Give It to Me straight Flat So, what exactly are we talking about when we mention flatness in steel? It's simply the amount of space between the plate and a perfectly flat surface. One way it is measured is by placing the sheet on a flat surface and determining the distance from the surface to the highest point of the sheet, then subt ..

Tensile vs Yield Strength What's the Difference? Knowing both the yield and tensile strength is important because they both have an impact on the production and use of steel (and many other materials, but we will focus on the steel). So, what's the difference between yield strength and tensile strength? The biggest difference  ..

b How is Steel Made? Items we use every day come from steel- paperclips, tools, and cars to name a few. Sometimes you may wonder how those items are made, but have you ever wondered how the steel itself is made? Sir Henry Bessemer developed the first process for affordably manufacturing steel in 1856 called the ..

Industry Terms We put together a short list of terms often used in the steel industry as a quick reference guide. While this does not give you the full meaning of the term, we hope it will provide some assistance while navigating our site and this industry! AR – Abrasion Resistant. A type of steel that is tougher than ..

Anneal, Normalize, and Stress Relieve In order to understand what annealing, normalizing and stress relieving is, we first need to understand what heat treatment is. The heat treat process is used to change physical or chemical properties of a material through austenitizing (heating material to a high temperature), quenching (quick cooling  ..

Quenching and Tempering Steel is strong to begin with, but sometimes it’s necessary to make it even stronger. One of the common treatments to achieve this is quenching and tempering. This is a process that strengthens and hardens iron-based alloys by heating, rapidly cooling, and reheating. When steel is heated above a certain point, ..

Hardness & Hardenability Two words commonly heard in the metal industry are hardness and hardenability. Derived from the same root, but a very different meaning. Hardness is a characteristic of the steel, while hardenability is describing an ability of the steel. In order to understand hardness, we first need to go through the p ..

11 Elements Found in Steel and Why They're There Making steel is just like baking- each type has its own recipe and variations to get what you're looking for. Sticking to the recipe is key in baking. If you add too much flour, your cake will be dry. If you add an extra egg, it'll be richer. Think of steel in that way, except you ..

Thermal Cracking of Steel If you live in an area where the weather is a bit unpredictable, but you can always count on the winters being cold, then this post is for you. If you don’t, then it’s still for you because your steel might be coming from a cold area. In Cleveland, we have been working with days in the single digit temperatur ..

What are the steel cutting options? Very rarely does steel come in the shape or size needed. The plate is cut using one of the various methods available, usually thermal or erosion cutting. When steel is cut using a thermal process, heat is used to melt the metal. This is also known as burning. Burning has four major methods t ..