Types of Steel Materials and Their Uses
Steel is a versatile material that can be used for a variety of purposes. Steel is utilized in over 55% of vehicles. The alloy that are used to create it determines its flexibility, as they affect the quality, durability, and strength. The method by which the metal is cooled can have significant Full Report effects on its microstructure and therefore, its overall properties. It is also possible to manipulate it to attain specific properties like 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 uses. The proportions of additional alloying elements determines the category of steel a steel belongs to and its overall performance in different applications.
For example, stainless is made up of a minimum of 11 percent chrome. This makes it invulnerable against corrosion. This makes it suitable for a range of kitchen utensils and cutlery. Tool steel is a preferred material due to its high hardness and resistance to abrasion. It is also used to machine dies and hand tools. Carbon steels also lend themselves to a wide range of applications due to their excellent ductility. Electrical steel is on the other hand, is an example of a highly specialized type of steel that contains silicon (typically about 3%). This increases its magnetic properties and decreases losses from eddy-current. This makes it ideal for transformer cores and laminations of electric motors.