Types of Steel Materials and Their Uses

Steel is a highly useful material that is used in a multitude of applications. In fact, it is believed that more than 55% of the average car is composed of steel. The kind of alloys that are used to create it determines its flexibility, as they impact the material’s strength, durability and performance. For instance, the manner that manufacturers cool the metal can have a significant effect on its microstructure and thus its overall properties. It is also manipulated to attain specific properties like yield strength, machinability and resistance to corrosion.

In its simplest form, steel is iron that has been alloyed with other elements to enhance its physical properties and make it suitable for specific uses. The proportions of the other alloying elements determines what category of steel a steel belongs to and the overall performance in various applications.

For instance stainless is composed of at least 11 percent of chromium. This makes it resistant against corrosion. This is what makes it ideal for a wide range of kitchen utensils and cutlery. Tool steel, in contrast is extremely high in durability and abrasion resistance which makes it a favorite for hand tools and machine dies. Carbon steels are due diligence processes also suited to a wide range of applications because of their high ductility. Electrical steel on the other hand is a very specialized grade of steel that has silicon (typically about 3%). This improves its magnetic properties and decreases the losses of eddy current. It is therefore ideal for laminations and transformer cores of electric motors.