Types of Steel Materials and Their Uses

Steel is a highly useful material that is utilized in a wide variety of applications. In fact, it’s estimated that more than 55% of the average car is composed of steel. Its versatility is determined by the type of alloy elements that are used to create it, as these factors impact the material’s overall strength as well as durability and performance. For instance, the way that the manufacturer cools the metal can have a significant effect on its microstructure and thus its overall properties. It can be altered to obtain specific properties like machinability, yielding strength, and resistance to corrosion.

Steel is iron which has had other elements added to it to enhance its physical properties and make the steel suitable for specific applications. The proportions of these extra alloying elements determines which steel category it belongs to, and thereby its overall performance in different applications.

For instance stainless steel is composed of at least 11% chromium, which makes it impervious to corrosion. This makes it ideal for a wide range of kitchen appliances and cutlery. Tool steel is a favorite because of its high hardness and resistance to scratching. 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 a highly specialized type of steel which contains silicon (typically around 3%). This improves its magnetic properties and reduces losses from eddy currents, making it great for transformer cores and electric motor laminations.

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