Stainless Steel Machining

Lathed stainless steel part used in the Medical Industry.

For high precision, tight tolerance stainless steel machining, look no further than Portland Precision Manufacturing Company. With decades of experience, a skilled, highly-trained staff, and advanced CNC machining capabilities, we can produce stainless steel parts and components at tolerances within ±0.0005” or better.

No matter how simple or complex, we deliver precision machined parts that match your designs exactly. State-of-the-art machining equipment allows us to achieve perfect repeatability, from the first part to the last, in any quantity you require.

Working with Stainless Steel

Stainless steel is a popular material for a broad spectrum of applications, from architecture to automobiles to jewelry. It combines the strength and toughness of steel with natural corrosion resistance. An alloy of steel and chromium (which provides corrosion resistance), which may contain nickel, molybdenum, and other elements, stainless steel’s physical characteristics can be altered by changing the amount of each base element that goes into the material.

At Portland Precision Manufacturing, we work with all grades of stainless steel, including all 300 Series and 400 Series grades and specialty grades like 15-5 pH and 17-4 pH. For more information on the stainless steel alloys we work with, see the list below.

We also offer numerous secondary operations to add value to our stainless steel machining services. Heat treating, surface finishing, and other services are available to save you time and money. We do more of the work so you don’t have to!

Contact Portland Precision Manufacturing to get started on your precision stainless steel machining project.

Stainless Steel Materials

Type 303Se: contains selenium and phosphorous for improved machinability.
Type 304: the most common grade, with the base 18/8 composition (18% chromium, 8% nickel); also called A2 stainless steel.
Type 305: increased nickel content lowers work hardening properties.
Type 309 & 309S: higher chromium and nickel content provides greater corrosion and high temperature scaling resistance; 309S contains less carbon to minimize carbide precipitation.
Type 310 & 310S: greater nickel content further improves scaling resistance; 310S contains less carbon to minimize carbide precipitation.
Type 321: titanium content ties up the carbon and helps avoid chromium carbide precipitation when welding the material.
Type 330: ultra-high nickel content provides the highest possible corrosion resistance in most furnace atmospheres; this grade offers a low coefficient of expansion, excellent ductility, and higher strength.
Type 347 & 348: columbium-tantalum content ties up carbon and helps avoid chromium carbide precipitation in welding; used for working temperatures from 800° to 1,650°F.
Type 403: special high quality stainless steel; ideally suited for high-stress applications, such as steam turbines and jet engine compressors; magnetic.
Type 405: contains 12% chromium, as well as added aluminum, to prevent hardening.
Type 410: “general purpose” corrosion and heat resistant stainless steel; can be heat treated for additional hardness; magnetic.
416 & 416Se: specialized variations of Type 410; free-machining, non-seizing, and non-galling thanks to additional sulfur or selenium (Se) content; heat treatable.
Type 420: can be heat treated to a maximum of roughly 500 Brinell; offers maximum corrosion resistance when fully hardened; magnetic.
Type 430: offers good ductility, superior resistance to atmospheric corrosion, and higher scaling resistance than 302.
Type 430F & 430Se: provide better machinability thanks to their respective added sulfur and selenium content.
Type 431: 1.252% nickel content; can be heat treated to high mechanical properties; greater corrosion resistance than 410, 416, 420, 430, and 440 stainless steels; magnetic.
Type 440C: can be heat treated to the highest hardness of any martensitic stainless steel grade.
Type 442: added chromium improves scaling resistance.
Type 446: very high chromium content (27%) further improves scaling resistance.

This is by no means a definitive list of the stainless steel grades with which we work, just a primer on some of the more commonly-used varieties. We can machine any grade of stainless steel with equal precision and within the same tight tolerances.

Contact Portland Precision

If you have any questions regarding your grade of choice, please feel free to contact us.

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