What is stress relieving for metal fabrication and how is it beneficial

What is stress relieving for metal fabrication and how is it beneficial? I’m Travis Pomranke with Winnebago Manufacturing Company and this is a common question we get asked. Today, I'm going to explain the stress-relieving process and the positive benefits of stress-relieving for metal fabrication, welding, and machining. During the manufacturing process, metal parts go through an extreme amount of stress. Welding, rolling, machining, cutting, or anything that moves steel will cause a buildup of residual stresses as the metal is stretched and compressed. To relieve these stresses, the steel is heated to just below the critical range, approximately 1,200° Fahrenheit for one steel formulation andsoaked thoroughly at this temperature. The metal becomes soft enough to allow creep, and internal residual stresses are released. Stress-relieving improves the part's machinability and promotes tighter mechanical tolerances, but unlike annealing or normalizing, it does not change the steel properties. This prepares the steel for further working without stress cracking, or to be put into service without failure in the future. The benefits of stress-relieving go beyond part quality to driving out costs and time in the manufacturing process. Here is a business case that shows how a manufacturer of custom-engineered machine assemblies achieved a 25% reduction in machining costs with stress-relieved parts. The steel component and parts industry continue to receive pressure to reduce cycle time and reduce costs to remain competitive. We worked together to compare the machining of parts that have been stress relieved versus parts that had not. Based on the amount of machining they needed to complete in the heat affected zone of the thermal cut area, the parts that had been stress relieved provided a significant saving of time and tooling expense. For example, they needed to face off both sides, turn the OD, and bore the ID of a ring. By stress relieving the ring, our partner did not have to go through the hard zones and wear out tooling. Overall, our partner achieved a 25% reduction in parts costs by stress relieving before machining parts. You can learn more about stress-relieving at bagomfg.com/stress-relieving.