Advantages and disadvantages of alloy steel and high carbon steel

1. in industrial production, high carbon steel and alloy steel are two commonly used metal materials, they each have unique performance characteristics. High carbon steel is widely used in various fields because of its low cost and good processing performance. However, the hardenability of high carbon steel is relatively poor, especially when water quenching is performed, and its critical quenching diameter is usually between 15 and 20 mm. This means that for large parts with a diameter of more than 20 mm, even using the water quenching process, it is difficult to ensure uniform mechanical properties across the section. Therefore, high carbon steel may not be the best choice when manufacturing large parts with high requirements. In contrast, alloy steel, due to its excellent hardenability, can be used to produce large sections and complex shapes to meet the more demanding industrial requirements.

2. in the high temperature environment, the performance of high carbon steel will also be limited. Specifically, when high carbon steel is used at temperatures above 200 degrees Celsius, its strength and hardness rapidly decrease, which limits its application in high temperature conditions. After the alloy steel is tempered, not only the stability is better, but also the red hardness has been significantly improved, so that it can maintain the working performance at higher temperatures.

3. high carbon steel in the pursuit of comprehensive performance also has limitations. For example, when trying to balance strength and toughness by tempering treatment, it is often difficult to achieve the desired results. If higher strength is to be guaranteed, it may lead to reduced toughness; On the contrary, if the pursuit of better toughness, the strength may be insufficient. This phenomenon is mainly due to the poor tempering stability of high carbon steel. In contrast, alloy steel can obtain better comprehensive properties of strength and toughness through reasonable alloying element ratio and heat treatment process.

4. In addition, high carbon steel is not as good as alloy steel in terms of special properties. For example, for applications requiring high temperature hardness, tensile strength, oxidation resistance, corrosion resistance or special electromagnetic properties, high carbon steel often cannot meet these special requirements, and must rely on alloy steel to achieve. Nevertheless, high carbon steel still has its advantages, such as by adjusting the carbon content and appropriate heat treatment, many properties required for industrial production can be obtained. Due to its low price, easy production and good processing properties, high carbon steel is still one of the most widely used steel materials in industry, accounting for more than 80% of the total steel consumption.

The selection principle of alloy steel and high carbon steel is to make up for the lack of high carbon steel, by adding specific alloying elements on the basis of high carbon steel, a variety of alloy steel with the required properties can be developed. Although alloy steel has many excellent and even special properties that make it a very important steel class that can meet the needs of many applications, there are also some disadvantages of alloy steel. The main disadvantages include: the addition of alloying elements makes the smelting and processing properties of steel relatively complicated, and the cost is high. Therefore, under the principle of reasonable material selection, if high carbon steel can meet the requirements of use, priority should be given to the use of high carbon steel.

We have a deeper understanding of the differences between alloy steel and high carbon steel, advantages and disadvantages, and selection principles. Because a variety of different metal elements can be added to alloy steel, making it far more functional than high-carbon steel, alloy steel is more common in practical applications. For example, cutting tools such as drills, taps, reamers, etc., are usually made of high carbon steel with a carbon content of 0.90% to 1.00%. In general, alloy steel and high carbon steel have their own strengths, there is no absolute advantages and disadvantages, the key is to choose the most appropriate material according to the specific conditions and environment.