Types of Steel Materials and Their Uses

Steel is a versatile material that can be employed for a variety reasons. In fact, it is estimated that 55 percent of a car is composed of steel. Its flexibility is determined by the kind of alloy elements employed to create it, because these elements impact the overall strength as well as durability and performance. The method by which the metal is cooled can have an impact on its microstructure and consequently, its overall properties. It can be manipulated to obtain specific properties like machinability, yielding strength, and resistance to corrosion.

In its most basic form, steel is iron that has been alloyed with various elements to improve its physical properties and make it suitable for specific uses. The proportions of these additional alloying elements determines which steel category it belongs to, and consequently its overall performance in various applications.

For example stainless steel has at least 11% chromium. This makes it impervious to corrosion. This makes it ideal Extra resources for a broad range of kitchen appliances and cutlery. Tool steel is a preferred material due to its high hardness and resistance to scratching. It is also used to hand tools and machine dies. Carbon steels also lend themselves to a wide range of applications because of their high ductility. Electrical steel is a steel grade that contains silicon (typically around 3%) This enhances the magnetic properties, and reduces the losses of eddy current. This makes it ideal for laminations and transformer cores of electric motors.