Steel – Harry & Co Jewellery

Steel Definitions and Properties

Steel is an alloy of iron and carbon with improved strength and fracture resistance compared to other forms of iron.
Stainless steels, which are resistant to corrosion and oxidation, typically need an additional 11% chromium.
Iron is the base metal of steel and can take two crystalline forms: body-centred cubic and face-centred cubic.
Small amounts of carbon, other elements, and inclusions within the iron act as hardening agents in steel.
The carbon content of steel can vary and may contribute up to 2.14% of its weight.
Steel is known for its hardness, quenching behavior, need for annealing, tempering behavior, yield strength, and tensile strength.
The increase in steel's strength compared to pure iron is achieved by reducing its ductility.
Steel has a density ranging between 7,750 and 8,050 kg/m or 7.75 and 8.05 g/cm.
Different metallurgical structures can form in steel with different properties.
Pure iron exists as alpha iron (BCC structure) at room temperature.
Carbon can be included in iron as ferrite or austenite.
Annealing relieves local internal stresses in steel.
Quenching creates a hard but brittle martensitic structure.
Tempering reduces brittleness and transforms martensite into cementite or spheroidite.
Heat treatment improves ductility and fracture resistance in steel.
The temperature required for annealing depends on the type and alloying constituents.

Iron is commonly found in the Earth's crust as an ore, usually an iron oxide.
Iron is extracted from iron ore through smelting, which involves removing the oxygen by combining it with carbon.
Smelting results in an alloy called pig iron, which retains too much carbon to be called steel.
Other materials, such as nickel, manganese, chromium, and vanadium, are added to the iron/carbon mixture to produce steel with desired properties.
Stainless steel is created by adding at least 11% chromium to inhibit corrosion and form a hard oxide on the metal surface.
Steel production on a large scale began in the 17th century with the introduction of blast furnaces and crucible steel.
The Bessemer process, developed in the mid-19th century, revolutionized mass-produced steel.
The open-hearth furnace and basic oxygen steelmaking (BOS) further improved the production process.
Mild steel replaced wrought iron, and major steel production centers emerged in cities like Pittsburgh and Cleveland.
Refinements in production methods have lowered costs and increased the quality of the final steel product.

Common alloying elements in steel include manganese, nickel, chromium, molybdenum, boron, titanium, vanadium, tungsten, cobalt, and niobium.
Phosphorus, sulfur, silicon, and traces of oxygen, nitrogen, and copper are also important, albeit often considered undesirable.
Cast iron, with a carbon content higher than 2.1%, is not malleable but can be formed through casting.
Cast iron can be heat treated to produce malleable iron or ductile iron objects.
Steel is distinguishable from wrought iron, which contains a small amount of carbon but large amounts of slag.

Steel production has ancient origins, with bloomeries and crucibles used in antiquity.
The earliest known production of steel dates back to 1800 BC in Anatolia.
Steel weapons like the falcata were used in the Iberian Peninsula.
Noric steel was utilized by the Roman military.
Seric iron (wootz steel) from India gained a reputation worldwide.
Bethlehem Steel in Pennsylvania was one of the largest steel manufacturers before its closure in 2003.
The steel industry is considered an indicator of economic progress.
The number of U.S. steelworkers decreased from 500,000 in 1980 to 224,000 in 2000.
China and India's economic boom increased steel demand.
Indian and Chinese steel firms expanded to meet demand.
ArcelorMittal is the world's largest steel producer as of 2017.
China was the top steel producer in 2005 with one-third of the world share.
Japan, Russia, and the US followed as top steel producers.
Steel production capacity results in significant carbon dioxide emissions.
Around 7% of global greenhouse gas emissions come from the steel industry.
Reduction of emissions expected through a shift in production route and carbon capture technology.

Steel plays a critical role in infrastructural and economic development.
Steel demand increased by 6% between 2000 and 2005.
Tata Steel, Baosteel Group, and Shagang Group expanded to meet demand.
Steel is widely used in the construction, automotive, and manufacturing industries.
Steel is still the main material for car bodies, despite the growth of aluminum usage.
It is used in shipbuilding, pipelines, mining, aerospace, and heavy equipment.
Other applications include office furniture, steel wool, tools, and armor.
Steel is one of the most-recycled materials globally, with a recycling rate of over 60%.
In the United States, over 82,000,000 metric tons of steel were recycled in 2008, with an overall recycling rate of 83%.
The amount of recycled raw materials in steel production is about 40% of the total steel produced.
In 2016, 630,000,000 tonnes of steel were recycled out of a total of 1,628,000,000 tonnes produced globally.

Reference	URL
Glossary	https://harryandcojewellery.com.au/blogs/glossary/steel
Wikipedia	http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steel
Wikidata	https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q11427
Knowledge Graph	https://www.google.com/search?kgmid=/m/06qqb