The use of steel has long been widely entered into our lives and does not cause anyone to doubt its feasibility. However, one should not forget that there are different ones. To date, several types of this material are distinguished:
- Structural steel.
- Tool steel.
- Steel for individual purposes with special properties.
Let's talk about structural steels today. This is the name of all types that are used in the production process of building structures, as well as machine parts and mechanisms.
Types of material
Structural steel is divided into two large groups:
- High-quality structural alloyed.
- High-quality structural carbon.
All these types are used in one or another field of production, performing the functions assigned to them.
Structural Alloy Steel
Quite often, to improve the technological, physicochemical, and strength properties, various elements are added to steel,
that is, they alloy it. Basically, chromium, nickel, manganese are used for these purposes. Structural quality steels may contain either one or several such elements. In this regard, stand out:
- Low alloyed (the number of additives is not more than 2.5%).
- Medium-alloyed (the indicator can increase up to 10%).
- Highly alloyed (additional elements make up more than 10%).
In order to understand how additives work, you need to understand the composition of the material. The basis of it is ferrite (approximately 90% of the volume). Alloying elements dissolve in ferrite, thereby increasing its strength. Silicon, nickel and manganese are especially effective in this regard. But chrome, tungsten and molybdenum have a weaker effect.
It should be noted that structural alloyed steel is characterized by low weldability. This is due to the hardening of the heat-affected zone and the formation of structures that are fragile. Therefore, the welding process uses special technologies developed individually for this type of steel.
Low-alloy structural steel is widely used for the production of locomotives, wagons, and agricultural machinery. All these products are characterized by their ability to withstand variable loads. The weldability parameters of such steel have no restrictions.
High-alloy steel is used to make turbine blades and rotors, reactors, steam pipes and manifold pipes.
Structural carbon steel
The second variety is also represented by several species, such as:
- Machine building Structural steel of this type is used in the manufacture of automobiles.
- Automatic. It is from this steel that various fasteners are made. It is in no way suitable for welding, all parts are machined.
- Boiler room. Indispensable where it comes to the manufacture of boilers and vessels that must withstand high temperatures. Such steel has good weldability.
Structural steel is the material without which the manufacture of certain types of structures and parts becomes impossible.