Steel

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steel

For other uses, see Steel (disambiguation).

"Steel worker" redirects here. For other uses, see Steel worker (disambiguation).
Steel is an alloy of iron and carbon with improved strength and fracture resistance
compared to other forms of iron. Many other elements may be present or added. Stainless
steels that are corrosion- and oxidation-resistant typically need an additional 11%
chromium. Because of its high tensile strength and low cost, steel is used in buildings,
infrastructure, tools, ships, trains, cars, machines, electrical appliances, and weapons.

Iron is the base metal of steel. Depending on the temperature, it can take two crystalline
forms (allotropic forms): body-centred cubic and face-centred cubic. The interaction of
the allotropes of iron with the alloying elements, primarily carbon, gives steel and cast
iron their range of unique properties. In pure iron, the crystal structure has relatively little
resistance to the iron atoms slipping past one another, and so pure iron is quite ductile, or
soft and easily formed. In steel, small amounts of carbon, other elements, and inclusions
within the iron act as hardening agents that prevent the movement of dislocations.

The carbon in typical steel alloys may contribute up to 2.14% of its weight. Varying the
amount of carbon and many other alloying elements, as well as controlling their chemical
and physical makeup in the final steel (either as solute elements, or as precipitated
phases), impedes the movement of the dislocations that make pure iron ductile, and thus
controls and enhances its qualities. These qualities include the hardness, quenching
behaviour, need for annealing, tempering behaviour, yield strength, and tensile strength
of the resulting steel. The increase in steel's strength compared to pure iron is possible
only by reducing iron's ductility.

Steel was produced in bloomery furnaces for thousands of years, but its large-scale,
industrial use began only after more efficient production methods were devised in the
17th century, with the introduction of the blast furnace and production of crucible steel.
This was followed by the open-hearth furnace and then the Bessemer process in England
in the mid-19th century. With the invention of the Bessemer process, a new era of mass-
produced steel began. Mild steel replaced wrought iron. The German states saw major
steel prowess over Europe in the 19th century.[1]

Further refinements in the process, such as basic oxygen steelmaking (BOS), largely
replaced earlier methods by further lowering the cost of production and increasing the
quality of the final product. Today, steel is one of the most commonly manufactured
materials in the world, with more than 1.6 billion tons produced annually. Modern steel is
generally identified by various grades defined by assorted standards organisations. The
modern steel industry is one of the largest manufacturing industries in the world, but also

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one of the most energy and greenhouse gas emission intense industries, contributing 8%
of global emissions.[2] However, steel is also very reusable: it is one of the world's most-
recycled materials, with a recycling rate of over 60% globally.[3]

Definitions and related materials

See also: Steel grades
The noun steel originates from the Proto-Germanic
adjective stahliją or stakhlijan 'made of steel', which
is related to stahlaz or stahliją 'standing firm'.[4]

The carbon content of steel is between 0.002% and

2.14% by weight for plain carbon steel (iron-carbon
alloys). Too little carbon content leaves (pure) iron
quite soft, ductile, and weak. Carbon contents higher
than those of steel make a brittle alloy commonly
called pig iron. Alloy steel is steel to which other
alloying elements have been intentionally added to
modify the characteristics of steel. Common alloying
elements include: manganese, nickel, chromium,
molybdenum, boron, titanium, vanadium, tungsten,
cobalt, and niobium.[5] Additional elements, most
The steel cable of a colliery winding
frequently considered undesirable, are also
tower
important in steel: phosphorus, sulfur, silicon, and
traces of oxygen, nitrogen, and copper.

Plain carbon-iron alloys with a higher than 2.1% carbon content are known as cast iron.
With modern steelmaking techniques such as powder metal forming, it is possible to
make very high-carbon (and other alloy material) steels, but such are not common. Cast
iron is not malleable even when hot, but it can be formed by casting as it has a lower
melting point than steel and good castability properties.[5] Certain compositions of cast
iron, while retaining the economies of melting and casting, can be heat treated after
casting to make malleable iron or ductile iron objects. Steel is distinguishable from
wrought iron (now largely obsolete), which may contain a small amount of carbon but
large amounts of slag.

