Turning Grades – Understanding the Nomenclature

Whether you’re involved with general ISO turning, hard part turning, grooving, parting or threading, choosing the turning grade for the material and application can be essential to obtain your desired outcomes. Proper grade selection also provides opportunities to optimize machining efficiency, sustainability and productivity.

Turning Grades – Understanding the Nomenclature

Before considering your needs and different grade strengths, understand turning grade nomenclature for insight to grade characteristics and suitable working conditions. It is notable that there are legacy grades that do not conform to the nomenclature and will be updated when new grade generations launch.

Seco turning grades follow a logical nomenclature that allow you to quickly understand grade characteristics and appropriate working ranges.

All turning grades begin with the letter T to indicate they are “turning grades.” The same logic applies to across other Seco technologies. For example, the initial letters M and D indicate milling and drilling grades, respectively, and the letter C indicates deviating cutting materials for advanced machining, regardless of turning or milling applications.
The second letter highlights the major material coverage and peak performance area of the grade. The letter P, for example, represents the steel material group.
The third, fourth and fifth characters/numbers indicate the application range and are important when optimizing for wear pattern and performance in your application.
The sixth character/number indicates a generation number.

Seco turning grades also include legacy and versatile grades that use elements of the high-performance nomenclature above to convey grade characteristics and suitable working ranges.

Some Turning grades conform and begin with the letter T to indicate they are “turning grades.” TP25 and TP40 are two examples.
There are also examples of legacy grades starting with the letter C, indicating an earlier deviating cutting material due to PVD coating. These legacy grades include but are not limited to CP200 and CP500.
Trusted legacy grades of uncoated inserts, like 883 and 890, for Aerospace applications have had many decades of use, but grade nomenclatures have not been implemented.

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