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Wow! 10 times as fast as on regular steel... So I gather machining is a real challenge... But what about cutting, drop forging and welding, which is pretty much all what is required for making wheels?
Why are there no Stainless Steel Wheels?
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Woofythewolf
SILVER Star
Sorry to revive this, but I felt like the OP didn't get the in depth answer on why stainless steel isn't used on cars, but is used on motorcycles, and why it wears tooling so fast, so I did some research and thought I'd post it here.
Stainless steel work hardens.
That's why it wears on tooling so much faster, as you cut it, the tooth cutting into the metal hardens it from the compressive force it puts on the stock, making it harder to slice through. (the SS goes into plastic deformation at the tip of the cutting tool) That's also why feed rates and taking off enough material with each tooth of the tool is extremely important with stainless. (you want to go deep enough with each successive tooth that you aren't cutting any material that was hardened by the previous tooth)
As the wheel manufacturer guy said earlier, wheels flex a lot in use. (I'm trusting his knowledge on that, I don't have any information regarding that myself). I would love to see a high speed camera recording of a wheel on the freeway!
Each time the wheels flex, they get a little harder, until eventually they will shatter.
In exhaust systems, there is very little strain put on the exhaust components (everything is attached via flexible rubber mounts, and usually a flex couple by the engine). In addition, the tubing isn't really doing anything (like supporting a load other than itself), so it is ridiculously over-built for that task and shouldn't reach the yield strength of the SS.
For motorcycle wheels, I can find find stainless setups pretty easily, but they're all rim-and-spoke type wheels. No stamped or machined affairs, and obviously no conventional bucket rims for style reasons.
The reason this works with the motorcycles/bicycles is that work hardening happens by plastic deformation. With spokes they are only under tensile stress, and NEVER not under tensile stress. That means that as long as the forces never reach the yield strength of the material, it should not work harden. Having more or less stress on it, but with no physical dimension change, won't work harden it.
that's my $0.02 on the matter.
Stainless steel work hardens.
That's why it wears on tooling so much faster, as you cut it, the tooth cutting into the metal hardens it from the compressive force it puts on the stock, making it harder to slice through. (the SS goes into plastic deformation at the tip of the cutting tool) That's also why feed rates and taking off enough material with each tooth of the tool is extremely important with stainless. (you want to go deep enough with each successive tooth that you aren't cutting any material that was hardened by the previous tooth)
As the wheel manufacturer guy said earlier, wheels flex a lot in use. (I'm trusting his knowledge on that, I don't have any information regarding that myself). I would love to see a high speed camera recording of a wheel on the freeway!
Each time the wheels flex, they get a little harder, until eventually they will shatter.
In exhaust systems, there is very little strain put on the exhaust components (everything is attached via flexible rubber mounts, and usually a flex couple by the engine). In addition, the tubing isn't really doing anything (like supporting a load other than itself), so it is ridiculously over-built for that task and shouldn't reach the yield strength of the SS.
For motorcycle wheels, I can find find stainless setups pretty easily, but they're all rim-and-spoke type wheels. No stamped or machined affairs, and obviously no conventional bucket rims for style reasons.
The reason this works with the motorcycles/bicycles is that work hardening happens by plastic deformation. With spokes they are only under tensile stress, and NEVER not under tensile stress. That means that as long as the forces never reach the yield strength of the material, it should not work harden. Having more or less stress on it, but with no physical dimension change, won't work harden it.
that's my $0.02 on the matter.
