After pressing components are machined in their ‘green state’, which refers to the pre-fired condition of the material.

As green machining is much easier and less labour intensive then the ‘post fired’ diamond grinding processes, we try and remove as much material as possible at this stage.  Our technical team will equate how much the parts will shrink during the sintering process, and add these figures to the dimensions for green machining.  Shrinkage can vary between batches and materials, but usually runs at around 20 %.    Therefore the technical team will decide what tolerance can be achieved in green machining, and what can only be achieved by the more accurate diamond grinding processes, after the sintering stage.

In the green state parts can be turned, ground, and drilled / slotted etc. with suitable tooling.