Alloy Steel CNC Machining
Steel is a versatile and cost-effective material with excellent weldability and machinability, making it an ideal choice for balancing cost and function. Our precision CNC steel machining services are tailored to meet the needs of industries with extremely high requirements for quality and precision, providing you with high-precision custom alloy steel parts in large quantities.
What is Alloy Steel?
Alloys are not naturally occurring elements; they are materials whose physical properties are artificially altered. Alloys are typically compounds composed of multiple elements, with the element content ranging from 1% to 50%. Alloy steel is mainly composed of elements such as manganese, molybdenum, nickel, chromium, silicon, vanadium, and boron, in varying proportions. In addition, it contains trace amounts of aluminum, copper, tungsten, tin, zinc, lead, cerium, titanium, and zirconium. Alloy steel is an alloy material with iron as the main element, containing 0.0218-2.11% carbon, and other elements. All these elements give this alloy excellent mechanical strength and toughness.
Common Steel Types in the CNC Machining Industry
The steels commonly used in the CNC machining industry are generally divided into two types: low-alloy steel and high-alloy steel. Low-alloy steel contains small amounts of alloying elements (usually less than 5%), such as nickel, chromium, molybdenum, and manganese. High-alloy steel, on the other hand, contains more alloying elements, usually more than 5%. Examples of high-alloy steel include high-chromium stainless steel, and tool steel with added tungsten and vanadium to improve hardness and wear resistance. Alloy steel is mainly made by adding different metallic elements to carbon steel to give it specific properties or enhance its corrosion resistance, hardness, etc. When selecting the appropriate alloy steel type for CNC machining, it is also necessary to consider whether additional finishing and post-processing are required.
Precision CNC Machining Services for Complex Alloy Steel Parts
Elimold is a renowned company providing advanced CNC machining services for steel alloys. Leveraging CNC technology and cutting-edge equipment, we are capable of performing complex machining operations on a wide range of steel alloy materials. Our advanced machining capabilities encompass 4-axis and 5-axis milling, Swiss-type lathe machining, and even micro-machining. This allows us to manufacture parts with the highest precision and smallest tolerances. We can achieve tolerances as small as 0.0005 inches. CNC steel parts can be produced in various shapes and sizes. We can also customize CNC steel parts with various surface treatments to meet the needs of different industries.
Alloy Steel Types and Grades
At Elimold, we utilize various grades of alloy steel for CNC machining to ensure a perfect fit for your project needs.
Alloy Steel 1.7131
1.7131 alloy steel, also known as 16MnCr5, is a surface-hardened steel with excellent wear resistance and strength. Due to its high surface hardness and toughness, it is commonly used in the manufacture of gears, shafts, and other transmission components. The addition of manganese and chromium improves its hardenability and wear resistance. This steel is easy to machine in the annealed state and responds well to heat treatment.
4140 Alloy Steel
4140 alloy steel, also known as chromium-molybdenum steel, is renowned for its high tensile strength, toughness, and fatigue resistance. It is widely used in the manufacture of automotive parts, axles, and equipment in the oil and gas industry. This steel can be heat-treated to obtain a variety of mechanical properties and has good machinability in the annealed state. Its versatility makes it ideal for applications requiring both strength and impact resistance.
Alloy Steel 1.7225
1.7225 alloy steel, also known as 42CrMo4, is a chromium-molybdenum steel with excellent strength and toughness. It is commonly used in the automotive and aerospace industries for manufacturing high-strength components such as crankshafts, gears, and connecting rods. This alloy steel has good hardenability and is suitable for various heat treatment processes. Its high fatigue strength makes it ideal for applications requiring extremely high wear resistance and impact resistance.
4340 Alloy Steel
4340 alloy steel is a nickel-chromium-molybdenum steel with excellent strength and toughness. It is commonly used in the aerospace and automotive fields, including aircraft landing gear, axles, and high-performance engine components. This steel has excellent hardenability and good heat treatment properties, enabling it to meet various strength and toughness requirements. Its good machinability and fatigue resistance make it ideal for demanding applications.
1215 Alloy Steel
1215 alloy steel is a low-carbon, sulfurized free-machining steel with excellent machinability and surface finish. It is commonly used for machining parts, bushings, pipe fittings, and other applications requiring high surface finish and dimensional accuracy on high-speed automatic lathes. However, due to its lower carbon content, its strength and hardenability are inferior compared to other alloy steels. Therefore, it is best suited for applications where high strength or wear resistance is not required.
1018 Alloy Steel
1018 alloy steel is a low-carbon steel with good ductility, weldability, and machinability. It is commonly used for general purposes such as structural components, shafts, and gears. While its strength and hardenability are not as high as other alloy steels, its wear resistance can be improved through surface hardening. Its excellent formability makes it ideal for applications requiring ease of machining and manufacturing.
4130 Alloy Steel
4130 alloy steel is a chromium-molybdenum steel known for its high strength, high toughness, and excellent resistance to atmospheric corrosion. It is widely used in the aerospace and automotive industries for manufacturing structural components such as aircraft frames and automotive roll cages. This steel has good weldability and heat-treatable properties, allowing it to meet a variety of strength requirements. Its combination of strength and ductility makes it ideal for demanding applications.
