Steel is a very useful material that is used in a wide variety of applications. Steel is utilized in over 55% of cars. Its flexibility is determined by the type of alloy elements used to create it, as these factors impact the strength of the material endurance, durability, and performance. For example, the way the process of cooling the metal can have a significant impact on the microstructure of the metal and its overall properties. It is possible to manipulate it to achieve certain properties, such as machinability yielding strength, and resistance to corrosion.
Steel is iron which has had other elements added to it to improve its physical properties and make the steel suitable for specific uses. The proportions of these extra alloying elements determine which steel type it belongs to, and thereby its overall performance across different applications.
For instance, stainless steel contains a minimum of 11% chromium. This makes it resistant to corrosion. This makes it suitable for a wide range of uses like cutting boards and kitchen utensils. Tool steel, for instance has an extremely high hardness and abrasion resistance that makes it a preferred material for hand tools and machine dies. Carbon steels also lend themselves to a wide range of applications due to their high ductility. Electrical steel is a specialized steel grade that is composed of silicon (typically around 3%) This enhances the magnetic properties and decreases the losses of eddy current. This makes it ideal for laminations and transformer cores of electric motors.
