Stainless Steel
416 420 440-C ESR 154-CM
418(Greek Ascoloy) 15-5PH
CPM-154 CPM S30V CPM S35VN CPM S45VN CPM S60V CPM MagnaCut CPM S90V CPM S110V
We sell six grades of wrought martensitic stainless steel and eight CPM stainless grades. All of our steel is melted and manufactured in the USA.
Wrought Stainless Steels are used for blades and components in knives, food and pulp industry, aerospace applications, valves and numerous other critical applications. 416 is a free machining stainless steel used primarily in applications that require excessive machining and corrosion resistance. 420 stainless is used in the hardened condition for shear blades and surgical equipment. 440-C ESR and 154-CM are used extensively for blade material. Our 440-C is Electroslag Remelted (ESR) to create a higher quality ingot. The ESR process removes impurities and inclusions though an additional melting step. 154-CM is a slight upgrade to 440-C with better wear and corrosion properties. 418, also known as Greek Ascoloy, is a heat resisting martensitic stainless steel used in high stress parts up to 1,200F. Our 418 is ESR melted and capable of AMS 5616. 15-5 is a precipitation hardening martensitic stainless steel with better toughness than 17-4PH. Our 15-5 is VAR melted and capable of AMS 5862M.
CPM (Crucible Powder Metallurgy) steels offer superior performance over wrought products. Alloy segregation is minimized, and the process produces a very fine microstructure. Cutting applications where edge toughness is required is improved greatly by the CPM process because of the elimination of large carbides. You can also use a much higher alloy content in CPM steels which improves the toughness and/or wear resistance the alloy. You can also use the CPM process to upgrade existing alloys as was done when CPM-154 was created. Our two newest CPM alloys are S45VN and MagnaCut. S45VN was designed by Frank Cox at Niagara Specialty Metals as a more corrosion and wear-resistant version of S30V and S35VN. Several production knife companies have added this grade to their blade offerings. CPM MagnaCut was designed by Larrin Thomas as a unique powder metallurgy stainless tool steel with a design that eliminates chromium carbide in the heat-treated microstructure. An excellent combination of toughness and wear resistance is achieved by having only small, high hardness vanadium and niobium carbides, giving CPM MagnaCut properties similar to non-stainless steel CPM 4V.
CPM, 4V, S30V, CPM-154, 154-CM, S90V and S110V are registered trademarks of Crucible Industries LLC.