Grade and State of Stainless Steel Rulers
Grade and State of Stainless Steel Rulers
(OP)
I am a mechanical engineer and entrepreneur working on a new product. I've used stainless steel rulers (with the cork backing removed) that are 0.020" thick for my prototypes and need to figure out what grade and state the stainless used in these rulers are so that I can order material for production.
One website (https://secure.mycart.net/catalogs/store.asp?pid=177300) states that they use 301 stainless but I do not know what hardness they use. The materials are pretty springy so I assume it is fully hardened but it could be half hardened, I'm not sure. I'm hoping someone who deals with stainless sheet could give me their expert advice on what hardened state these rulers are typically made of. Thanks for the help
phil
One website (https://secure.mycart.net/catalogs/store.asp?pid=177300) states that they use 301 stainless but I do not know what hardness they use. The materials are pretty springy so I assume it is fully hardened but it could be half hardened, I'm not sure. I'm hoping someone who deals with stainless sheet could give me their expert advice on what hardened state these rulers are typically made of. Thanks for the help
phil





RE: Grade and State of Stainless Steel Rulers
Actually you will need to do a tensile test to find out.
ASTM A666 does not use hardness (thank God) but actual strength.
I doubt that it is full hard. 1/4 hard is strong stuff.
I am not sure that either of mine are a 300 series alloy, they could be 410.
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Plymouth Tube
RE: Grade and State of Stainless Steel Rulers
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"It's better to die standing than live your whole life on the knees" by Peter Mayle in his book A Good Year
RE: Grade and State of Stainless Steel Rulers
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Plymouth Tube
RE: Grade and State of Stainless Steel Rulers
RE: Grade and State of Stainless Steel Rulers
RE: Grade and State of Stainless Steel Rulers
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Plymouth Tube
RE: Grade and State of Stainless Steel Rulers
RE: Grade and State of Stainless Steel Rulers
My guess is they are made from very plain vanilla 301 or 304.
RE: Grade and State of Stainless Steel Rulers
RE: Grade and State of Stainless Steel Rulers
RE: Grade and State of Stainless Steel Rulers
RE: Grade and State of Stainless Steel Rulers
I did PMI one of mine and it is sort of 301. My guess is that it is off-chemistry material.
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Plymouth Tube
RE: Grade and State of Stainless Steel Rulers
RE: Grade and State of Stainless Steel Rulers
RE: Grade and State of Stainless Steel Rulers
but not stainless, heat treated med carbon steel.
It will tell you if the thickness and strength are right.
Commonly available for a couple of bucks each.
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Plymouth Tube
RE: Grade and State of Stainless Steel Rulers
RE: Grade and State of Stainless Steel Rulers
Michael McGuire
http://stainlesssteelforengineers.blogspot.com/
RE: Grade and State of Stainless Steel Rulers
Don't understand - you don't want rolled material, or you don't want full hard? If the former, they also stock sheets to 24x24" of full hard stock, and strips.
Not wanting full hard material doesn't make much sense - from MIL-HDBK-5H, AISI 301 full hard has 9% elongation minimum. This is equivalent to the elongtation for aluminum 5052 H32, in 1/8" section. You may need to control the bend radius, but it has plenty of formability. Springs are wound every day from "spring hard" type 301 and 302 wire, higher tensile than strip and lower elongation - again, the trick is controlling the bend radius.
RE: Grade and State of Stainless Steel Rulers
McGuire - I'm not sure how to go about calculating the yield strength based on bending around a radius. I'd love a brief explanation of the process though. Perhaps I got get a better estimation of the ruler's yield strength.
btrueblood - My final part has large flat areas so working with flat sheet is desirable. Also, I think that fully hardened will be too brittle and would be more prone to cracking. I don't have much equipment so controlling bend radius isn't always possible. Basically I have go the design and process down with rulers and I am trying to figure out their material so I don't need to redesign it.
RE: Grade and State of Stainless Steel Rulers
Michael McGuire
http://stainlesssteelforengineers.blogspot.com/
RE: Grade and State of Stainless Steel Rulers