Steel is an incredibly useful material that is used in a multitude of applications. In fact, it is believed that more than 55% of the average car is composed of steel. The kind of alloys used to make it determines its versatility, as they affect the strength, durability and performance. The method in which metal is cooled can have significant energy-efficient spaces effects on its microstructure, and therefore its overall properties. It can also be altered to achieve specific characteristics, such as yield strength, machinability and resistance to corrosion.
Steel is iron that has had other elements added to it to improve its physical properties and make the steel suitable for particular uses. The proportions of the additional alloying elements determines which category of steel a particular steel is part of and its overall performance for different applications.
For instance, stainless is made up of a minimum 11% chrome. This makes it invulnerable against corrosion. This makes it ideal for a wide range of uses like cutting boards and kitchen utensils. Tool steel, for instance, has an exceptionally high hardness and abrasion resistance that makes it an ideal material for hand tools and machine dies. Carbon steels also lend themselves to a variety of applications because of their high ductility. Electrical steel, on the other hand is one of the most specialized grades of steel that has silicon (typically 3percent). This increases its magnetic properties and decreases losses due to eddy currents. This makes it great for transformer cores as well as electric motor laminations.
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