4140 PH Alloy Steel
4140 PH alloy steel (pre-hardened) is a special version of 4140 alloy steel that has been heat-treated to achieve specific hardness and strength. This pre-hardened steel possesses excellent strength, toughness, and fatigue resistance, meeting high mechanical property requirements without additional heat treatment. Common applications include gears, shafts, and heavy machinery components. Compared to annealed 4140 steel, its machinability is slightly lower, but it still provides a good balance of strength and machinability for a variety of applications.
A36 Alloy Steel
A36 alloy steel is a low-carbon structural steel known for its excellent weldability, formability, and machinability. It is widely used in the construction industry, including structural components such as beams, columns, and support plates. While A36’s strength and hardenability are not as high as other alloy steels, it has good ductility and impact resistance. Its versatility and ease of machining make it ideal for a wide range of applications in the construction industry.
A2 Tool Steel
A2 tool steel is an air-hardening medium-alloy cold work die steel with excellent dimensional stability and wear resistance. It is commonly used to manufacture cutting tools, dies, and punches, especially suitable for applications requiring high wear resistance and moderate toughness. A2 tool steel has good machinability and can be heat-treated to obtain different hardness grades and desired mechanical properties. Its excellent wear resistance and dimensional stability make it ideal for precision cutting tool applications.
O1 Tool Steel
O1 tool steel is an oil-quenchable high-carbon cold work die steel, renowned for its excellent wear resistance, dimensional stability, and toughness. It is commonly used in the manufacture of cutting tools, dies, and punches, and is particularly suitable for applications requiring extremely high precision and tool life. O1 tool steel has good machinability and is easily heat-treated, allowing for a variety of hardness grades and mechanical properties. Its excellent wear resistance, stability, and toughness make it ideal for high-quality cutting tool applications.
Materials Expertise
Elimold boasts a team of dedicated materials scientists. They are experts in machining various alloy steels, including 4140 and 1215, and understand that each alloy steel possesses unique mechanical properties, such as fatigue resistance, impact strength, or high machinability, which influence our machining methods. Whether you need a wear-resistant shaft or a precision housing, we tailor our machining processes to the material’s characteristics to maximize its performance. We are renowned for undertaking projects that other machining plants are unwilling to take on, and for providing consistently superior quality when machining a wide range of steels.
Engineering and Design Team
Elimold boasts a professional team of engineers and designers dedicated to optimizing the manufacturing process for CNC steel parts, covering the entire process from design, material selection, prototyping to mass production. Our in-house factory is equipped with advanced CNC machine tools, ensuring strict tolerance control and extremely high precision. Our experienced team can answer any questions you may have about machining. Simply tell us your requirements, and we will quickly provide a quote. Years of experience have fostered our innovation and customization capabilities, and we are pleased to offer highly customized services to meet the specific needs of your project.
We provide custom CNC steel parts for American and European companies
At Elimold, we are committed to providing the highest quality steel components to American and European businesses. This is reflected in our manufacturing and management processes. We hold multiple certifications, including ISO 9001/2015 and AS9100D. Elimold uses servers that meet stringent confidentiality standards to store data, providing extra protection for your drawings and designs. This is crucial given the increasing frequency of data breaches. Choose Elimold and become your trusted steel machining partner!
Alloy Steel CNC Parts Surface Finishes
As Machined
Beadblasting
Mechanical Polishing
Brushing
Heat Treatment
Media Tumbled
Passivation
Black Oxide
Electroless Nickel
Electropolishing
Electroplating
Powder Coating
Painting Spray
Teflon Coating
Laser Engrave
Steel CNC Prototype Part Manufacturing Services
Elimold can assist you with all the important and complex aspects of custom CNC steel part prototyping and production, from initial design to small-batch production, post-processing, logistics, and more. We are committed to accelerating your prototyping and production process and reducing costs. Whether it’s a single prototype or a large-scale production of thousands of parts, we can help you.
Start customizing your CNC alloy steel parts projects now!
Our Equipment
With over 10 years of CNC machining experience, we continuously enhance our skills and expand our equipment capabilities. Elimold’s in-house factory boasts 50 CNC machining centers and 20 CNC lathes to meet diverse manufacturing needs. To further enhance precision and versatility, we have invested in 10 four-axis and 10 five-axis machining centers. In addition, we possess 10 Citizen Swiss-type lathes, further solidifying our commitment to high-precision manufacturing. This comprehensive infrastructure ensures we can deliver exceptional quality and efficiency across a wide range of machining projects.
New Custom Steel Machining Processes
Elimold boasts over 10 years of experience in steel parts machining, offering products including screws, shafts, brackets, mounting bases, and even custom steel components. Our experienced and highly trained technicians have continuously innovated over the years, utilizing high-speed CNC machining and developing entirely new processing techniques to provide you with the highest quality steel parts. With cutting-edge solutions, state-of-the-art machine tools, and professional Swiss screw machining services, Elimold is your top choice for steel parts machining!
