Steel is a plethora of material that can be used for a variety of purposes. In fact, it’s believed that more than 55 percent of the average vehicle is composed of steel. The alloy used to manufacture it determines its flexibility, as they affect the material’s strength, durability and performance. The way in which the metal is cooled has an impact on its microstructure, and consequently, its overall properties. It is also possible to manipulate it to obtain specific characteristics such as machinability, yield strength, and resistance to corrosion.
Steel is iron which has had other elements added to it in order to enhance its physical properties and make the steel suitable for specific applications. The proportions of these additional alloying elements determine which steel type it belongs to, and thereby its overall performance in different applications.
For instance, stainless is made up of a minimum 11 percent chromium. This makes it invulnerable against corrosion. This makes it ideal for a wide range of applications like kitchen utensils and cutlery. Tool steel, meanwhile, has an exceptionally high hardness and abrasion resistance that makes it a preferred material for hand tools and machine dies. Carbon steels also lend themselves to a wide range of applications due to their excellent ductility. Electrical steel is a specialized steel grade that contains silicon (typically around 3%) This enhances the magnetic properties and decreases losses from eddy-current. This makes it ideal for laminations and transformer cores of electric motors.
