Steel

Steel is an iron-based alloy containing carbon and often other elements. Its composition and heat treatment can be varied to produce a wide range of strength, hardness, and toughness.

Iron–carbon phase diagram: A diagram showing the phases present in iron–carbon alloys at different temperatures and compositions. It maps the phases that form as steel composition and temperature change.
Basic oxygen steelmaking: A steelmaking process that blows oxygen into molten iron to reduce its carbon and impurity content. It is a principal modern route for converting blast-furnace iron into steel.
Structural steel: Steel products designed for load-bearing frameworks in buildings, bridges, and other structures. Its predictable strength and fabrication options suit structural frames.
Industrial Revolution: A period of profound economic and technological change beginning in Britain in the eighteenth century. Improved iron and steel production helped expand machinery, railways, and factory construction.
Ferrite: A soft, body-centered cubic form of iron that dissolves little carbon. Ferrite is a major, relatively soft phase in many steels.
Electric arc furnace: A furnace that melts metal using electric arcs between electrodes and the charge. It produces steel from scrap or direct-reduced iron, often with flexible batch operation.
Stainless steel: Corrosion-resistant steel containing enough chromium to form a protective surface film. Chromium-rich grades serve where ordinary steel would corrode too quickly.
Bessemer process: A nineteenth-century method for making steel by oxidizing impurities in molten pig iron with air. It sharply lowered the cost of mass-producing steel before newer processes supplanted it.
Austenite: A face-centered cubic form of iron that can dissolve substantially more carbon than ferrite. Heating many steels creates austenite, the starting phase for key hardening treatments.
Quenching: Rapid cooling used to change a material's microstructure and properties. Quenching steel can form hard martensite from austenite.

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