Is this with stock guns or custom/aftermarket? price point, duty-grade, premium? any particular model?
Easiest way is probably to ask the maker.
Forged vs cast vs milled (machined) from a block & metallurgy are way different things.
A) the particular grade of steel & shape of the part is the only first part of the puzzle to determine if forged/ cast or machined from a block is appropriate.
B) no matter if forged/ cast/or machined from a block proper heat treat is necessary to keep the part from failure.
C) proper grade of steel/steel alloy must be used.
Aaron
Not a metallurgist, just a dum millwright and armorer. I'm not in favor of a MIM part in any gun. I've seen too many fail like an extractor, hammer and sear. No thank you. Please pass the forged part and mill. Shot peen it and proper heat treat. Thank you!
Maybe it is because they are using plastic holsters and damaging the slides!!
Don
This from Sig...
Thank you for contacting SIG Sauer customer service.
All of our slides are made of heat treated stainless which is CNC cut from billet steel. Any information beyond this is considered to be proprietary, and not something I would have access to I’m afraid.
Hope this helps Jim!
Best regards.
So Stainless Billet is cast or forged?
This is interesting, because at one time the P22x series slides were being stamped, on the earlier models. Their manufacturing capacity over their facilities must have changed over the years to allow them to go to all-up machining. Nice to see that. Once you have the equipment, might as well use it.
But as a couple earlier posters correctly pointed out, this question is not really just metallurgy, it is also a 3-way interaction between the design/form factor, materials, and the process used to form them. Putting more safety margin on one of those elements gives you more room to deviate in the others.
This will start a kerfluffle with the OFs (Old Farts), but in the right application, I will take a precision-manufactured MIM part over a machined part blacksmithed on a mill by a payroll employee any day. Not every factory employee has the time to lovingly blacksmith a part the way you do in your Garage with your personal TV on while trying to get away from Momma. There is a lot of part variation in those methods in a factory, and many of the guns thus manufactured (we'll leave the names out) break parts routinely, and most specimens of a certain age have all been back to the factory, sometimes multiple visits.
Aaaand...go:
Interesting article on Cast/Forged/Billet
Billet? Cast? Forged? What does that mean?
This from Sig...
All of our slides are made of heat treated stainless which is CNC cut from billet steel. Any information beyond this is considered to be proprietary, and not something I would have access to I’m afraid.
So Stainless Billet is cast or forged?
The question still unanswered is does SIG forge or cast in NH, or does their supplier forge or cast the billets.
Billet is bar stock which is extruded and rolled. From that information, it's impossible to know how much work has been put into it, what heat treat process it goes through, and most importantly, what strength and ductility is needed for the specific design. As other's mentioned, it's not appropriate to judge a manufacturing process as better or worse than any other. They all have their benefits and limitations. It comes down to how the product was engineered and quality controlled.
So where does one start when a manufacturer is having a higher than normal fail?