Investigation of high strength steel bending

Maraging steel is used for various high strength applications. Usually, the machining operation involves many steps to produce the finished components. It was observed during the machining of certain maraging steel components that they bend in the final stages. This causes substantial loss in terms of material, labor and cutting tools. A detailed study was conducted to investigate the problem and segregate the faulty components in the initial stage. It was concluded that the chemical inhomogeneity at micro-scale gave rise to undesirable multiphase structure, which is responsible for bending during the machining stage. Eddy current testing proved the most suitable method for this purpose. It is inexpensive and is very easy to use.