Steel is a plethora of material that can be employed for a variety uses. In fact, it’s estimated that 55 percent of a car is made of steel. Its versatility is determined by the kind of alloy elements that are used to make it because these elements affect the strength of the material, durability, and performance. The way in which the metal is cooled has a major impact on its microstructure, and therefore its overall properties. It can also be manipulated to achieve specific characteristics, such as yield strength, machinability and resistance to corrosion.
Steel is iron which has had other elements added to it to enhance its physical properties and make the steel suitable for certain uses. The proportion of the additional alloying elements determines which class of steel a particular steel is part of and its overall performance for different applications.
For example stainless is composed of at least 11% of chromium. This makes it invulnerable against corrosion. This makes it suitable for a wide range of uses for kitchen utensils or cutlery. Tool steel, for instance is characterized by an extremely high durability and abrasion resistance which makes it a favorite for hand machines and tools. Carbon steels also lend themselves to a wide range of applications due to their high ductility. Electrical steel is, however is an extremely specialized grade of steel which contains silicon (typically around 3%). This enhances the magnetic properties, as well as reducing eddy-current losses. This makes it ideal for laminations and transformer cores of electric motors.