Applications · Machining by Workpiece Material
Machining Applications: Cutting Data and Tooling by Workpiece Material
Most tooling questions start with the material rather than with the tool, because the material decides what actually fails: steel tears and craters, aluminum welds and moves, hardened steel destroys an edge that is no longer hard enough, and stainless work-hardens faster than it wears. The four material families sit side by side below — what each one does to a cutting edge, which ISO application group it belongs to, and where the published cutting data for it sits. Choose the material and the page behind it gives the failure modes, the tool families and the published speeds for that material alone, all drawn from one source so the figures cannot disagree between pages.
Material Families
The four families, and what decides the tool in each
Each card below opens the page for that material. The pages share one structure on purpose: the same three failure modes, the same tool matrix by operation, the same table layout and the same source line. A buyer who has read one of them can read the next one in a minute, which is the point of keeping them consistent rather than giving each a look of its own.
The cutting speed ranges on the cards are the published windows for turning, shown here only to separate the families. The full tables, including milling and drilling, and the failure modes behind them, are on the pages themselves.
Carbon and Alloy Steel
Free-cutting, carbon and alloy steel in the normalised or annealed condition — the family most work is quoted in. Carbon content moves the failure from a torn finish on free-cutting steel to crater and notch wear as carbon rises. Turning speeds run from 50 to 395 m/min.
Open the material pageAluminum and Non-Ferrous Alloys
Wrought and cast aluminum, split by silicon content: soft and gummy below roughly 12% silicon, abrasive above it, with the cutting material changing between the two. Turning speeds run from 30 to 490 m/min, and milling runs far higher.
Open the material pageHardened Steel Above 45 HRC
Through-hardened, case-hardened and quenched and tempered steel. Here the cutting material rather than the coating decides whether the edge survives, and the operation usually competes with grinding. Turning speeds run from 10 to 130 m/min.
Open the material pageStainless and Heat-Resistant Alloys
Austenitic, duplex and martensitic stainless. Work hardening and heat concentration set the rules rather than wear resistance, and the feed matters more than the speed. Turning speeds run from 25 to 215 m/min.
Open the material pageWhich page applies to your material
If the drawing carries a material designation, the ISO application group does the choosing: P for steel, N for aluminum and other non-ferrous alloys, M for stainless, H for hardened steel. The group letters come from ISO 513:2012, which fixes what each one covers, and they are printed on insert grades for the same reason.
If the drawing carries a hardness callout rather than a material specification, the callout decides. Steel above roughly 45 HRC is cut as hardened steel and belongs on the ISO H page, even where the same part number also appears as ordinary steel below that hardness. Steel in the normalised or annealed condition belongs on the ISO P page.
Two groups sit outside the four material families above. Cast iron sits in ISO K and is quoted on request, and titanium and nickel-based alloys sit in ISO S, where the tooling and the cutting data are a separate conversation again. Tell us the material and the operation and we will answer for it either way.
Data and Service
Where the figures come from
Every figure on the four material families carries its origin, and the three kinds of source are kept apart: published standards named by number and year, industry figures named by the document they were read from row by row, and customer feedback written up as what it is.
Published standards
The ISO P / M / K / N / S / H application groups used to describe the tooling come from ISO 513:2012, which fixes what each letter covers. Where a figure comes from a standard, it is named with the standard and the year it was issued, per row.
Tool makers and industry data
The cutting-speed ranges on the material pages are the values printed by the tool makers our data is taken from. They are used as published, at the extremes of the published window, and every row carries its document and page or column reference in our source file so any figure can be checked before it is used on a job.
Trial feedback
Where a customer tells us what a grade actually did on their machine, it is recorded as an attributed note rather than reworked into an illustrative story. We do not publish references we cannot point to.
What comes with a quotation
Two things we do go beyond the tables these pages carry. Both are actions rather than figures, and both are visible in a quotation before anything is ordered.
A starting cutting speed with the quotation
Send the material designation or its hardness, the operation, and the machine it runs on. The quotation comes back with a starting surface speed and a feed range for the insert family we propose. Treat it as the first setting rather than a guarantee of the result: the figure is decided by your setup, the holder and the part, and it is meant to be adjusted from the chip and the finish.
Trial quantities to prove it on the machine
The honest answer to "will this grade run on my material" is a trial order, not a data sheet. Small quantities and mixed orders are welcome, and charges and freight are confirmed against the actual enquiry rather than published as a fixed number.
How we handle a tooling enquiry from first question to delivery
Questions Buyers Ask
Applications questions we are asked before quoting
The ISO application group decides it. Steel in the normalised or annealed condition is ISO P and belongs on the steel page. Aluminum and other non-ferrous alloys are ISO N and belong on the aluminum page. Steel above roughly 45 HRC is ISO H, the hardened steel page, including case-hardened and quenched and tempered parts. Stainless is ISO M. If the drawing gives you a hardness rather than a designation, the hardness is the deciding fact.
They are the main application groups defined by ISO 513:2012, which classifies hard cutting materials by the workpiece they suit rather than by what they are made of. P is steel, M is stainless, K is cast iron, N is aluminum and other non-ferrous alloys, S is titanium and heat-resistant alloys, and H is hardened steel. The letters are printed on insert grades because a grade developed for one group generally behaves badly in another.
From the published application data of the tool makers our data is taken from, with the document page or column recorded for every row and printed in the last column of each table. Values published only in surface feet per minute are converted at 1 m/min = 3.28084 SFM and marked as converted. Group letters are quoted to ISO 513:2012. Nothing is interpolated between published values, and where a source publishes a single starting figure rather than a range, both ends of the row show that figure.
Yes, and it is common. A shop running steel and stainless on the same machines usually needs two insert families rather than one, because the ISO groups ask for different things: P grades are built around wear resistance and M grades around edge strength. Mixed orders and trial quantities are normal, and charges and freight are confirmed against the actual enquiry rather than published as a fixed figure.
Those are the ISO S group, which is not covered by the four pages here, because the tooling and the cutting data need their own treatment: titanium and the heat-resistant alloys have their own failure modes around heat concentration and chatter. Send the designation, the operation and the machine and we will quote for it directly rather than pointing you at a page that does not apply.
The material designation or its hardness, the operation, and the machine it runs on. Add the part geometry where the operation is affected by it — a slender shaft, a thin wall, a deep pocket — and the tolerance where it is tight. That is enough for the tool family, the grade and a starting surface speed and feed. Drawings are welcome but rarely needed for a first answer.
Send the material and the operation — get the tool family and a starting speed
Tell us the material designation or its hardness, what the part is and which machine it runs on. You get the tool family and grade we would quote, the holder that suits it, and a starting surface speed for the combination, rather than a catalogue to search through.