Steel is a versatile metal that can be utilized for a variety of applications. Steel is a component in over 55% of automobiles. The kind of alloys used to manufacture it determines its flexibility, as they affect the material’s durability, strength and performance. The method by which the metal is cooled has significant impact on its microstructure and consequently its overall properties. It is possible to manipulate it to obtain specific properties, such as machinability yielding strength, and resistance to corrosion.
In its most basic form, steel is iron that has been alloyed with various elements to improve its physical properties and make it suitable for certain uses. The proportions of additional alloying elements determines which class of steel it belongs to and its overall performance for various applications.
For example stainless is composed of at least 11% chromium. This makes it resistant against corrosion. This makes it suitable for a variety of applications for cutlery or kitchen utensils. Tool steel, meanwhile is extremely high in durability and abrasion resistance which makes it an ideal material for hand tools and machine dies. Carbon steels can also be adapted to a variety of applications due to their high ductility. Electrical steel is, however, is an example of a highly specialized type of steel which contains silicon (typically about 3%). This improves its magnetic properties, as well as reducing eddy-current losses. It is therefore ideal for transformer cores and laminations of electric motors.