Material properties

Origins and production

Iron is commonly found in the Earth's crust in the form of an ore, usually an iron oxide,
such as magnetite or hematite. Iron is extracted from iron ore by removing the oxygen
through its combination with a preferred chemical partner such as carbon which is then
lost to the atmosphere as carbon dioxide. This process, known as smelting, was first
applied to metals with lower melting points, such as tin, which melts at about 250 °C
(482 °F), and copper, which melts at about 1,100 °C (2,010 °F), and the combination,

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bronze, which has a melting point lower than
1,083 °C (1,981 °F). In comparison, cast iron melts
at about 1,375 °C (2,507 °F).[6] Small quantities of
iron were smelted in ancient times, in the solid-
state, by heating the ore in a charcoal fire and then
welding the clumps together with a hammer and in
the process squeezing out the impurities. With care,
the carbon content could be controlled by moving it
around in the fire. Unlike copper and tin, liquid or
An iron-carbon phase diagram
solid iron dissolves carbon quite readily. showing the conditions necessary to
form different phases
All of these temperatures could be reached with
ancient methods used since the Bronze Age. Since
the oxidation rate of iron increases rapidly beyond
800 °C (1,470 °F), it is important that smelting take
place in a low-oxygen environment. Smelting, using
carbon to reduce iron oxides, results in an alloy (pig
iron) that retains too much carbon to be called steel.
[6]
The excess carbon and other impurities are
removed in a subsequent step.

Other materials are often added to the iron/carbon An Incandescent steel workpiece in a
mixture to produce steel with the desired properties. blacksmith's art
Nickel and manganese in steel add to its tensile
strength and make the austenite form of the iron-carbon solution more stable, chromium
increases hardness and melting temperature, and vanadium also increases hardness while
making it less prone to metal fatigue.[7]

To inhibit corrosion, at least 11% chromium can be added to steel so that a hard oxide
forms on the metal surface; this is known as stainless steel. Tungsten slows the formation
of cementite, keeping carbon in the iron matrix and allowing martensite to preferentially
form at slower quench rates, resulting in high-speed steel. The addition of lead and sulfur
decrease grain size, thereby making the steel easier to turn, but also more brittle and
prone to corrosion. Such alloys are nevertheless frequently used for components such as
nuts, bolts, and washers in applications where toughness and corrosion resistance are not
paramount. For the most part, however, p-block elements such as sulfur, nitrogen,
phosphorus, and lead are considered contaminants that make steel more brittle and are
therefore removed from steel during the melting processing.[7]

Properties
The density of steel varies based on the alloying constituents but usually ranges between
7,750 and 8,050 kg/m3 (484 and 503 lb/cu ft), or 7.75 and 8.05 g/cm3 (4.48 and
4.65 oz/cu in).[8]

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Even in a narrow range of concentrations of
mixtures of carbon and iron that make steel, several
different metallurgical structures, with very
different properties can form. Understanding such
properties is essential to making quality steel. At
room temperature, the most stable form of pure iron
is the body-centred cubic (BCC) structure called
alpha iron or α-iron. It is a fairly soft metal that can
dissolve only a small concentration of carbon, no
more than 0.005% at 0 °C (32 °F) and 0.021 wt% at
723 °C (1,333 °F). The inclusion of carbon in alpha
iron is called ferrite. At 910 °C, pure iron transforms
into a face-centred cubic (FCC) structure, called
gamma iron or γ-iron. The inclusion of carbon in
Fe-C phase diagram for carbon steels,
gamma iron is called austenite. The more open FCC
showing the A0, A1, A2 and A3 critical
structure of austenite can dissolve considerably temperatures for heat treatments
more carbon, as much as 2.1%,[9] (38 times that of
ferrite) carbon at 1,148 °C (2,098 °F), which reflects
the upper carbon content of steel, beyond which is cast iron.[10] When carbon moves out
of solution with iron, it forms a very hard, but brittle material called cementite (Fe3C).

