Today a team of material scientists at Pohang University of Science and Technology in South Korea announced what they're calling one of the biggest steel breakthroughs of the last few decades: an altogether new type of flexible, ultra-strong, lightweight steel. This new metal has a strength-to-weight ratio that matches even our best titanium alloys, but at one tenth the cost, and can be created on a small scale with machinery already used to make automotive-grade steel. The study appears in Nature.
"Because of its lightness, our steel may find many applications in automotive and aircraft manufacturing," says Hansoo Kim, the researcher that led the team.
According to the American Iron & Steel Institute (AISI), Steel can be categorized into four basic groups based on the chemical compositions:
There are many different grades of steel that encompass varied properties. These properties can be physical, chemical and environmental.
All steel is composed of iron and carbon. It is the amount of carbon, and the additional alloys that determine the properties of each grade.
ClassificationsTypes of Steel can also be classified by a variety of different factors:
- Composition: Carbon range, Alloy, Stainless.
- The production method: Continuous cast, Electric furnace, Etc.
- Finishing method used: Cold Rolled, Hot Rolled, Cold Drawn (Cold Finished), Etc.
- Form or shape: Bar, Rod, Tube, Pipe, Plate, Sheet, Structural, Etc.
- De-oxidation process (oxygen removed from steelmaking process): Killed & Semi-Killed Steel, Etc.
- Microstructure: Ferritic, Pearlitic, Martensitic, Etc.
- Physical Strength (Per ASTM Standards).
- Heat Treatment: Annealed, Quenched & Tempered, Etc.
- Quality Nomenclature: Commercial Quality, Drawing Quality, Pressure Vessel Quality, Etc.
