Glossary of steel terms
Steel Terms Explained.
- AISI
Stands for the American Iron and Steel Institute, a leading organization in steel industry standards and practices.
- Alloy
A combination of two or more chemical elements, with at least one being a metal, to enhance material properties.
- Alloy Steel
Steel that incorporates multiple alloying elements to improve strength, durability, or resistance to wear.
- Annealing
A heat treatment process that softens steel and alleviates internal stresses by heating it in a furnace and cooling it gradually.
- ASTM
Abbreviation for the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM International), which sets global material standards.
- Austenitic
A type of stainless steel with a face-centered cubic structure, often containing 18% chromium and 8% nickel for corrosion resistance.
- Bar
Steel shaped into long lengths of various cross-sections, including round, square, flat, and hexagonal.
- Brinell Hardness (HB)
A metric for measuring the surface hardness of steel.
- Bright Drawn Steel
Steel bars pass through a die without preheating to achieve a smooth surface and precise dimensions.Steel bars pass through a die without preheating to achieve a smooth surface and precise dimensions.
- Carbon Steel
A versatile steel type primarily composed of carbon, silicon, and manganese, with minimal alloy content.
- Case Hardening
A heat treatment that hardens the outer layer of steel while maintaining a softer core, ideal for wear-resistant applications.
- Cast Iron
An iron-carbon alloy with 1.8%–4.5% carbon content, known for its brittleness and low melting point.
- Centreless Grinding
A finishing process that removes material from round steel bars using a grinding wheel to achieve tight tolerances.
- Charpy Test
An evaluation of a steel’s ability to absorb energy during fracture.
- Creep
The slow deformation of metal under constant stress over time.
- DIN Standards
Steel standards established by the Deutsches Institut für Normung in Germany, are typically represented by alphanumeric codes.
- Duplex Stainless Steel
Hybrid stainless steel with both austenitic and ferritic structures, offers superior strength and resistance to corrosion.
- Electric Arc Furnace
A furnace that uses an electric arc for melting steel, commonly producing billets, blooms, or slabs.
- Ferrous Metal
A term for metals or alloys predominantly composed of iron.
- Fatigue
Structural damage that occurs when steel undergoes repeated cyclic loading.
- Flame Cutting
A method for cutting carbon steel plates using an oxy-fuel gas flame.
- Forging
The process of shaping steel through compressive forces, such as hammering or pressing.
- Grade
A classification of steel based on its composition and performance characteristics.
- Hardening
A process to increase steel’s hardness, typically involving heating, quenching, and tempering.
- Hardness
A method for cutting carbon steel plates using an oxy-fuel gas flame.
- Heat Treatment
Techniques such as annealing, normalizing, and hardening to alter a steel’s mechanical properties.
- High Carbon Steel
Steel with a minimum of 0.5% carbon content, suitable for heat treatment applications.
- High-Speed Steel
A specialized tool steel with high hardness and wear resistance, even at elevated temperatures.
- Impact Testing
Tests the energy absorption capacity of steel when fractured at high velocity.
- Lumsden Grinding
A surface grinding process for finishing steel plates to precise tolerances.
- Manganese Steel
A durable steel with 11%–14% manganese content that hardens under impact or abrasion.
- Martensitic Stainless Steel
Magnetic stainless steel grades that can be hardened and tempered for strength.
- Mechanical Properties
Attributes like strength, toughness, and hardness define how steel performs under various conditions.
- Modulus of Elasticity
A measure of a steel’s elasticity and its ability to return to its original shape after deformation.
- Non-Ferrous Metal
Metals or alloys that do not contain iron.
- Normalizing
A heat treatment that relieves internal stresses and refines the steel grain structure after processes like flame cutting.
- Oxidation
A reaction between steel and oxygen causes surface discolouration or rust.
- Plasma Cutting
A high-precision method for cutting stainless steel using a plasma torch.
- Precipitation Hardening
A heat treatment process for stainless steel that enhances strength and hardness through phase transformations.
- Quenching
Rapid cooling of heated steel in mediums like oil, water, or air to harden it.
- Rockwell Hardness
A common scale for measuring steel’s surface hardness.
- Spring Steel
Steel with high yield strength, designed for spring or high-stress applications.
- Stainless Steel
Highly alloyed steel with excellent corrosion and oxidation resistance.
- Tensile Strength
The maximum stress steel can withstand before breaking.
- Tool Steel
High-hardness steels are tailored for cutting and shaping applications.
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