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15
Machinability
15.1 Introduction
The term machinability refers to the ease with which a metal can be
machined to an acceptable surface nish. Materials with good machinabil-
ity require little power to remove material, achieve cutting at high speed,
easily obtain a good nish, and do not cause tool wear. The factors that
typically improve a material’s performance often degrade its machinabil-
ity. Therefore, to machine parts economically, engineers are challenged
to nd ways to improve machinability without harming performance.
Machinability can be difcult to predict because machining has so many
variables.
15.2 Conventional Machining
It is a ...