What is steel?
steel is the most common metal alloy in the world. In its simplest form it consists of iron and different amounts of carbon. Because both iron and carbon have been well known since antiquity, the alloy was produced in one or another before the birth of Christ. Some of the earliest steels were made in the eastern areas of Africa, around 1,400 BCE
is the main component of steel, with carbon is a distant second, between 0.2% and 2.14%, depending on the degree. Carbon is the most cost -effective way for an iron alloy, but other metals can be used to expand the element and to provide metal a certain characteristics. Metal known as cast iron is actually steel, which has a very high carbon content, giving it a lower melting point and a greater indentation. The steel is well known for its strength, which is given to it exactly by means of alloying elements. While this structure is relatively rigid, there may be imperfections that create small weak points in the metal. The atoms of the alloying elements can fill in these microscopic weaknessesIn the grid, which gives the alloy flexibility and tensile strength for which it is known.
The modern steel industry produces metal using what is called a basic oxygen furnace. In these furnaces, the molten iron has pure oxygen from it, which reduces the level of dirt. For the same purpose, the cleaning agents called Fluxes are also added. The main advantage of this process, except for a high quality product, is its speed.
The previous processes included the Bessemer process where the air was forced by molten iron to oxidize dirt. Carbon monoxide is one by -product of this process, while other dirt is a slag. The invention of the Bessemer process was particularly remarkable, because it was steel as a mass -produced cheap commodity. The alloy was made by various methods in the Middle Ages and earlier, but none of them were particularly effective, nor could be used on a large scale.
As steel production techniques have improved, a wider variety of alloys was available. The use of several different metals, such as tungsten and chrome, can produce a metal that is adapted to very specific applications. The field of features that can be provided by adding different elements can be seen, for example, that two things different as samurai swords and cars are made of iron alloys of other metals.