Steel is a versatile material that can be employed for a variety reasons. In fact, it is believed that more than 55 percent of the average vehicle is made of steel. The alloy used in its production determines its versatility, since they impact the material’s durability, strength and performance. The manner in which metal is cooled can have significant effects on its microstructure, and therefore its overall properties. It can be altered to obtain specific properties, such as machinability yielding strength, and corrosion resistance.
In its simplest form the term steel refers to iron that has been alloyed with other elements to enhance its physical properties and make it appropriate for specific uses. The proportions of these additional alloying elements determine which category of steel it belongs to, and thus its overall performance across different applications.
For instance, stainless steel contains a minimum of 11% chromium. This makes it impervious to corrosion. This makes it suitable for a broad range of applications like kitchen utensils and cutlery. Tool steel, in contrast has an extremely high durability and abrasion resistance which makes it a preferred material for hand machines and tools. Carbon steels also lend themselves to a wide range of applications because of their high ductility. Electrical steel is a special steel grade that has silicon (typically around 3%) This increases its magnetic properties and decreases losses due to eddy currents. This makes it ideal for transformer cores as well as electric motor laminations.