When steels with exactly 0.8% carbon (known as a eutectoid steel), are cooled, the
austenitic phase (FCC) of the mixture attempts to revert to the ferrite phase (BCC). The
carbon no longer fits within the FCC austenite structure, resulting in an excess of carbon.
One way for carbon to leave the austenite is for it to precipitate out of solution as
cementite, leaving behind a surrounding phase of BCC iron called ferrite with a small
percentage of carbon in solution. The two, ferrite and cementite, precipitate
simultaneously producing a layered structure called pearlite, named for its resemblance to
mother of pearl. In a hypereutectoid composition (greater than 0.8% carbon), the carbon
will first precipitate out as large inclusions of cementite at the austenite grain boundaries
until the percentage of carbon in the grains has decreased to the eutectoid composition
(0.8% carbon), at which point the pearlite structure forms. For steels that have less than
0.8% carbon (hypoeutectoid), ferrite will first form within the grains until the remaining
composition rises to 0.8% of carbon, at which point the pearlite structure will form. No
large inclusions of cementite will form at the boundaries in hypoeuctoid steel.[11] The
above assumes that the cooling process is very slow, allowing enough time for the carbon
to migrate.

As the rate of cooling is increased the carbon will have less time to migrate to form
carbide at the grain boundaries but will have increasingly large amounts of pearlite of a
finer and finer structure within the grains; hence the carbide is more widely dispersed and
acts to prevent slip of defects within those grains, resulting in hardening of the steel. At
the very high cooling rates produced by quenching, the carbon has no time to migrate but
is locked within the face-centred austenite and forms martensite. Martensite is a highly
strained and stressed, supersaturated form of carbon and iron and is exceedingly hard but

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brittle. Depending on the carbon content, the martensitic phase takes different forms.
Below 0.2% carbon, it takes on a ferrite BCC crystal form, but at higher carbon content it
takes a body-centred tetragonal (BCT) structure. There is no thermal activation energy for
the transformation from austenite to martensite. There is no compositional change so the
atoms generally retain their same neighbors.[12]

Martensite has a lower density (it expands during the cooling) than does austenite, so that
the transformation between them results in a change of volume. In this case, expansion
occurs. Internal stresses from this expansion generally take the form of compression on
the crystals of martensite and tension on the remaining ferrite, with a fair amount of
shear on both constituents. If quenching is done improperly, the internal stresses can
cause a part to shatter as it cools. At the very least, they cause internal work hardening
and other microscopic imperfections. It is common for quench cracks to form when steel
is water quenched, although they may not always be visible.[13]

Heat treatment

Main article: Heat treating

There are many types of heat treating processes available to steel. The most common are
annealing, quenching, and tempering.

Annealing is the process of heating the steel to a sufficiently high temperature to relieve
local internal stresses. It does not create a general softening of the product but only locally
relieves strains and stresses locked up within the material. Annealing goes through three
phases: recovery, recrystallization, and grain growth. The temperature required to anneal
a particular steel depends on the type of annealing to be achieved and the alloying
constituents.[14]

Quenching involves heating the steel to create the austenite phase then quenching it in
water or oil. This rapid cooling results in a hard but brittle martensitic structure.[12] The
steel is then tempered, which is just a specialized type of annealing, to reduce brittleness.
In this application the annealing (tempering) process transforms some of the martensite
into cementite, or spheroidite and hence it reduces the internal stresses and defects. The
result is a more ductile and fracture-resistant steel.[15]

Production
Main article: Steelmaking
See also: List of countries by steel production
When iron is smelted from its ore, it contains more carbon than is desirable. To become
steel, it must be reprocessed to reduce the carbon to the correct amount, at which point
other elements can be added. In the past, steel facilities would cast the raw steel product
into ingots which would be stored until use in further refinement processes that resulted
in the finished product. In modern facilities, the initial product is close to the final
composition and is continuously cast into long slabs, cut and shaped into bars and

