Plain Carbon Steel and Stainless Steel.

Metal Properties, Characteristics, Uses, And Codes
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(6) Manganese Steel. Manganese steel yields a brilliant stream of

very high temperature. The brilliance is due to the fine chip size

and easy oxidation.

(7) Stainless Steel.

Stainless steel could be confused with

machine steel; however, stainless steel sparks are of less brilliant

color near the wheel and the stream itself is thinner.

(8) Plain Carbon Steel and Stainless Steel. These are two types

of metal whose sparks vary widely, depending upon composition.

Spurts from structural and machine steels cover a large part of the

range between wrought iron and carbon tool steel, being influenced by

their carbon content. Different brands of stainless steels and irons

yield spark streams with a wide divergence of volume and color. The

spark stream shown is from steel that is from a 12 to 14 percent

chromium, low-carbon type.

(9) Tungsten-chromium Die Steel.

Like cast iron, the sparks

emitted by tungsten-chromium die steel are red near the wheel,

turning to a straw color at the end of the stream.

But tungsten-

chromium die steel is noticeably different than the cast irons, as

indicated by blue-white glows at the spurts.

(10) Nitrided Nitralloy.

This metal exhibits one peculiar

characteristic; the sparks near the wheel form whorls and some

actually turn from the main line of travel by as much as 90.

The

same tendency, to a lesser extent, is exhibited by manganese steel.

(11) Stellite and Cemented Carbide. Stellite and cemented carbide,

in contrast to their brilliant performance as tools, provide very

little spark action.

As seen in figure 5 on page 32, the spark of

these two metals is hardly noticeable. Any oxidation that occurs in

the air does not raise the spark temperature appreciably.

The line

of travel is plain and short.

Temperature color from the carbide

material is slightly higher that from the stellite and the stream is

very short. These differences are attributed to grinding sparks from

the more resistant cemented carbide.

(12) Nickel. Nickel yields a spark that at first may be confused

with a stellite spark.