Steel is a very useful material that is used in a variety of applications. In fact, it’s believed that more than 55 percent of a car is composed of steel. Its versatility is determined by the type of alloy elements that are employed to create it, since these factors affect the overall strength as well as durability and performance. The manner in which metal is cooled can have significant impact on its microstructure and therefore, its overall properties. It can also be altered to achieve specific characteristics like machinability, yield strength, and resistance to corrosion.

In its most basic form it is iron that has been alloyed with various elements to improve its physical properties and make it suitable for specific uses. The proportions of these additional alloying elements determine what steel type it belongs to, and therefore its overall performance across different applications.

For example, stainless is made up of a minimum of 11 percent chrome. This makes it invulnerable against corrosion. This is what makes it suitable for thermally insulated cells a wide range of kitchen utensils and cutlery. Tool steel is a preferred material due to its high hardness and resistance to abrasion. It’s also used for machine dies and hand tools. Additionally, the high weldability and ductility of carbon steels make them suitable for a broad array of applications. Electrical steel on the other hand is a highly specialized type of steel that contains silicon (typically 3%). This enhances the magnetic properties and decreases losses due to eddy currents. This makes it great for transformer cores and electric motor laminations.