New steels meet changing needs
As a structural material steel has two drawbacks: its weight and its susceptibility to rust. Yet steel has long been used, and in great quantities, in structural applications from bridges and buildings to ships, automobiles and household appliances. This is because of many advantages of steel. It is superior to other structural materials in strength, toughness, workability and other properties that are critical for such applications, and it is mass-produced with uniform, reliable quality and at low cost.
Since steel is the most popular structural material available, steel-makers make every effort to meet the changing needs of these markets. New, more sophisticated processes for steel-making and treatment have led to steel products of higher grade and greater variety.
Yet, it can no longer be said that a steel product is satisfactory if it is simply a good structural material. Today's market needs can be classified broadly as:
1) the need for fighter weight;
2) the need for new properties;
3) the need for maximum performance;
4) the need for cost reduction.
The need for lighter weight is really a requirement for materials having higher specific strength (strength/specific gravity). Materials offering new properties not found in conventional materials will include new breeds of steel, hybrid materials and truly novel materials such as amorphous metal. The need for maximum performance calls for materials approaching the limits of durability, toughness and the like. Finally, the need to reduce costs is leading to materials diversification in which steel materials precisely suited to a specific application are developed.
New families of steel products are steadily emerging to meet these needs.
Let us look now at how steel needs have changed in automotive industry and how steelmakers have met these needs.
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Annotation: As the title implies the article describes how needs change day by day, in addition to this from this scientist text we can get some information about methods to obtain steels.
