Carbon Steel

THIS ARTICLE MAKES AN EFFORT TO UNDERSTAND CARBON STEEL AND ITS DIFFERENT TYPES:
Carbon steels include alloy steels and it is different from stainless steels, as a matter-of-fact carbon steel cannot be associated with stainless steel of any sort. There are versatile uses of High Carbon Steel depending on the purpose of usage like, milling machines, cutting implements (such as chisels), and high strength wires etc. The microstructure enhances the toughness for use in such application.
In carbon steel the main interstitial alloying constituent is carbon in the range of 0.12–2.0%. The American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) define Carbon Steel as;
It’s a steel that has no minimum count in the specification of the content like chromium, cobalt, molybdenum, nickel, niobium, titanium, tungsten, vanadium or zirconium, or any other elements, for obtaining the desired alloy effect, when the specified minimum for copper does not exceed 0.40 percent; or when the maximum content specified for any of the following elements does not exceed the percentages noted: manganese 1.65, silicon 0.6, copper 0.6.

Significance of Carbon:
In general, carbon is the most sought after and crucial commercial steel alloy.
Increasing the carbon content increases the toughness and the strength thereby improving its hardening ability. But carbon also increases brittleness and reduces weld-ability because of But because of its tendency to form marten site, there can be an increase in the brittleness of the carbon, thereby reducing its the welding capacity. As such this leads to carbon content being both a boon and bane, when it comes to the commercialization of steel.

Effect of Manganese: 
All commercial steels have manganese, a chemical element present in them, that substantially contributes to the toughness and strength in steel, but considerably to smaller extent than carbon.
1. Effectiveness of Manganese is dependent on and proportional to the Carbon content in the steel, to increase the mechanical properties depending on the purpose of use.
2. Manganese is very crucial when it comes to decreasing the critical cooling capacity when hardening is in process. In simple terms, when the steel is hardening, it is important that it cools down slowly for its optimum usage and best quality. Thus, manganese helps in increasing the harden-ability of the steel and it more widely used for this purpose than any other commonly used alloy elements.
3. Manganese is less likely to segregate than other elements, thus it’s an active deoxidizer.
4. For a steady built-up edge and a place for the chip to break, manganese is combined with sulfur to form a soft inclusion in the steel, thus drastically improving in the machine-ability of the steel.
5. When manganese is combined with the sulfur in the steel, it minimizes the formation of iron pyrite (iron sulfide) which can cause steel to crack and tear during high temperature rolling. Thus, it important to use manganese to improve yield of the steel.

Based on its carbon content, carbon steel is divided into four categories: 
1. Low Carbon Steel (0.05-0.35% carbon content)
2.Medium Carbon Steel (0.3-0.6% carbon content)
3. High Carbon Steel (0.7-2.5% carbon content) – This is Stainless Steel generally.
The majority of Carbon Steel products that Rexal Tubes deals in would fall in the Low Carbon Steel category

API 5L GR.B, API 5L X42, API 5L X46, API 5L X52, API 5L X56, API 5LX60, API 5LX65, API 5L X70, API 5LX80, API 5L X100. Under this, there are different sub-items i.e. PSL 1 and PSL2 (product specification level). Also, there are types i.e. seamless, welded (LSAW, ERW, DSAW, HSAW).
Low-Temp A333 Gr.6 Pipes (make links here taking them to our product page)  ASTM A106 GR B Pipes  ASTM A671 CC 60, CC65, CC70 EFW Pipes (in various class like CL12, CL22, CL32 etc)
ASTM A672 CC 60, CC65, CC70 EFW Pipes (in various class like CL12, CL22, CL32 etc) ST 37, ST 42, St 52 Pipes.

You can check our Carbon Steel Flanges, Carbon Steel Fittings, and Carbon steel EFW pipes