of stainless steel sheet metal processing include laser cutting, CNC punching, shearing, and mold forming, among others. However, there are several aspects to be mindful of during the operation process. Let me share these with you.

High cutting force, high cutting temperature

This type of material has high strength, resulting in significant tangential stress and plastic deformation during cutting, thereby increasing the cutting force. Moreover, the material has poor thermal conductivity, causing the cutting temperature of stainless steel to rise and often concentrating the high temperature in a narrow, elongated region near the tool edge, which accelerates tool wear.

2. Severe hardening processing

Stainless steel and some high-temperature alloy stainless steels are of austenitic structure, which exhibit a significant tendency to work harden during cutting, often several times greater than that of ordinary carbon steel. Cutting tools operating within the work-hardened area lead to a shortened tool life.

3. Easy to Stick to Knife

Both austenitic and martensitic stainless steels exhibit high strength and toughness of chips during processing, as well as high cutting temperatures. As the tough chips flow over the leading edge, phenomena such as adhesion and welding to the blade can occur, affecting the surface roughness of the sheet metal parts.

4. Tool Wear Acceleration

Materials typically contain high melting point elements, high plasticity, and high cutting temperatures, which accelerate tool wear, resulting in frequent tool sharpening and replacement, thereby affecting production efficiency and increasing tool usage costs.

During drilling operations, due to the poor thermal conductivity and low elastic modulus of stainless steel, hole processing can be quite challenging. To address the difficulties in processing holes in such materials, it is primarily necessary to select appropriate tool material, determine reasonable geometric parameters of the tool, and establish appropriate cutting conditions. When drilling these materials, drill bits made of materials like W6Mo5Cr4V2Al and W2Mo9Cr4Co8 are generally used, though these materials are expensive and difficult to source. Using the commonly available W18Cr4V standard high-speed steel drill bits for drilling, however, has several drawbacks, including smaller tip angles, excessive chip width that cannot be promptly排出 from the hole, and insufficient cooling of the drill bit due to inadequate cutting fluid. Added to this is the poor thermal conductivity of stainless steel, which leads to increased cutting temperatures concentrated on the cutting edge, easily causing wear and chipping on the two back faces and the main edge, thereby reducing the service life of the drill bit.