Before introducing the classification of steel, briefly introduce the basic concepts of ferrous metals, steel and nonferrous metals.
1. Ferrous metals are iron and iron alloys. Such as steel, pig iron, ferroalloy, cast iron, etc. Steel and pig iron are alloys based on iron, with carbon as the main addition element, collectively referred to as iron carbon alloy.
Pig iron refers to the product made by smelting iron ore in the blast furnace, which is mainly used to make steel and castings.
Cast pig iron is smelted in a melting furnace to get cast iron (liquid). Liquid cast iron is cast into castings, which are called iron castings.
Ferroalloy is an alloy composed of iron and silicon, manganese, chromium, titanium and other elements. Ferroalloy is one of the raw materials for steelmaking. It is used as deoxidizer and alloy element additive for steel making.
2. The pig iron used for steelmaking is put into the steelmaking furnace and smelted according to a certain process to obtain steel. Steel products include ingots, continuous casting billets and direct casting into various steel castings. Generally speaking, steel refers to steel rolled into various steels. Steel belongs to ferrous metal, but steel is not completely equal to ferrous metal.
3. Nonferrous metals, also called nonferrous metals, refer to metals and alloys other than ferrous metals, such as copper, tin, lead, zinc, aluminum, brass, bronze, aluminum alloys and bearing alloys. In addition, chromium, nickel, manganese, molybdenum, cobalt, vanadium, tungsten, titanium, etc. are also used in industry. These metals are mainly used as alloy additives to improve the performance of metals. Tungsten, titanium, molybdenum, etc. are mostly used to produce carbide for cutting tools.
These nonferrous metals are all called industrial metals, in addition to precious metals: platinum, gold, silver, etc. and rare metals, including radioactive uranium, radium, etc.