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extrusions and heat treated to produce a final
product. Today, approximately 96% of steel is
continuously cast, while only 4% is produced as
ingots.[16]

The ingots are then heated in a soaking pit and hot

rolled into slabs, billets, or blooms. Slabs are hot or
cold rolled into sheet metal or plates. Billets are hot
or cold rolled into bars, rods, and wire. Blooms are
hot or cold rolled into structural steel, such as I- Iron ore pellets used in the production
of steel
beams and rails. In modern steel mills these
processes often occur in one assembly line, with ore
coming in and finished steel products coming out.[17] Sometimes after a steel's final
rolling, it is heat treated for strength; however, this is relatively rare.[18]

History
Main articles: History of ferrous metallurgy and History of the steel industry (1850–1970)

Ancient
Steel was known in antiquity and was produced in
bloomeries and crucibles.[19][20]

The earliest known production of steel is seen in

pieces of ironware excavated from an archaeological
site in Anatolia (Kaman-Kalehöyük) and are nearly
4,000 years old, dating from 1800 BC.[21][22] Horace
identifies steel weapons such as the falcata in the
Iberian Peninsula, while Noric steel was used by the
Roman military.[23]

The reputation of Seric iron of India (wootz steel)

grew considerably in the rest of the world.[20] Metal
production sites in Sri Lanka employed wind
furnaces driven by the monsoon winds, capable of
producing high-carbon steel. Large-scale Wootz
steel production in India using crucibles occurred by
the sixth century BC, the pioneering precursor to
modern steel production and metallurgy.[19][20]

The Chinese of the Warring States period (403– Bloomery smelting during the Middle
221 BC) had quench-hardened steel,[24] while Ages in the 5th to 15th centuries
Chinese of the Han dynasty (202 BC—AD 220)
created steel by melting together wrought iron with cast iron, thus producing a carbon-
intermediate steel by the 1st century AD.[25][26]

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There is evidence that carbon steel was made in Western Tanzania by the ancestors of the
Haya people as early as 2,000 years ago by a complex process of "pre-heating" allowing
temperatures inside a furnace to reach 1300 to 1400 °C.[27][28][29][30][31][32]

Wootz and Damascus

Main articles: Wootz steel and Damascus steel

Evidence of the earliest production of high carbon steel in India is found in Kodumanal in
Tamil Nadu, the Golconda area in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, and in the
Samanalawewa, Dehigaha Alakanda, areas of Sri Lanka.[33] This came to be known as
Wootz steel, produced in South India by about the sixth century BC and exported globally.
[34][35]
The steel technology existed prior to 326 BC in the region as they are mentioned in
literature of Sangam Tamil, Arabic, and Latin as the finest steel in the world exported to
the Romans, Egyptian, Chinese and Arab worlds at that time – what they called Seric
Iron.[36] A 200 BC Tamil trade guild in Tissamaharama, in the South East of Sri Lanka,
brought with them some of the oldest iron and steel artifacts and production processes to
the island from the classical period.[37][38][39] The Chinese and locals in Anuradhapura,
Sri Lanka had also adopted the production methods of creating Wootz steel from the
Chera Dynasty Tamils of South India by the 5th century AD.[40][41] In Sri Lanka, this early
steel-making method employed a unique wind furnace, driven by the monsoon winds,
capable of producing high-carbon steel.[42][43] Since the technology was acquired from the
Tamilians from South India, the origin of steel technology in India can be conservatively
estimated at 400–500 BC.[34][43]

The manufacture of what came to be called Wootz, or Damascus steel, famous for its
durability and ability to hold an edge, may have been taken by the Arabs from Persia, who
took it from India. It was originally created from several different materials including
various trace elements, apparently ultimately from the writings of Zosimos of Panopolis.
In 327 BC, Alexander the Great was rewarded by the defeated King Porus, not with gold or
silver but with 30 pounds of steel.[44] A recent study has speculated that carbon
nanotubes were included in its structure, which might explain some of its legendary
qualities, though, given the technology of that time, such qualities were produced by
chance rather than by design.[45] Natural wind was used where the soil containing iron
was heated by the use of wood. The ancient Sinhalese managed to extract a ton of steel for
every 2 tons of soil,[42] a remarkable feat at the time. One such furnace was found in
Samanalawewa and archaeologists were able to produce steel as the ancients did.[42][46]

