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Effects of Alloying Elements in Steel

Alloying elements are added to steel to change its properties. Carbon is the most important element and increases hardness up to 0.65% but reduces toughness above 1.5%. Manganese increases strength and hardness penetration allowing quenching in oil. Chromium increases hardness, toughness, wear resistance, and corrosion resistance, with over 14% making stainless steel. Silicon, nickel, molybdenum, vanadium, tungsten, niobium, boron, and titanium each provide unique property improvements when added to steel in small amounts.

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Eslam Nagy
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64 views

Effects of Alloying Elements in Steel

Alloying elements are added to steel to change its properties. Carbon is the most important element and increases hardness up to 0.65% but reduces toughness above 1.5%. Manganese increases strength and hardness penetration allowing quenching in oil. Chromium increases hardness, toughness, wear resistance, and corrosion resistance, with over 14% making stainless steel. Silicon, nickel, molybdenum, vanadium, tungsten, niobium, boron, and titanium each provide unique property improvements when added to steel in small amounts.

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Eslam Nagy
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© © All Rights Reserved
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Section 4: EFFECTS OF ALLOYING ELEMENTS

Effects of Alloying Elements in Steel


Alloying elements are added to effect changes in the properties of steels. The basis of this
section is to cover some of the different alloying elements added to the basic system of
iron and carbon, and what they do to change the properties or effectiveness of steel.
Carbon
As I've already stated, the presence of carbon in iron is necessary to make steel. Carbon is
essential to the formation of cementite (as well as other carbides), and to the formation of
pearlite, spheroidite, bainite, and iron-carbon martensite, with martensite being the
hardest of the micro-structures, and the structure sought after by knifemakers. The
hardness of steel (or more accurately, the hardenability) is increased by the addition of
more carbon, up to about 0.65 percent. Wear resistance can be increased in amounts up to
about 1.5 percent. Beyond this amount, increases of carbon reduce toughness and
increase brittleness. The steels of interest to knifemakers generally contain between 0.5
and 1.5 percent carbon. They are described as follows:
Low Carbon: Under 0.4 percent
Medium Carbon: 0.4 - 0.6 percent
High Carbon: 0.7 - 1.5 percent
Carbon is the single most important alloying element in steel.
Manganese
Manganese slightly increases the strength of ferrite, and also increases the hardness
penetration of steel in the quench by decreasing the critical quenching speed. This also
makes the steel more stable in the quench. Steels with manganese can be quenched in oil
rather than water, and therefore are less susceptible to cracking because of a reduction in
the shock of quenching. Manganese is present in most commercially made steels.
Chromium
As with manganese, chromium has a tendency to increase hardness penetration. This
element has many interesting effects on steel. When 5 percent chromium or more is used
in conjunction with manganese, the critical quenching speed is reduced to the point that
the steel becomes air hardening. Chromium can also increase the toughness of steel, as
well as the wear resistance. Probably one of the most well known effects of chromium on
steel is the tendency to resist staining and corrosion. Steels with 14 percent or more
chromium are referred to as stainless steels. A more accurate term would be stain
resistant. Stainless tool steels will in fact darken and rust, just not as readily as the nonstainless varieties. Steels with chromium also have higher critical temperatures in heat
treatment.
Silicon
Silicon is used as a deoxidizer in the manufacture of steel. It slightly increases the
strength of ferrite, and when used in conjunction with other alloys can help increase the
toughness and hardness penetration of steel.

Nickel
Nickel increases the strength of ferrite, therefore increasing the strength of the steel. It is
used in low alloy steels to increase toughness and hardenability. Nickel also tends to help
reduce distortion and cracking during the quenching phase of heat treatment.
Molybdenum
Molybdenum increases the hardness penetration of steel, slows the critical quenching
speed, and increases high temperature tensile strength.
Vanadium
Vanadium helps control grain growth during heat treatment. By inhibiting grain growth it
helps increase the toughness and strength of the steel.
Tungsten
Used in small amounts, tungsten combines with the free carbides in steel during heat
treatment, to produce high wear resistance with little or no loss of toughness. High
amounts combined with chromium gives steel a property known as red hardness. This
means that the steel will not lose its working hardness at high temperatures. An example
of this would be tools designed to cut hard materials at high speeds, where the friction
between the tool and the material would generate high temperatures.
Copper
The addition of copper in amounts of 0.2 to 0.5 percent primarily improves steels
resistance to atmospheric corrosion. It should be noted that with respect to knife steels,
copper has a detrimental effect to surface quality and to hot-working behavior due to
migration into the grain boundaries of the steel.
Niobium
In low carbon alloy steels Niobium lowers the transition temperature and aids in a fine
grain structure. Niobium retards tempering and can decrease the hardenability of steel
because it forms very stable carbides. This can mean a reduction in the amount of carbon
dissolved into the austenite during heat treating.
Boron
Boron can significantly increase the hardenability of steel without loss of ductility. Its
effectiveness is most noticeable at lower carbon levels. The addition of boron is usually
in very small amounts ranging from 0.0005 to 0.003 percent.
Titanium
This element, when used in conjunction with Boron, increases the effectiveness of the
Boron in the hardenability of steel.

References
Higgins, R.A., Engineering Metallurgy: Part 1 Applied Physical Metallurgy, Edward
Arnold, 1993.
Mechanical testing - Tensile testing, Part 1,
http://www.twi.co.uk/j32k/protected/band_3/jk69.html
Tensile Testing
http://www.instron.com.au/wa/applications/test%5Ftypes/tension/
The Macro Etch Test
http://metals.about.com/library/bldef-Macro-Etch-Test.htm
Heat Treatment
http://www.efunda.com/processes/heat_treat/introduction/heat_treatments.cfm
http://www.efunda.com/processes/heat_treat/softening/annealing.cfm
http://www.efunda.com/processes/heat_treat/hardening/direct.cfm
Effects of Alloying Elements
http://www.primosknives.com/articles/alloys.htm

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