Carbon Steel

Carbon Steel from Special Piping Materials

CARBON STEEL

The term ‘steel’ encompasses a wide group of metal alloys with many grades of metal. Most of these types of steel fall into one of two categories – carbon steel and stainless steel.

Carbon steel is a kind of steel containing amounts of the element carbon. Carbon steel has less than 10.5% chromium content and its metallurgic composition means that it has its own mechanical properties. Within the carbon steel ‘family’, there are different types:

• Low carbon steel: This has a carbon content less than 0.25%. This means it is typically weaker and softer than other carbon steels, but it is more easily welded and ductile.
• Medium carbon steel: This has a carbon content of 0.25-0.6%, and a manganese content of 0.6-1.65% meaning that these steels are stronger but less ductile than lower-carbon steels. Interestingly, thin sections of this type of steel can be improved via heat treatment.
• High-yield carbon steel: This type of carbon steel has a carbon content from 0.6-1.25% and a manganese content of 0.3-0.9%. This composition means that this is the hardest and toughest carbon steel. It has high strength, extreme hardness and resistance to wear, and moderate ductility. Examples of items made from high-yield carbon steel are hammers, screwdrivers, mandrels, saws, anvil faces, wrenches chisels and shear blades.

Here at Special Piping Materials, the majority of the carbon steel items that we stock are high-yield carbon steel, but we can source and supply low carbon steel and medium carbon steel.

Carbon steel is used all over the world, but high-yield carbon steel has become indispensable across countless walks of everyday human life.

Carbon Steel properties

Carbon steel is notably known for its durability, hardness and toughness. It also has a very high melting point and a very high density and is known as being extremely flexible and having high tensile strength. Some of the advantages of carbon steel are:

• Very strong
• Cost-efficient
• Wear-resistant
• Durable
• Shock resistant
• Safe to handle and work with
• Ductility
• Environmentally-friendly and easy to recycle

Carbon Steel applications

Carbon steel can be found in a wide array of industries, sectors and applications. Some of these applications are:

• Automobile body components
• Pipes
• structural steel
• sheet steel
• Construction parts
• Bridge components
• Food cans
• Railway tracks
• Train wheels
• Crankshafts
• Machinery parts such as gears, shifts, axles andbolts
• Cutting tools
• Springs
• High strength wire

Specifically, due to its superior high wear-resistance and hardness, high-yield carbon steels can be used in cutting tools, springs, high strength wire and dies.

Carbon Steel products available from Special Piping Materials

• Sheet
• Plate
• Bar
• Pipe, welded and seamless
• Fittings (i.e., flanges, slip-ons, blinds, weld-necks, lap-joints, long welding necks, socket welds, elbows, tees, stub-ends, returns, caps, crosses, reducers, and pipe nipples)

To discuss the price of carbon steel products, and to find out more about our competitive pricing and specialist services, please contact the Special Piping Materials sales team at one of our offices around the globe: https://specialpipingmaterials.com/contact/

Carbon Steel ASTM specifications

The Carbon steel ASTM specifications are as follows:

• Pipe seamless: A312
• Pipe welded: A358
• Sheet/Plate: A240
• Bar: A276
• Flanges & forgings: A182