Crucible steel, formed by slowly heating and cooling pure iron and carbon (typically in the
form of charcoal) in a crucible, was produced in Merv by the 9th to 10th century AD.[35] In
the 11th century, there is evidence of the production of steel in Song China using two
techniques: a "berganesque" method that produced inferior, inhomogeneous steel, and a
precursor to the modern Bessemer process that used partial decarbonization via repeated
forging under a cold blast.[47]

Modern

7/19
Since the 17th century, the first step in European
steel production has been the smelting of iron ore
into pig iron in a blast furnace.[48] Originally
employing charcoal, modern methods use coke,
which has proven more economical.[49][50][51]

A Bessemer converter in Sheffield,

England

Processes starting from bar iron

Main articles: Blister steel and Crucible steel

In these processes, pig iron was refined (fined) in a finery forge to produce bar iron, which
was then used in steel-making.[48]

The production of steel by the cementation process was described in a treatise published
in Prague in 1574 and was in use in Nuremberg from 1601. A similar process for case
hardening armor and files was described in a book published in Naples in 1589. The
process was introduced to England in about 1614 and used to produce such steel by Sir
Basil Brooke at Coalbrookdale during the 1610s.[52]

The raw material for this process were bars of iron. During the 17th century, it was
realized that the best steel came from oregrounds iron of a region north of Stockholm,
Sweden. This was still the usual raw material source in the 19th century, almost as long as
the process was used.[53][54]

Crucible steel is steel that has been melted in a crucible rather than having been forged,
with the result that it is more homogeneous. Most previous furnaces could not reach high
enough temperatures to melt the steel. The early modern crucible steel industry resulted
from the invention of Benjamin Huntsman in the 1740s. Blister steel (made as above) was
melted in a crucible or in a furnace, and cast (usually) into ingots.[54][55]

Processes starting from pig iron

8/19
The modern era in steelmaking began with the
introduction of Henry Bessemer's process in 1855,
the raw material for which was pig iron.[56] His
method let him produce steel in large quantities
cheaply, thus mild steel came to be used for most
purposes for which wrought iron was formerly used.
[57] The Gilchrist-Thomas process (or basic

Bessemer process) was an improvement to the

Bessemer process, made by lining the converter with
a basic material to remove phosphorus. An open hearth furnace in the
Museum of Industry in Brandenburg,
Another 19th-century steelmaking process was the Germany
Siemens-Martin process, which complemented the
Bessemer process.[54] It consisted of co-melting bar
iron (or steel scrap) with pig iron.

These methods of steel production were rendered

obsolete by the Linz-Donawitz process of basic
oxygen steelmaking (BOS), developed in 1952,[58]
and other oxygen steel making methods. Basic
oxygen steelmaking is superior to previous
steelmaking methods because the oxygen pumped
into the furnace limited impurities, primarily White-hot steel pouring out of an
nitrogen, that previously had entered from the air electric arc furnace in Brackenridge,
used,[59] and because, with respect to the open Pennsylvania
hearth process, the same quantity of steel from a
BOS process is manufactured in one-twelfth the time.[58] Today, electric arc furnaces
(EAF) are a common method of reprocessing scrap metal to create new steel. They can
also be used for converting pig iron to steel, but they use a lot of electrical energy (about
440 kWh per metric ton), and are thus generally only economical when there is a plentiful
supply of cheap electricity.[60]

Industry
See also: History of the steel industry (1850–1970), History of the steel industry (1970–
present), Global steel industry trends, Steel production by country, and List of steel
producers
The steel industry is often considered an indicator of
economic progress, because of the critical role
played by steel in infrastructural and overall
economic development.[61] In 1980, there were more
than 500,000 U.S. steelworkers. By 2000, the
number of steelworkers had fallen to 224,000.[62]
Steel production (in million tons) by
country in 2007

