Residual Stress
Locked-in stress left in a bar by cold drawing or straightening, which redistributes and bows the part when material is removed unevenly.
The classic failure
A cold drawn bar is cut, a keyway is milled down one side, and the part bows by a millimetre over 300 mm. Nothing was done wrong — removing material from one side unbalanced the drawing stresses and the bar found a new equilibrium.
How to avoid it
Three options: specify stress relieved bar (heated to 500-600 °C after drawing), use turned and ground bar where the stress pattern is milder, or rough machine, stress relieve and finish machine. On long asymmetric parts the third route is the only reliable one.
Related terms
Where this applies
Carbon Steel Bright Bars, Free Cutting Bright Bars
Need help applying this?
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