This article focuses on the influence of various work material properties, namely, hardness; toughness; stiffness; ductility; thermal, electrical, and magnetic properties; and microstructure effects on finishing methods. It also addresses the relative response of work materials, such as metals, ceramics, and composites, to grinding.

Wrought powder metallurgy (P/M) high-speed tool steels exhibit better machinability, dimensional control and safety in heat treatment, grindability, and edge toughness during cutting. This article discusses the two stages of machining of P/M tool steels: rough machining, in annealed condition, and finish machining, in hardened-and-tempered condition. It tabulates the composition of commercial crucible particle metallurgy and anti-segregation process tool steels and their typical machining conditions.

This article describes the selection of tool steels on the basis of specific product applications. It contains tables that list nominal speeds and feeds for the machining of various tool steels. The machining processes include turning, boring, broaching, drilling, reaming, tapping, milling, and sawing. The article explains the machining of the following tool steels: water hardening; types A, D and O cold-work; hot work; high speed, low-alloy special-purpose; and low-carbon mold. It details the machining of tool steel gears. The article also discusses the grinding of tool steels based on steel classification and the effects of steel composition and hardness on grindability. It reviews the types of grinding, namely, surface grinding, cylindrical grinding, centerless grinding, internal grinding, thread grinding, flute grinding, and low-stress grinding. Grinding of types-A, D, F, L, O, P, S and W steels, hot-work steels, and high speed steels, is also detailed.

Tool steels are carbon, alloy, and high-speed steels that can be hardened and tempered to high hardness and strength values. This article discusses the classifications of commonly used tool steels: water-hardening tool steels, shock-resisting tool steels, cold-work tool steels, and hot-work tool steels. It describes four basic mechanisms of tool steel wear: abrasion, adhesion, corrosion, and contact fatigue wear. The article describes the factors to be considered in the selection of lubrication systems for tool steel applications. It also discusses the surface treatments for tool steels: carburizing, nitriding, ion or plasma nitriding, oxidation, boriding, plating, chemical vapor deposition, and physical vapor deposition. The article describes the properties of high-speed tool steels. It summarizes the important attributes required of dies and the properties of the various materials that make them suitable for particular applications. The article concludes by providing information on abrasive wear and grindability of powder metallurgy steels.

Powder metallurgy (PM) high-alloy tool steels (HATS) have unique properties that assist them in solving various problems related to machining of metal components. This article describes the cost-intensive PM processing routes of HATS, as well as their major properties, including elastic properties, density, mechanical properties, grindability, fatigue and wear resistance, and thermophysical properties.

The powder metallurgy (P/M) process has been used primarily for the production of advanced high-speed tool steels. However, the P/M process is also being applied to the manufacture of improved cold-work and hot-work tool steels. The basic heat treatments for P/M high-speed tool steels include preheating, austenitizing, quenching, and tempering. This article describes manufacturing properties, cutting tool properties, and applications of P/M high-speed tool steels. It discusses the development of P/M high-speed alloy steels that cannot be made by conventional methods because of their high carbon, nitrogen, or alloy contents. For high-speed tool steels, a number of important end-user properties have been improved by powder processing; machinability, grindability, dimensional control during heat treatment, and cutting performance under difficult conditions where high edge toughness is essential. Several of these advantages also apply to P/M cold- and hot-work tool steels, which, compared to conventional tool steels, offer better toughness and ductility for cold-work tooling, better thermal fatigue life, and greater toughness for hot-work tooling.

This article discusses the characteristics, composition limits, and classification of wrought tool steels, namely high-speed steels, hot-work steels, cold-work steels, shock-resisting steels, low-alloy special-purpose steels, mold steels, water-hardening steels, powder metallurgy tool steels, and precision-cast tool steels. It describes the effects of surface treatments on the basic properties of tool steels, including hardness, resistance to wear, deformation, and toughness. The article provides information on fabrication characteristics of tool steels, including machinability, grindability, weldability, and hardenability, and presents a short note on machining allowances.

Cutting fluids play a major role in increasing productivity and reducing costs by making possible the use of higher cutting speeds, higher feed rates, and greater depths of cut. After listing the functions of cutting fluids, this article then covers the major types, characteristics, advantages and limitations of cutting and grinding fluids, such as cutting oils, water-miscible fluids, gaseous fluids, pastes, and solid lubricants along with their subtypes. It discusses the factors considered during the selection of cutting fluid, focusing on machinability (or grindability) of the material, compatibility (metallurgical, chemical, and human), and acceptability (fluid properties, reliability, and stability). The article also describes various application methods of cutting fluids and precautions that should be observed by the operator.

This article describes procedures for producing powder metallurgy high-speed tool steel powder by inert-gas atomization, followed by compaction by hot isostatic pressing. These include the anti-segregation process (ASP) and the crucible particle metallurgy (CPM) process. The article reviews the properties of ASP and CPM and summarizes the procedures to heat treat ASP high-speed tool steels. It discusses the processing steps, advantages, and applications of the FULDENS process that uses water-atomized powders compacted by vacuum sintering. The article also provides information on the applications of tool steels.