Department of Mechanical Engineering

UNIT-2
STEEL AND ALLOYS

1. Definition Of STEEL
Steel is an alloy of iron and carbon containing less than 2% carbon and 1%
manganese and small amounts of silicon, phosphorus, sulphur and oxygen.

Steel is the world's most important engineering and construction material..

Alloys- a metal made by combining two or more metallic elements, especially to

give greater strength or resistance to corrosion.

CAST IRON

• A hard, relatively brittle alloy of iron and carbon which can be readily cast in
a mould and contains a higher proportion of carbon than steel

Classification of cast iron

1. Grey cast iron.

2. White cast iron

3. Mottled cast iron

4. Nodular cast iron

5. Malleable cast iron

6. Alloy cast iron.

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Grey Cast iron

• Gray iron, or grey cast iron, is a type of cast iron that has a graphitic microstructure. It is
named after the gray color of the fracture it forms, which is due to the presence of
graphite. It is the most common cast iron and the most widely used cast material based on
weight.

• It is used for housings where the stiffness of the component is more important than
its tensile strength

Properties of Grey Cast iron.

• It can be readily cast into desired shape using Cope

• It posses lowest melting among all alloys.

• It has high resisitant to wear

• It posses high compressive strength

• It [posses excellent casting properties for producing simple and complex shapes.

White cast iron

• White cast iron is formed when on solidification, carbon in solution is not able to form
graphite White cast irons are hard and brittle; they cannot easily be machined. White cast
iron is unique in that it is the only member of the cast iron family in which carbon is present
only as carbide.

Properties of White cast iron

• White cast iron has high compressive strength and retains good hardness and strength at
higher temperature. The presence of different carbides, depending on the alloy content,
makes white cast irons extremely hard and abrasion resistant but very brittle.

• Hard and brittle and cannot be machined.

• Highly resistant to wear.

• Tensile strength is good.

• Obtained by rapid cooling of metal.

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• White iron castings can be made in sand moulds.

Mottled cast iron

• Mixture of the grey cast iron and white cast iron.

• Less tendency to rust than grey variety.

• Fluidity is good.

• Hard and brittle.

• Used for manhole covers and pipes.

Nodular cast iron

• These are material that has found a increasing number of applications in the automotive
industry during the last decade. It has a static strength comparable to cast steels and a
greater fatigue strength and ductility than grey irons.

Properties of Nodular cast iron

• It posseses very good machinability.

• It posses damping capacity intermediate between cast iron and steel.

• It posses excellent castability and wear resistant.

• The properties depends upon metal composition and cooling rate.

Malleable cast iron

• It is obtained by giving a long time annealing to cast iron.

• It posses high yield strength.

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• It can be hammered and rolled into different shapes

• It has a shrinkage of 1.5mm/100mm

• It is soft ,tough and easily machined.

Uses of Malleable cast iron

• Differential and steering gear housing.

• Brake pedals,hangers..

• Tractor springs.

• Automotive crankshafts.

• Washing machine parts

• Agriculture implements.

Alloys of carbon steel

• Alloy steels are made of iron, carbon and other elements such as vanadium,
silicon, nickel, manganese, copper and chromium. When other elements comprising metals
and non-metals are added to carbon steel, alloy steel is formed.

Properties and uses of steel alloy

• The following is a range of improved properties in alloy steels (as compared to carbon
steels): strength, hardness, toughness, wear resistance, corrosion resistance, hardenability,
and hot hardness. To achieve some of these improved properties the metal may require heat
treating.

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• Alloy steel is most commonly used to manufacture pipes, especially pipes for energy-
related applications. It's also used in the manufacturing of heating elements in appliances
like toasters, silverware, pots and pans, and corrosion-resistant containers.

TOOL STEEL.
Hard steel of a quality used for making cutting tools.

Tool steels are high-quality, carbon and alloy steels that are commonly used to make cutters,
reamers, bits etc used for machining metals, plastics, and wood. They are usually melted in
furnaces and processed to give them properties required for shaping other metals into useful
components.

HOT AND COLD WORKING OF STEELS

• Recrystallization is a process by which deformed grains are replaced by a new set of defect-
free grains that nucleate and grow until the original grains have been entirely consumed.

• Cold work is defined as the plastic deformation of a metal below its re-crystallization
temperature. The steel bars we machine are typically cold drawn (cold worked)

• Hot working process metals are plastically deformed above their recrystallization
temperature. Being above the recrystallization temperature allows the material to
recrystallize during deformation

• Hot Work Steels are used for applications requiring strength, wear resistance and toughness
at elevated temperatures.

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HIGH SPEED STEEL(HSS)

• High-speed steel (HSS or HS) is a subset of tool steels, commonly used as cutting tool
material. It is often used in power-saw blades and drill bits

• an alloy tool steel which when heat-treated retains much of its hardness and toughness at
red heat thus enabling tools made of it to cut at high speeds even though red-hot through
friction.

• A common type of high-speed steel contains 18% tungsten, 4% chromium, 1% vanadium,

and only 0.5–0.8% carbon

PROPERTIES AND APPLICATIONS OF HSS

• High-speed steels have unique physical and mechanical properties that make them good
candidates for the production of parts with an optimal combination of high strength, wear
resistance, toughness and hardness.

• The main use of high-speed steels continues to be in the manufacture of various cutting
tools: drills, taps, milling cutters, tool bits, hobbing (gear) cutters, saw blades, planer and
jointer blades, router bits, etc., although usage for punches and dies is increasing.