Mass Production of Steel Alloy CNC Parts
We have decades of experience and expertise in CNC machining of alloy steel. Our team combines advanced equipment, deep material knowledge, and practical experience to quickly and efficiently bring your designs to life, fully meeting your specifications. We support both small-batch and large-batch production projects with no minimum order quantity. Our workflow minimizes changeover time and maximizes repeatability, making us ideal for manufacturing complex designs using specialty materials.
Large Alloy Steel Machining Capability
Machined alloy steel parts are crucial in numerous commercial and industrial applications. In addition to manufacturing standard custom steel parts, our team provides high-precision production of heavy machinery components, engine parts, oil and gas industry parts, and many other large or complex components. Furthermore, our team has extensive experience in the design, prototyping, and production of large and complex parts, as well as component assembly. Leveraging the CNC expertise of our top in-house machinists, we achieve greater flexibility in carbide steel machining applications, while advanced CNC machine tools help maintain low costs.
We Manufacture Steel CNC Parts
Personalized Customer Service
At the outset of each project, our pre-sales engineering team conducts a thorough consultation. We evaluate your CAD files or physical samples, discuss your expected application scenarios, and recommend suitable steel grades and processing techniques. Our team comprehensively considers mechanical loads, tolerances, and environmental conditions to produce alloy steel machined parts that meet performance requirements at a low cost. Our collaborative approach streamlines the development process and avoids costly modifications.
Various CNC Steel Parts
As a trusted manufacturer, Elimold produces a full range of CNC steel parts. All these parts are available in a variety of shapes, sizes, designs, and functions. Here is an example list of alloy steel components that can be machined:
- Construction components: such as beams, columns, and fasteners
- Transportation components: such as truck and train parts, and marine components
- Energy components: such as oil and gas pipelines and drilling rig components
- Mining equipment components: such as crusher parts and conveyor components
- Agricultural equipment components: such as plow parts and harvester components
- Industrial machinery components: such as gears, shafts, and bearing components
- Power generation components: such as armored vehicle parts and military energy product components
How to Work with Elimold and Request a Quote
Working with Elimold is very simple. You only need to provide technical drawings or part samples, and our team will evaluate them, determine suitable materials, and provide clear processing parameters, pricing, and delivery schedules. You will receive a detailed quotation including material options, tolerances, and delivery times. From design to final delivery, we will maintain communication with you throughout the process, providing timely updates on project progress.
FAQ
In fact, steel, especially alloy steel, is not easy to CNC machine. These materials can damage machines during production. However, with over 10 years of experience in CNC machining of steel, we have extensive experience in this field.
Free-cutting steels, such as 12L14 and 1215, are commonly used materials in CNC machining.
There are 7 types of steel best suited for machining. The type of part you need will determine which steel you choose:
- 1018 steel is a low-carbon steel with good machinability and weldability, suitable for applications where strength is not a primary concern.
- 4140 alloy steel is generally stronger and harder than carbon steel. It has high impact resistance, fatigue strength, and torsional strength.
- 1045 carbon steel is stronger than low-carbon steel but easier to machine.
- 4130 alloy steel has better weldability and a slightly lower carbon content.
- Galvanized low-carbon steel offers better corrosion resistance.
- A514 alloy steel is a high-strength low-alloy steel with a yield strength of 100K PSI. It is primarily used as structural steel in construction.
- 4340 alloy steel is a medium-carbon alloy steel, highly useful in applications where components are subjected to extreme impacts, high temperatures, and wear.
Steel excels in strength and durability, but its weight is its biggest drawback compared to other materials. There are over 3,500 types of steel, and different grades exhibit different characteristics during machining. Some steels are specifically designed for easier machining. Some steels have a higher tendency to work harden, requiring a rapid machining process to avoid unnecessary heat buildup. Maintaining a sharp cutting tool is also crucial when machining steel using CNC machine tools.
Absolutely! We support small-batch production and prototyping to help customers test their designs before full-scale production.
Yes, alloy steel can be welded, but the specific welding process and precautions depend on the alloy's composition and intended use.
Alloy steel is generally stronger than aluminum; it has higher tensile and yield strengths.
We respect your intellectual property rights. We will not share any of your information, images, documents, or portraits with any third party, nor will we use them for any advertising, marketing, or promotional purposes without your explicit written authorization. If you require a confidentiality agreement, please contact our team for assistance.
We follow ISO/IATF standards and guarantee rework or a refund for any quality issues. Complete dimensional reports, material certifications, or first-article inspection reports are available upon request before placing an order.
If you provide complete 2D and 3D CAD models, high-quality parts in quantities less than 1000 can be produced within one week. More complex parts, such as those requiring additional special functions, will take longer. Regarding shipping, most of our goods are shipped by air, typically taking 5-7 days from China to Europe or North America.
We accept 3D CAD files in STL, STP, STEP, OBJ, IGS, or IGES formats, as well as 2D drawings (jpg, png, gif, bmp, pdf) with dimensional details and specific manufacturing requirements.
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