Steel is a very useful material that is utilized in a variety of applications. In fact, it is believed that more than 55 percent of the average vehicle is composed of steel. Its flexibility is determined by the kind of alloy elements that are employed to create it, since these factors affect the overall strength as well as durability and performance. For instance, the manner the process of cooling the metal can have a significant effect on its microstructure and its overall properties. It is also possible to manipulate it to obtain specific characteristics such as yield strength, machinability and resistance to corrosion.
Steel is iron that has had other elements alloyed to it to improve its physical properties and make it suitable for particular uses. The proportions of these additional alloying elements determine which category of steel it belongs to, and therefore its overall performance in different applications.
For example stainless is composed of a minimum 11% chromium. This makes it invulnerable against corrosion. This makes it perfect for a variety of applications such as cutlery or kitchen utensils. Tool steel is popular because of its hardness and resistance to scratching. It’s also used for machine dies and hand tools. Carbon steels are also suited to a variety of applications due to their high ductility. Electrical steel is a specialized steel grade that has silicon (typically around 3%) This increases its magnetic properties and decreases the losses of eddy current. This makes it ideal for laminations and transformer cores of electric motors.