General Material Selection Guides for Manufacturing?

Try PMPA.

Around here if I have a question about metals I'd likely ask Milo.

Forgive me, but it is odd that you don't have education or experience that enables you to specify what ought to be bought.

I am caused to imagine a world where people who don't know what they are doing call people who don't know what they are doing, and end up here where half the people or more who know what they are about, can't get a paying job, because people like you have been hired and can show up here, asking questions.

It is not as if I myself have not had a job where I didn't know many a thing, so don't take this please as any sort of putdown or complaint.

You are in the right place to ask such questions.

Around here Milo is the man as far as being the one to answer them.

Hi Transcendia.

Thanks for the props.

The world that you are caused to imagine is the world that I am working hard to prevent from coming to pass-A world where people who don't know what they are doing, etc etc. etc..

I am trying to create a world where the goal is to protect the customer from the organization and himself, and a world that intelligently manages risk.

Actually there are a few more points to my philosophy, but you get the point.

Thanks for the shout out to PMPA www.pmpa.org

our listserves are closed (members only) but interested people can look at what we have on our site some of which is open access.

I am hopeful that the OP isn't an employee of the Big Service center (rhymes with hassle) located in Franklin Park. The opportunities for messing up a fragile and uneducated market are abundant!

milo

The hardest thing to sell to a designer is toughness. Usually in order to get toughness you have to sacrifice strength. All designers think is strength. Toughness is quality. It is the material property that defines how much abuse an item can take and still function. Lack of toughness is usually equated to brittleness. When an item fails in a ductile matter it is usually much safer than a castastrophic failure in a brittle manner. Ductile failures adsorb much more energy than a brittle failure. Also, you will notice a part start to fail in a ductile manner and can reduce the load on it.

Just one metallurgist opinion

the below link may help you

http://engineeronline.ws/stainless.htm

http://www.azom.com/Details.asp?ArticleID=1146

http://www.fanagalo.co.za/tech/tech_selection.htm

Meaning no disrespect, but if you are working in the state of ILLINOIS and making recommendations or suggestions about materials in commerce you and your employer could have some serious liabilities regarding practicing engineering unlicensed.

Be careful there. Please see the following link.

http://www.ilga.gov/commission/jcar/admincode/068/06801380sections.html

What is your Job title? Is "giving technical help in any way that you can" covered in your responsibilities and authorities? under your ISO 9000 Quality Management system scope?

Now to answer your question, I would turn to your suppliers' technical departments, your own company's engineering department, (presuming it has one).

Trade associations have listserve forums where members can ask questions and receive answers from various professional staff, retained and member experts on most questions.

Design Authority is not something for the untrained.

If you would like to add to your technical knowledge on steels, I would humbly suggest my blog http://pmpaspeakingofprecision.com

Here is a link to a post on role of Austenitic Grain Size: http://pmpaspeakingofprecision.com/2009/11/17/5-ways-coarse-austenitic-grain-size-affects-your-machine-shop/

There are other posts on role of Carbon, Manganese, Testing, Mechanical Properties etc. Either search in the blogs search box or just page back through, About 1/3 of my posts are of a technical nature to either steel, testing, or machining

The better part of intelligently managing risk and protecting the customer is to not enable them when they try to get others to do their engineering and risk analysis for them.

milo

Then they will be well served as long as the resources you provide do match their requirements.

Good luck. Keep Networking.

milo

Atta boy!

precisionsteel,

I agree with Milo. By your own admission, you are not an expert, nor are you, apparently, qualified to give advice on material selection or process.

"but I try to help in any way that I can. I've found a few guides online that are very informative.........................."

You are in a difficult position. Just remember that if you are signing off on these selections you are liable, if they fail.

Each Manufacturer normally lists propietary ingredients somewhere.

I've found that by asking a prospective material supplier , if they

have something close to the specialized material I'm shopping for , they will

describe it in detail. If not , they usually will link you with someone who can.