I hear people refer to "billet steel" all the time and always wondered what they meant.

Is it a designation of hardness, finish, chemical make-up, or what?

Anyone know?

Thanks!

Kevin K.

 

Usually what is meant by billet is that whatever is the finished product, it was machined from a solid piece of metal(any metal any temper). This is different from a cast or molded or forged part.

For example you can have billet and cast or forged piston rods. Cast is the typical stock rod, which is iron or sometimes steel poured into a mold and finished with some machine work. Billet may be from a forged block or cast block of metal(usually steel or aluminum for a rod). The block of metal is then machined to the final shape. Lots of metal is "wasted" in this process. Forged is usually a near finished shape block of metal that is hammered or forged to strengthen the metal and then final machine work is done. Sometimes you will have hot forged which is essentially casting under pressure, which supposedly helps orient the crystal structure of the metal for added strength.

As mentioned, the billet can be any metal and may or may not be forged. So there is a wide range of strength for the finished part. Just being a "billet" part does not guarantee strength, it all depends on pre and post machine work treatments and the basic metal. In my opinion, "billet" is more often a marketing buzzword than a real guage of quality.

Hope this helps.

Jim Henderson

 

That helps a great deal. Thanks for sharing you knowledge!

Kevin K.

 

One other thing...

A big component, for example a truck grill, might be made up of billet parts or it might be machined from a solid billet of metal.

My guess is that most billet grills and similar large parts just use rods or round billets of metal and just weld them to a frame work. It would be awful wasteful of metal to machine out something like a grill from a solid billet. But for the right price, I am sure you can find a reall billet componet of what ever design.

With the new automatic machine tools(you gotta go to a machine tool trade show sometime), you can whip out a simple product, like a grill, from a thick billet of metal pretty quick, so labor is not the issue versus wasted metal.

Good Luck,

Jim Henderson

 

I think I recall that "billet" is compressed, making it stronger and reducing porosity. However, nowadays that nearly everything is called billet I don't know if that holds true to all "billet" anymore. Cranks, yes, grills, doubtfull.

 

The compressed you are thinking about is forging. It makes many things stronger.

Billet means, made from a billet (or bar of stock in the stock rack)

If you take a bunch of bars and weld them together, it's technically a 'weldment' and not a billet.

A billet grill, in the true sense, would be machined from solid stock.

Also, almost all billets in your stock rack are annealed unless ordered special some other way.

Annealing does not refer to non-metalic bars of stock.

 

Technically, a billet, whether steel, aluminum, or whatever, is supposed to be forged. Most so-called billet parts aren't, they just call them billet because it sounds better than solid chunk. To make a billet, the molten metal is poured into an ingot of an appropriate size, allowed to cool, then forged, and machined from that point.

 

a. A short, thick piece of wood, especially one used as firewood.

b. One of a series of regularly spaced, log-shaped segments used horizontally as ornamentation in the moldings of Norman architecture.

c. A small, usually rectangular bar of iron or steel in an intermediate stage of manufacture.

d. A small ingot of nonferrous metal.

e. The part of a harness strap that passes through a buckle.

f. A loop or pocket for securing the end of a buckled harness strap.


Show me where you guys are getting the forging in the word billet. Also, explain how you can forge wood and gold.

Ranger

 

Actually, how Ford six summed it up is pretty much exactly as I recall it. This usually pertained to billet steel, sometimes aluminum...you can see why it would be stronger. This is what your getting when you get a billet crank. We can talk semantics all day...

 

We (USN) used to order all kinds of metal for the machine shop. I bought metal in this country as well as overseas.

I never heard of forging being part of the deal, and it wouldn't make any sense. Let me explain.

Bar stock is drawn or extruded through dies, come in longer lengths than billets.

Billets are poured into shapes like round or square, usually much bigger in diameter. If you poured a twelve inch round billet and I ordered two feet of it, it would be crazy to have it forged because I'm going to put it into the engine lathe and turn the outside three inches off to make a ...

Forging upsets the surface and would be machined off. Machinists prefer stock as it normally comes, annealed.

Forging is done to increase strength, it isn't done to be machined off.


You haven't shown me any proof, I at least gave you the dictionary defination.

 

There you go. Billet Aluminum. Nonferrous metal.