Types of Steel from Stela Jones's blog

Steel is an iron alloy, meaning it’s primarily composed of iron combined with one or more alloying metals to produce new materials with unique properties.

Steel is classified by its composition: iron is fused with carbon and any number of other elements to achieve a specific end. The four main types are:

1. Carbon steel
2. Stainless steel
3. Alloy steel
4. Tool steel

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Carbon steel is unique for the notable absence of other elements in its makeup. Though it only contains 2% carbon or less by weight, its elemental nature makes carbon steel a strong, durable material ideal for numerous uses.

Carbon steel is sometimes confused with cast iron, though it must contain less than 2% carbon. Cast iron contains 2% to 3.5% carbon, giving it a rough texture and a more brittle nature.

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Stainless steels are the most well-known type on the market. This type is shiny and generally has around 10 to 20% chromium, their main alloying element. This combination allows the steel to be resistant to corrosion and very easily molded into varying shapes.

Because of their easy manipulation, flexibility, and quality, stainless steel can be found in surgical equipment, home applications, silverware, and even as exterior cladding for commercial/industrial buildings.

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Alloy steel is a mixture of various different metals such as copper, nickel, and aluminum. It is cheaper and corrosion resistant; therefore, it is used in pipelines, car parts, mechanical projects, and ship hulls. Their strength is determined by the percentage of different metals the alloy steel contains.

Low alloy steel has alloy content (non–iron elements) of less than 8 percent, and high alloy steel has alloy content higher than 8 percent. Low alloy steel is used in the manufacturing of construction equipment, pipelines, military vehicles, ships, structural components, etc.

High alloy steel is very expensive to manufacture and difficult to process, but it has high toughness, hardness, and corrosion resistance therefore, it is best suited for chemical processing, structural components, power-generating equipment, and automotive applications.

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Tool steel is famous for being hard and both heat and scrape resistant. The name is derived from the fact that they are very commonly used to make metal tools, like hammers. ,

They are made up of things like cobalt, molybdenum, and tungsten, and that is the underlying reason why tool steel has such advanced durability and heat resistance features.

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