Steel is a highly useful material that is used in a variety of applications. In fact, it’s believed that more than 55% of the average car is composed of steel. The type of alloys used to make it determines its versatility, since they affect the durability, strength and performance. The method by which the metal is cooled can have significant impact on its microstructure and therefore its overall properties. It is possible to manipulate it to achieve certain properties, such as machinability yielding strength, and resistance to corrosion.
Steel is iron which has had other elements alloyed to it in order to enhance its physical properties and make it suitable for certain uses. The proportions of these extra alloying elements determines which class of steel it is ascribed to, and consequently its overall performance in various applications.
For instance stainless steel is composed of a minimum of 11% chromium. This makes it resistant to corrosion. This makes it suitable for a variety of purposes such as kitchen utensils or cutlery. Tool steel, in contrast, has an exceptionally high hardness and abrasion resistance that makes it a popular choice for hand tools and machine dies. Additionally, the high ductility and weldability of carbon steels make them suitable for a broad array of applications. Electrical steel, on the other hand, is an example of a very specialized grade of steel that is composed of silicon (typically about 3%). This improves its magnetic properties, as well as reducing the loss of eddy-current. It is therefore ideal for transformer cores and laminations of electric motors.
