A Note on Production Steels and Alloys: Properties of New Tool Steels for Machining and a Group of Cutting Alloys with Remarkable Performances

IT is roughly twenty‐eight years since Taylor and White first startled the engineering world by the introduction of what are known everywhere now as high‐speed steels. The modern world has, however, recently suffered a revolution in machine‐shop conditions comparable to that which was introduced by the tungsten high‐speed steels. It is important that the aircraft engineer should familiarise himself with the latest developments in line tool steels, because the lowering of production costs by the quickening up of cutting speeds and the raising of cutting power is of ever‐increasing value. Not only can materials be cut more quickly now than ever before, and larger cuts be taken, but also metals which have never previously been capable of being machined commercially can now be turned in the lathe, planed, or drilled without difficulty.