Types of Steel Materials and Their Uses

Steel is a highly useful material that is used in a wide variety of applications. In fact, it is estimated that 55 find out here now percent of the average vehicle is made of steel. The type of alloys used to make it determines its versatility, since they impact the material’s quality, durability, and strength. For instance, the way that the manufacturer cools the metal can have a significant effect on its microstructure and its overall properties. It can be manipulated to achieve certain properties like machinability, yielding strength, and corrosion resistance.

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 certain uses. The proportions of these additional alloying elements determine what steel type it belongs to, and thereby its overall performance in different applications.

For example, stainless steel contains a minimum of 11% chromium. This makes it resistant to corrosion. This is what makes it ideal for a broad range of kitchen utensils and cutlery. Tool steel, in contrast, has an exceptionally high durability and abrasion resistance which makes it an ideal material for hand tools and machine dies. Additionally, the superior weldability and ductility of carbon steels make them suitable for a broad array of applications. Electrical steel is, however, is an example of a highly specialized type of steel which contains silicon (typically 3%). This increases its magnetic properties and decreases eddy-current losses. This makes it ideal for transformer cores and laminations of electric motors.