Sanmac® is Alleima's range of enhanced-machinability stainless steels, supplied as both solid bar and hollow bar. Langley Alloys is Alleima's preferred distribution partner for these grades. They are made to a tight, consistent composition, and their real advantage on the machine is clean, reliable chip breaking.
Why chip breaking is hard
Stainless steels are difficult to machine for three reasons:
- Toughness and ductility. The properties that make stainless steels durable also make them cut into long, continuous chips that are hard to clear.
- Low thermal conductivity. At roughly a third that of carbon steel, heat is not carried away by the chip but driven into the cutting insert, encouraging built-up edge.
- High proof strength. With duplex grades around twice the proof strength of standard austenitics, the chips are hard, they hammer against the tool, and cutting forces are high.
How Sanmac helps
Sanmac grades contain carefully engineered non-metallic inclusions. In the cutting zone, this microstructure yields at a lower load, so chips break cleanly instead of running long. The result is predictable machining at the lowest cutting energy, with less built-up edge and better tool life.
What we stock
We hold Sanmac stainless in the forms most useful to machine shops:
- Sanmac 2205 solid bar.
- Sanmac 316L and Sanmac 2205 hollow bar.