Technical

Heat Treatment

Heat treating changes the mechanical and physical properties of steel products.
* Annealing - Softens the steel and makes it more workable for shearing, forming and machining.
* Normalizing - Refines the internal structure to provide the steel with more uniform mechanical properties, better ductility, and greater impact resistance.
* Stress Relieving - Removes residual stresses within the bar, restoring mechanical properties and preventing distortion.

Carbon Steel

Consists of iron combined with small amounts of carbon. The carbon content will vary within the range of .008% to approximately 2.0%. By AISI definition, a carbon steel may also contain limited amounts of the elements...
Manganese (1.65% Max)
Silicon ( .60% Max)
Copper ( .60% Max)
Other elements may exist within the analysis of such steels but will be at levels permissible for status of the elements.

Alloy Steels

Steel which exceeds the limits of a plain carbon steel and/or to which one or more of the alloying elements have been added. As a general rule, alloy steels are specified when the mechanical and/or physical properties of a plain carbon steel need to be adjusted for specific requirements. Most alloy steel applications require heat treating as an additional step before final application.

Mechanical Properties

The properties of a material that reveal its elastic and inelastic behavior when force is applied. This indicates the material suitability for mechanical applications.
* Tensile strength - The maximum conventional stress that a steel can withstand.
* Yield Strength - The stress at which a steel exhibits a specified deviation from the proportionality of stress to strain.
* Elongation - In tensile testing, the increase in gage length measured after fracture of the specimen within the gauge length usually expressed as a percentage of the original gage length.

Hot Rolled

Term used to describe steel products that are brought to approximate finished size by rolling at elevated temperatures.

Cold Drawing

The Process of pulling a hot rolled bar through a die of lesser size. Cold drawing gives the hot rolled bar a bright, clean, uniform surface and increases the tensile and yield strength. Cold drawing also increases torsional strength, surface hardness, wear resistance, and imparts significant improvement in machinability.

Institutes

SAE - Society of Automotive Engineers
AISI - American Iron and Steel Institute
ASTM - American Society for Testing and Materials