• High speed steels also found a market in fine hand tools where their relatively good
toughness at high hardness, coupled with high abrasion resistance, made them suitable for
low speed applications requiring a durable keen (sharp) edge, such as files, chisels, hand
plane blades, and damascus kitchen knives and pocket knives.

• High speed steel tools are the most popular for use in woodturning, as the speed of
movement of the work past the edge is relatively high for handheld tools, and HSS holds
its edge far longer than high carbon steel tools can.

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Stainless steel
• Stainless steel is a corrosion-resistant alloy of iron, chromium and, in some cases, nickel
and other metals. There are many grades and surface finishes of stainless steel available
depending on the environment the metal is expected to withstand. Based on the
microstructure, they can be classified into four major categories.

• Types of stainless steel

1. Austenitic stainless steel.

2. Ferritic stainless steel.

3. Martensitic stainless steel.

4. Duplex stainless steel

5. Precipatation hardening stainless steel.

Applications of Stainless steel

• Most often, stainless steel is used for applications requiring the unique
properties of steel along with resistance to corrosion. You'll find this alloy
milled into coils, sheets, plates, bars, wire, and tubing. It is most often made
into:

• Culinary uses

– Kitchen sinks

– Cutlery

– Cookware
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• Surgical tools and medical equipment

– Hemostats

– Surgical implants

– Temporary crowns (dentistry)

• Architecture

– Bridges

– Monuments and sculptures

– Airport roofs

• Automotive and aerospace applications

– Auto bodies

– Rail cars

– Aircraft

Spring steel

• Spring steel is a name given to a wide range of steels used in the manufacture
of springs, prominently in automotive and industrial suspension applications.

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Applications of Spring steel

• As a general use steel, spring steel has a wide range of

commercial applications. It is a common material used for manufacturing
objects like springs, washers, saw blades, lock picks, antennas, and scrapers.

Specification of Steel

• The specifications and the notations used for the steels vary from country to
country, but each specification is based on certain criterion. The chemical
composition, mechanical properties, hardenability, method of manufacture,
nature of applications, etc.

• Steel is graded as a way of classification and is often categorized into four

groups—Carbon, Alloy, Stainless, and Tool. Carbon Steels only contain trace
amounts of elements besides carbon and iron. This group is the most common,
accounting for 90% of steel production.

• The Annual Book of ASTM Standards for Steel consists of 8 volumes. It

contains formally approved ASTM standard classifications, guides, practices,
specifications, test methods and terminology and related material such as
proposals. The Annual Book of ASTM Standards for Steel consists of 8
volumes.

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SYSTEM FOR GRADING

• The ASTM Grading System

assigns each metal a letter prefix based on its overall category (“A” is the
designation for iron and steel materials), as well as a sequentially-assigned number
that corresponds with that metal’s specific properties.

• The SAE Grading System

uses a four-digit number for classification. The first two digits denote the steel
type and alloying element concentration, and the last two digits indicate the carbon
concentration of the metal

• Many of the ASTM specifications have been adopted by the American Society
of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) with slight or no modifications. ASME
uses the prefix S with the ASTM specifications; for example, ASME SA 213
and ASTM A 213 are the same.

• SAE/AISI designations for the chemical compositions of carbon and alloy

steels are sometimes included in the ASTM specifications for bars, wires, and
billets for forging. Some ASTM specifications for sheet products incorporate
SAE-AISI designations for chemical composition.

Application of steel in Automotive

• In cars, steel is used to create the underlying chassis or cage beneath the body
that forms the skeleton of the vehicle and protects you in the event of a crash.
Door beams, roofs and even body panels created during auto manufacturing
are made of steel on most cars today.

• Stainless steel is widely used in car exhaust systems and for auto parts such
as hose clamps and seatbelt springs. It will soon be common in chassis,

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suspension, body, fuel tank and catalytic converter applications. Stainless is

now a candidate for structural applications.

Grades of steel

• Steel grading systems provide a way to categorize steel based on all the
different factors that can influence its properties and uses.

• Steel grading standards are widely used by scientists, engineers, architects,

and government agencies to ensure quality and consistency of materials.
These standards provide a common language to communicate the properties
of steel with great specificity, and guide product manufacturers toward proper
processing and application procedures.

Designation and coding

• A number of systems for grading steel exist in different countries. The

American system is usually termed as SAE ( Society of Automobile
Engineers) or AISI ( American Iron and Steel Industries) systems. For an
example, a steel denoted as SAE 1020 indicates 0.2% carbon and 13%
tungsten. In this system the first digit indicates the chief alloying material.
Digits 1,2,3,4 and 7 refer to carbon, nickel, nickel/chromium, molybdenum
and tungsten respectively. More details may be seen in the standards. The
second digit or second and third digits give the percentage of the main alloying
element and the last two digits indicate the carbon percentage. This therefore
explains that SAE

• 71360 indicates an alloy steel with 0.6% carbon and the percentage of main
alloying material tungsten is 13. In British system steels are designated by the
letters En followed by a number such as 1,2…16, 20 etc. Corresponding
constituent elements can be seen from the standards but in general En4 is
equivalent to C25 steel, En6 is equivalent to C30 steel and so on. AISI/SAE
Classification System for Plain Carbon Steels. The plain carbon steels can be
further classified by specific composition according to the AISI and SAE
designations. As a specific example, the designation AISI/SAE 1040 signifies
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a medium carbon steel with a nominal carbon content of 0.40% and with the
following range of composition:

Element Content,

• Carbon 0.37–0.44

• Manganese 0.60–0.90

• Phosphorus 0.040 max

• Sulfur 0.050 max

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