NORTH AMERICA

High-nickel alloys aren’t everyday materials for all fabricators, but shops that serve the aerospace, energy, chemical processing, and other technically demanding markets encounter them more frequently. And as other industries demand higher-performance materials, shops that historically cut mostly steels and aluminum now see high-nickel and other difficult-to-cut alloys more often than in the past.

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For these reasons, it is important to note that high-nickel alloys behave very differently from soft materials such as mild steel or aluminum, and those differences are exactly what make them difficult to saw.

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Why Are They Difficult to Saw?

With soft materials, chips form easily, curl away from the tooth, and break predictably. The material shears cleanly, so each tooth cuts and exits with relatively little resistance.

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High-nickel alloys resist shearing. Instead of flowing smoothly, the material tends to deform ahead of the cutting edge. This produces thick, tough chips that are harder to break and more likely to stay in contact with the tooth. Because the chip does not separate cleanly, cutting forces remain high throughout the tooth engagement.