9/19
The economic boom in China and India caused a massive increase in the demand for
steel. Between 2000 and 2005, world steel demand increased by 6%. Since 2000, several
Indian[63] and Chinese steel firms have risen to prominence, such as Tata Steel (which
bought Corus Group in 2007), Baosteel Group and Shagang Group. As of 2017, though,
ArcelorMittal is the world's largest steel producer.[64] In 2005, the British Geological
Survey stated China was the top steel producer with about one-third of the world share;
Japan, Russia, and the US followed respectively.[65] The large production capacity of steel
results also in a significant amount of carbon dioxide emissions inherent related to the
main production route. In 2021, it was estimated that around 7% of the global greenhouse
gas emissions resulted from the steel industry.[66][67] Reduction of these emissions are
expected to come from a shift in the main production route using cokes, more recycling of
steel and the application of carbon capture and storage or carbon capture and utilization
technology.

In 2008, steel began trading as a commodity on the London Metal Exchange. At the end
of 2008, the steel industry faced a sharp downturn that led to many cut-backs.[68]

Recycling
Main article: Ferrous metal recycling
Steel is one of the world's most-recycled materials, with a recycling rate of over 60%
globally;[3] in the United States alone, over 82,000,000 metric tons (81,000,000 long
tons; 90,000,000 short tons) were recycled in the year 2008, for an overall recycling rate
of 83%.[69]

As more steel is produced than is scrapped, the amount of recycled raw materials is about
40% of the total of steel produced - in 2016, 1,628,000,000 tonnes (1.602×109 long tons;
1.795×109 short tons) of crude steel was produced globally, with 630,000,000 tonnes
(620,000,000 long tons; 690,000,000 short tons) recycled.[70]

Contemporary
See also: Steel grades

Bethlehem Steel in Bethlehem,

Pennsylvania was one of the world's
largest manufacturers of steel before
its closure in 2003.

10/19
Carbon

Modern steels are made with varying combinations of alloy metals to fulfill many
purposes.[7] Carbon steel, composed simply of iron and carbon, accounts for 90% of steel
production.[5] Low alloy steel is alloyed with other elements, usually molybdenum,
manganese, chromium, or nickel, in amounts of up to 10% by weight to improve the
hardenability of thick sections.[5] High strength low alloy steel has small additions
(usually < 2% by weight) of other elements, typically 1.5% manganese, to provide
additional strength for a modest price increase.[71]

Recent Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) regulations have given rise to a new
variety of steel known as Advanced High Strength Steel (AHSS). This material is both
strong and ductile so that vehicle structures can maintain their current safety levels while
using less material. There are several commercially available grades of AHSS, such as
dual-phase steel, which is heat treated to contain both a ferritic and martensitic
microstructure to produce a formable, high strength steel.[72] Transformation Induced
Plasticity (TRIP) steel involves special alloying and heat treatments to stabilize amounts
of austenite at room temperature in normally austenite-free low-alloy ferritic steels. By
applying strain, the austenite undergoes a phase transition to martensite without the
addition of heat.[73] Twinning Induced Plasticity (TWIP) steel uses a specific type of strain
to increase the effectiveness of work hardening on the alloy.[74]

Carbon Steels are often galvanized, through hot-dip or electroplating in zinc for
protection against rust.[75]

Alloy

Stainless steels contain a minimum of 11%

chromium, often combined with nickel, to resist
corrosion. Some stainless steels, such as the ferritic
stainless steels are magnetic, while others, such as
the austenitic, are nonmagnetic.[76] Corrosion-
resistant steels are abbreviated as CRES.

