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Advantages and Disadvantages of Carbon Steel

Carbon Steel

Materials in the building materials market have evolved one after the other as a result of the continual expansion of urbanization construction. Although these materials are quite common in our daily lives, persons who do not work in the building materials industry may be unfamiliar with carbon steel. We will not grasp its benefits and drawbacks, and we will even disregard its existence. Following that, today I will explain what carbon steel is. And what are its advantages and disadvantages?

 

What material is carbon steel?

Carbon steel is a type of steel that, as the name implies, contains more carbon than other types of steel. Most steels have a low carbon content ranging from 0.05% to 0.3%. Carbon steel, on the other hand, has a carbon content of up to 2.5%. Although two-and-a-half percent carbon may appear modest, it adds some appealing benefits not available elsewhere.

 

What are the advantages and disadvantages of carbon steel?

Advantage:

  • Heat treatment can improve the hardness and wear resistance of carbon steel.
  • Carbon steel in the annealed state has a very moderate hardness and good machinability.
  • Carbon steel raw materials are widely available, easy to get, and relatively inexpensive to produce.

 

Disadvantage:

  • The hot hardness of carbon steel will be poor, because when the working temperature of the tool is greater than 200 degrees, its hardness and wear resistance will drop sharply.
  • The hardenability of carbon steel is incredibly low. Fully hardened steel typically has a diameter of 15 to 18 mm when it is water quenched, whereas carbon steel only has a diameter or thickness of 6 mm when it is not quenched, making it more prone to deformation and cracking.

 

What are the classifications of carbon steel?

Carbon can be removed from iron by further processing. The characteristics of the material are changed by this carbon modification, including:

Strength: A material’s capacity to support a load as determined by its yield point and tensile strength. Tensile strength is the amount of stress required to actually break a material, while yield point is the point at which a material deforms but does not break.

Ductility: the maximum stretch a material will withstand before breaking. Elongation, or the percentage by which a material’s length increases before it breaks, is the indicator of ductility.

Hardness: The material’s machinability and wear resistance.  The Rockwell or Brinell hardness scales are typically used to measure this.

Low (or mild), medium, and high carbon steel are the three main categories of carbon steel, depending on how much carbon is typically removed from the steel. The chart below illustrates the various levels of carbon present in each of these categories.

 

 

 

Type of Carbon SteelCarbon Composition
LOW CARBON/MILD0.05-0.25%
MEDIUM CARBON0.26-0.60%
HIGH CARBON0.61-1.50%

 

 

 

 

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