Men have used different materials for the development of technology throughout history, the use of materials have changed since it has been determined that many materials are not useful anymore or the number of drawbacks spotted has limited its use.
 
During the last stages of development steel industry has managed to increase its consumption and quantity of uses, this is because of its characteristics that allow it to be an optimal material for fields such as construction, machinery industry in general and many others. This material is highly capable of transmitting heat and current, it is easy to compress and is considered a low eight material.
 
In addition to all this, steel also accumulates within its advantages that the majority of its properties are kept constant with the years as long as they are given the appropriate care. In addition, steel in construction is usually combined with other materials to obtain the best results in terms of capacity referred to as architectural finishes.
 
Steel is basically an alloy or combination of iron and carbon (from about 0.05% to less than 1.7% maximum, this will depend on its use depending on its use). Sometimes other specific alloying elements such as Cr (Chromium) or Ni (Nickel) among others, are added for determined purposes according to the final use of the produced steel.
 

Mechanical and Technological Characteristics of Steel

 
Although it is difficult to establish physical and mechanical properties of steel because these vary with the adjustments in their composition and various thermal, chemical or mechanical treatments, these are some generic properties:
 

• Depending on the temperature the steel can be shrunk, stretched or melted.
• Its boiling point is around 3000 ° C.
• Steel gives a false sense of security by being non-combustible, but its fundamental mechanical properties are severely affected by the high temperatures that can reach the profiles in the course of a fire.
• Allows good mechanisation on machine tools before receiving heat treatment.
• The hardness of steels varies. Typical steels with a high degree of surface hardness are those used in machining tools known as fast steels containing significant amounts of chromium, tungsten, molybdenum and vanadium.
• It is a very tenacious material, especially in some of the alloys used to make tools.
• It is used for the manufacturing of artificial permanent magnets, since a piece of magnetised steel does not lose its magnetisation if it is not heated to a certain temperature.

 
Steel for Used in Construction
 
Structural steel is known as the result of iron alloys, carbon and small amounts of other elements such as silicon, phosphorus, sulphur and oxygen, which give it specific characteristics.
 
Structural steel can be laminated economically in a variety of shapes and sizes without appreciable changes in its physical properties. Steel profiles are identified by the shape of their cross-section, examples are angles, tens, zetas, and plates.
 

Advantages and Disadvantages of Steel as Construction Material:

 
Advantages of steel as structural material:
 
Uniformity: steel properties do not change appreciably over time as is the case of reinforced concrete structures.
 
Ductility: ductility is the property that has a material to withstand large deformation under high tensile stresses. The ductile nature of common structural steels allows them to flow locally, thus avoiding premature failure.
 
Tenacity: structural steels are tenacious, that is, they have strength and ductility. The property of a material to absorb energy in large quantities is called tenacity.
 
Durability: if the maintenance of steel structures is adequate they will last indefinitely.
 
High strength: the high level of strength steel has per unit of weight implies that the weight of the structures will be low, this is of great importance in the design of large beams.
 
Manageability: it is useful for joining various members through various types of connectors such as welding, screws and rivets.
 
Easy to mount
 
Possible to reuse after dismantling a structure.
 

Disadvantages of steel as structural material:

 
Cost of maintenance: Most steels are susceptible to corrosion when exposed to water and air and therefore must be painted periodically.
 
Cost of protection against fire: although some structural members are incombustible, their level of resistance is greatly reduced during fires. It has also been proven that because of its great ability to conduct heat has caused the spread of fires, raising the temperature of rooms where there are no flames or sparks of ignition but because of the high heat has managed to ignite other materials such as wood, cloth and other
 
Susceptibility to buckling: in other words, the thinner the members are in compression, the greater the danger of buckling. As previously stated, steel has a high level of strength per unit weight, but when used as columns is not very cost-effective since enough material should be used, only to make the columns more rigid against possible buckling. Nevertheless it is possible to use profiles that have inside their properties great moments of inertia abounding to mitigate this disadvantage.
 

Some Other Uses of Steel

 
Steel in its various classes is always present in our daily lives. We can see it in the form of tools for development and in different fields ranging from medicine, automotive mechanics to agriculture and many more, in addition to mechanical equipment and forming part of appliances and machinery in general.
 
It is also present as one of the main materials of consumption by the shipyards, because in great measures yachts, boats and other types of boats are formed of steel. Another field that makes great use of this material is the war industry, in the manufacture of armament, transport and armour.
 
The great success of steel is based on the relative advantages they present in terms of properties such as conductivity of heat and current, as well as their resistance to different efforts and perhaps one of the most influential factors in their success in terms of large gamma of uses and participation in different fields is its relatively low cost compared to materials that may have better properties or not.
 
If you are looking for top quality steel products for industries such as construction, fabrication, mining, etc. Do not hesitate to contact us. Here at One Steel you will find a steel supplier with more than 100 years in the making of top quality products.