Alloy steels are plain-carbon steels in which small

amounts of alloying elements like chromium and
vanadium have been added. Some more modern
steels include tool steels, which are alloyed with
large amounts of tungsten and cobalt or other
elements to maximize solution hardening. This also
allows the use of precipitation hardening and
improves the alloy's temperature resistance.[5] Tool
steel is generally used in axes, drills, and other
devices that need a sharp, long-lasting cutting edge. Forging a structural member out of
Other special-purpose alloys include weathering steel

steels such as Cor-ten, which weather by acquiring a

11/19
stable, rusted surface, and so can be used un-
painted.[77] Maraging steel is alloyed with nickel and
other elements, but unlike most steel contains little
carbon (0.01%). This creates a very strong but still
malleable steel.[78]

Eglin steel uses a combination of over a dozen

different elements in varying amounts to create a
relatively low-cost steel for use in bunker buster
Cor-Ten rust coating
weapons. Hadfield steel (after Sir Robert Hadfield)
or manganese steel contains 12–14% manganese
which when abraded strain-hardens to form a very hard skin which resists wearing.
Examples include tank tracks, bulldozer blade edges, and cutting blades on the jaws of
life.

Standards

Most of the more commonly used steel alloys are categorized into various grades by
standards organizations. For example, the Society of Automotive Engineers has a series of
grades defining many types of steel.[79] The American Society for Testing and Materials
has a separate set of standards, which define alloys such as A36 steel, the most commonly
used structural steel in the United States.[80] The JIS also defines a series of steel grades
that are being used extensively in Japan as well as in developing countries.

Uses
Iron and steel are used widely in the construction of
roads, railways, other infrastructure, appliances,
and buildings. Most large modern structures, such
as stadiums and skyscrapers, bridges, and airports,
are supported by a steel skeleton. Even those with a
concrete structure employ steel for reinforcing. It
sees widespread use in major appliances and cars.
Despite the growth in usage of aluminium, steel is
still the main material for car bodies. Steel is used in
a variety of other construction materials, such as
A roll of steel wool
bolts, nails and screws and other household
products and cooking utensils.[81]

Other common applications include shipbuilding, pipelines, mining, offshore

construction, aerospace, white goods (e.g. washing machines), heavy equipment such as
bulldozers, office furniture, steel wool, tool, and armour in the form of personal vests or
vehicle armour (better known as rolled homogeneous armour in this role).

Historical

12/19
Before the introduction of the Bessemer process and
other modern production techniques, steel was
expensive and was only used where no cheaper
alternative existed, particularly for the cutting edge
of knives, razors, swords, and other items where a
hard, sharp edge was needed. It was also used for
springs,
[54] including those used in clocks and watches.

With the advent of speedier and thriftier production A carbon steel knife
methods, steel has become easier to obtain and
much cheaper. It has replaced wrought iron for a multitude of purposes. However, the
availability of plastics in the latter part of the 20th century allowed these materials to
replace steel in some applications due to their lower fabrication cost and weight.[82]
Carbon fiber is replacing steel in some cost insensitive applications such as sports
equipment and high-end automobiles.

Long

As reinforcing bars and mesh in reinforced

concrete
Railroad tracks
Structural steel in modern buildings and
bridges
Wires
Input to reforging applications
A steel bridge

A steel pylon suspending overhead

power lines

Flat carbon

Weathering (COR-TEN)

Main article: Weathering steel

Stainless

13/19
Main article: Stainless steel
Cutlery
Rulers
Surgical instruments
Watches
Guns
Rail passenger vehicles
Tablets
Trash Cans
Body piercing jewellery A stainless steel gravy boat
Inexpensive rings
Components of spacecraft and space stations

Low-background

Main article: Low-background steel

Steel manufactured after World War II became contaminated with radionuclides by
nuclear weapons testing. Low-background steel, steel manufactured prior to 1945, is used
for certain radiation-sensitive applications such as Geiger counters and radiation
shielding.

See also

References
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Further reading

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Steel.

Wikiquote has quotations related to Steel.

Look up steel in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Official website of the World Steel Association (worldsteel)
steeluniversity.org: Online steel education resources, an initiative of World
Steel Association
Metallurgy for the Non-Metallurgist from the American Society for Metals

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 MATDAT Database of Properties of Unalloyed, Low-Alloy and High-Alloy Steels –
obtained from published results of material testing

Iron and steel production

Recycling

Authority control

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