Steel is a vital material, valued for being lightweight yet strong. More than 1 billion tons of steel are produced every year, being widely used in buildings, transportation, electrical appliances, and energy technologies. Iron and steel manufacturing in the United States produces 7% of industrial emissions.
You can find more information on our web, so please take a look.
Steelmaking is energy- and emissions-intensive, requiring high process temperatures and a source of carbon to drive reactions. Generating heat and the chemical reactions that occur during steelmaking processes both produce significant emissions.
Traditional steel furnaces burn fossil fuels to reach the temperatures needed to smelt raw iron and carbon into steel. Process emissions are created when carbon is used to remove oxygen from iron ore, reducing it to pig iron, the key feedstock in the steel industry. Electric arc furnaces (EAFs) can utilize recycled steel scrap, foregoing many of the process emissions associated with smelting new steel from reduced iron ore. EAFs can rely on renewable sources of electricity to eliminate energy use emissions.
However, steelmaking remains a relatively energy-intensive process with considerable greenhouse gas emissions. To address these issues, the Industrial Technologies Office (ITO) is helping to lead the Department of Energy's (DOE) Low Emissions Steel Manufacturing Research Program. The Program is developing key decarbonization pathways including:
Technology development is also underway to provide an infrastructure capable of supplying clean hydrogen and renewable electricity to help enable the industry to decarbonize its operations.
You don’t have to be an engineer to have heard of steel—this material is everywhere. It’s useful for heavy-duty construction tasks, and versatile enough to be made into cookware, too. This article will talk about steel’s features and uses, as well as the different types.
Steel is an iron and carbon combination with up to 2% carbon—but no more. Other elements can be (and are very often) added to the iron top of carbon, like manganese, chromium, and nickel, but in very small amounts to give it different benefits. Steel’s iron levels can reach 99% for carbon steel and mild steel. For the likes of stainless steel, like 304, you’ll find a lower percentage sitting around 70% iron. Other elements like cadmium, boron, and molybdenum are common additions, too. The trace amounts of different alloying elements are part of how steel is categorized and graded. Steel will last, on average, 100 years and it’ll stay rigid without swelling or creeping.
For more information, please visit Xin Jiyuan.
Steel is a strong metal that keeps its strength even under tension and heavy loads. It’s usable for a very long list of products and applications—and it’s a favorite of our customers at Xometry. Steel came to be in India thousands of years ago in 400 BCE and it has since developed into an alloy with numerous elements that make it the durable and common material manufacturers choose to use again and again. Here’s what it looks like:
Most steel types are machinable—with free-cutting steels being the easiest to work with—and easy to weld, too. Some are a little harder to weld with, but it’s still doable with a few specialized welding processes. When you put it up against other metals, you’ll notice steel has a lower thermal and electrical conductivity value, which makes it great for shielding against heat. More than 60% of steel gets recycled globally, and it’s fortunately an easy material to recycle and even reuse again. Steel is made by smelting through either a blast furnace or an electric arc furnace. The first method uses iron ore and a type of coal called coke, which has had its impurities removed. This gets fired by air and doused with lime to create the metallic material needed. You then end up with pig iron, which gets processed through a direct oxygen furnace that’ll create molten steel.
When using an electric arc furnace, you’ll fire the iron ore with natural gas in a direct reduction furnace, then you’ll send it to an electric arc furnace. In here, submerged electrodes will form hot arcs between one another and melt down the metal, and this is where you’d add in the alloying elements. After this, the molten steel is cast, rolled, shaped, then processed in any manner of ways, such as annealing or temperament, depending on what it’s needed to do. Unless it has the right alloying elements in it or is treated properly, steel tends to corrode more easily than other metals. It’s a heavier material than others (such as polycarbonate or plastics), which means it doesn’t usually work in all situations, especially when weight is a priority—like in aerospace. It also is one of the pricier materials, particularly grades that have been treated or made for specialty uses.
There are so many ways that steel can be used and, since it shows its face in many different sectors, it’s hard to list them all out. Just a few examples include tools, bridges, cars, trains, ships, beams, packaging, surgical instruments, medical implants, carabiners, pylons, sports equipment, motors, and generators. Here is an example of a part that can be made from steel.
Products that are designed to stay outside, or spend a lot of time outdoors and subject to various weather conditions (not only rain and snow, but sun rays, too), are often made from this weathering steel. Its chromium, nickel, and copper help this weather-resistant metal form an oxidized layer to keep corrosion away.
With around 2–3.5% silicon in its composition, electrical steel is used by electricians and contractors for wiring, motors, transformers, and other electrical needs.
While this is a type of tool steel, it’s particularly made for fast-moving power tools that can handle high pressure and speeds, and hot temperatures. To make it strong and durable, tungsten and molybdenum are included, and it is heat treated, too.
For more information, please visit Industrial Steel Applications.