Steel is a highly useful material that is used in a multitude of applications. In fact, it’s believed that more than 55 percent of the average vehicle is composed of steel. The kind of alloys that are used to create it determines its flexibility, as they impact the material’s quality, durability, and strength. For example, the way the process of cooling the metal can have a significant impact on its microstructure and thus its overall properties. It is manipulated in order to achieve specific properties like machinability, yielding strength, and corrosion resistance.
In its simplest form steel is iron that has been alloyed with other elements to enhance its physical properties and make it appropriate for specific applications. The proportions of these other alloying elements determine what steel type it belongs to, and thereby its overall performance across different applications.
For instance stainless is composed of a minimum 11% of chromium. This makes it invulnerable against corrosion. This makes it perfect for a range of applications like cutlery or kitchen utensils. Tool steel, meanwhile has an extremely high resistance to abrasion and hardness that makes it a preferred material for hand machines and tools. Furthermore, the high ductility and weldability of carbon steels makes them ideal for a variety of applications. Electrical steel, on the other hand, is an example of an extremely specialized grade of steel which contains silicon (typically 3%). This improves its magnetic properties, and reduces losses from eddy-current. This makes it ideal for laminations and transformer cores of electric motors.