What Is Carbon Steel?
Iron and Carbon constitute the highest percentages of material present in steel. Carbon is added to the steel to increase its strength, as pure iron is not strong or hard enough on its own. Therefore, carbon poses as a support to steel by increasing its strength. You can get carbon steel from a number of steel dealers in Punjab.
Crude iron is used for the production of steel as it comprises a good amount of carbon. The carbon composition in crude iron can be 2.1%, which is by far the highest amount of carbon a material can incorporate.
However, carbon can be reduced by processing the iron, and the manipulation of the carbon can help to alter several properties of the material. These properties include:
Strength: Refers to the bearing capacity of a material that is determined by its yielding point and tensile strength. Yield point is the point of material where it starts to deform but does not break and tensile strength refers to the stress amount that can break the material.
Ductility: It refers to the capacity of a material to be stretched without breaking. It is measured by elongation, which is the percentage of length that a material can increase before breaking.
Hardness: This refers to the machinability and wear resistance of the material. The hardness is generally measured on the Brinell hardness scale or or Rockwell hardness scale.
There are three types of carbon steel that are produced by reducing the amount of carbon. All three categories of carbon steel comprise different amounts of carbon in them. These categories include:
- Low carbon (or mild)
- Medium carbon
- High carbon
What Is Low Carbon Steel?
Low-carbon steel, which is also called mild steel, is the most widely used carbon steel that can be purchased from a carbon alloy steel supplier in India. This steel usually has less carbon content. Heat treatment cannot be used to harden the low-carbon steel; therefore, it is done through cold work.
Low-carbon steels are usually soft with low strength. However, they do have a high ductility property, which makes them a perfect material for machining and welding.
Low-alloy steel with high strength is also usually known as low-carbon steel. Along with carbon, this steel also contains other elements such as copper, nickel, vanadium and molybdenum. Heating methods achieve high strength in low alloy steel. They also comprise ductile property that makes them machinable and formable without much effort. HSLA has more resistance to corrosion as compared to plain low- carbon steel.
What Is Medium Carbon Steel?
Medium carbon steel is a balanced form of carbon steel between low-carbon steel and high-carbon steel. This type of carbon steel offers a higher strength than hardness as compared to low-carbon steel and, at the same time, incorporates more ductile properties than high-carbon steel. Medium carbon steel is also made with a combination of other alloys like manganese, which also helps to alter its properties.
The treatment of heating, such as tempering and quenching, can achieve the toughness and hardness of the medium carbon steel. These properties can be attained without having to compromise the mechanicality of the medium carbon steel.
What Is High Carbon Steel?
The highest strength and hardness are incorporated by high carbon steel in relation to low carbon steel and medium carbon steel. However, the strength and hardness of high-carbon steel come with low tensile properties as compared to low-carbon steel. This means it would take a great effort from it due to its hard machinability.
High-carbon steel can also be treated with heat in order to enhance its strength, hardness as well as wear resistance, just like medium-carbon steel. High carbon steel is used for the purpose where the steel has to face a high amount of stress. You can contact a number of steel dealers in Punjab to purchase the best quality high-carbon steel.
These are the different types of carbon steel. The use of each type of carbon steel is determined by the type of work they are required for, as well as the properties that they incorporate. It is essential to know all the perks and drawbacks of using any carbon steel before investing in any carbon alloy steel suppliers in India in order to know which steel would be suitable for your purpose.
