Carbon steel

Carbon steel can be easily machined and welded, making it versatile for various applications.

Carbon steel is susceptible to rust and corrosion, especially in environments with high moisture levels and/or salt.

Alternatively, it can be made from a stainless steel alloy that contains chromium, which provides excellent corrosion resistance.

Mild steel has a relatively low tensile strength, but it is cheap and easy to form.

[3] Typical applications of low carbon steel are car parts, pipes, construction, and food cans.

[8] High-tensile steels are low-carbon, or steels at the lower end of the medium-carbon range,[citation needed] which have additional alloying ingredients in order to increase their strength, wear properties or specifically tensile strength.

These alloying ingredients include chromium, molybdenum, silicon, manganese, nickel, and vanadium.

Trace impurities of various other elements can significantly affect the quality of the resulting steel.

Trace amounts of sulfur in particular make the steel red-short, that is, brittle and crumbly at high working temperatures.

The reason for the limited use of high carbon steel is that it has extremely poor ductility and weldability and has a higher cost of production.

The steel is then quenched (heat drawn out) at a moderate to low rate allowing carbon to diffuse out of the austenite forming iron-carbide (cementite) and leaving ferrite, or at a high rate, trapping the carbon within the iron thus forming martensite.

The following is a list of the types of heat treatments possible: Case hardening processes harden only the exterior of the steel part, creating a hard, wear-resistant skin (the "case") but preserving a tough and ductile interior.

This property of carbon steel can be beneficial, because it gives the surface good wear characteristics but leaves the core flexible and shock-absorbing.