Search Results for low-alloy steel

The production and use of steel plate is aided by a system of standard designations and associated specifications defining composition, property, and performance ranges. This article contains an extensive amount of information on the designations and grades of plate products and how they are made. Although most steel plate is used in the hot-finished condition, some applications require one or more heat treating steps to mitigate imperfections and/or improve relevant qualities. The article discusses these interconnected factors as well as their impact on mechanical properties and critical fabrication issues, including formability, machinability, and weldability.

This article addresses classifications and designations for carbon and low-alloy steel sheet and strip product forms based on composition, quality descriptors, mechanical properties, and other factors. Carbon steel sheet and strip are available as hot-rolled and as cold-rolled products. Low-alloy steel sheet and strip are used primarily for applications that require the mechanical properties normally obtained by heat treatment. The descriptors of quality used for hot-rolled plain carbon steel sheet and strip and cold-rolled plain carbon steel sheet include structural quality, commercial quality, drawing quality, and drawing quality, special killed. The surface texture of low-carbon cold-rolled steel sheet and strip can be varied between rather wide limits. The modified low-carbon steel grades discussed in the article are designed to provide sheet and strip products having increased strength, formability, and/or corrosion resistance. The article also summarizes the key operations involved in the three alternative direct casting processes: thin slab, thin strip, and spray casting.

Two high-strength low-alloy (HSLA) families, acicular-ferrite steels and pearlite-reduced steels, contain microalloying additions of vanadium and niobium. Vanadium, niobium, and titanium combine preferentially with carbon and/or nitrogen to form a fine dispersion of precipitated particles in the steel matrix. This article summarizes the metallurgical effects of vanadium, niobium, molybdenum, and titanium. The metallurgical fundamentals were first applied to forgings in the early 1970s. The ultimate strength of first- and second-generation microalloy steels is adequate for many engineering applications, but these steels do not achieve the toughness of conventional quenched and tempered alloys under normal hot-forging conditions. Third-generation microalloy steels differ from their predecessors in that they are direct quenched from the forging temperature to produce microstructures of lath martensite with uniformly distributed temper carbides. Without subsequent heat treatment, these materials achieve properties, including toughness, similar to those of standard quenched and tempered steels.