Hi and welcome to Metal Supermarkets, the Convenience Stores for Metal.
I'm Jason Jackson, Operations and Development Manager.
Customer often ask us about the different types of steel and what type they should use for their projects.
So, in this video blog series we'll take an in-depth look at some of these common types of steel.
At Metal Supermarkets we find it useful to group steel into four categories using the acronym C.A.S.T.
This stands for Carbon Steel, Alloy Steel, Stainless Steel and Tool Steel.
The American Iron and Steel Institute, or the AISI, categorizes steel into these four groups
based on chemical composition.
Within each category, there are many different grades of steel
that have varying physical, chemical and environmental properties.
It is the amount of carbon and the additional alloys that determine the properties of each grade.
Different types of steel can also be classified by a variety of different factors, such as
composition, production method,
finishing method, form or shape,
de-oxidization process, microstructure,
physical strength and heat treatment.
To identify the properties of steel the
steel industry uses two major numbering systems.
The first was developed by the AISI and the second by the Society of Automotive Engineers, or SAE.
Both systems use four digit number codes which identify the base carbon and alloy steels.
If the first digit is a one, that indicates carbon steel.
The next digit indicates the sub category based on particular underlying properties.
For example, the 10 series indicates plain carbon steel
containing 1% manganese maximum.
The 11 series contains re-sulfurized carbon steel.
The 12 series is re-sulfurized and re-phosphorized carbon steel.
And finally the 15 series contains non-re-sulfurized high manganese carbon steel.
Remaining alloy steels under the SAE or AISI systems are classified as shown.
Generally but not always the second digit in the series indicates
the concentration of the major element in percentiles.
The last two digits indicate the carbon concentration to 0.01%
So, 4140 indicates a molybdenum alloy steel containing 1% of molybdenum and 0.40% of carbon.
Hopefully this introduction has helped you get a better idea of the different types of steel available.
Stay tuned for the next video in this series where we will look closer at the "C" in C.A.S.T.
Carbon Steel.
If you need steel for your next project
Metal Supermarkets is the world's largest supplier of small-quantity metals
carrying over 8,000 types, shapes and grades of metal,
including various types of steel
cut to size and ready fast!
