It is why you will typically see an alloy grade used in the frame of an airplane or the structure of an oil well and a carbon grade in construction equipment or automotive parts. But why? Let’s dig into the chemical makeup of these two products.
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What is the Difference Between Carbon Steel and Alloy Steel?
Carbon steel contains mostly iron and carbon (less than 2%) as its primary alloying elements, while alloy steel contains such elements as manganese, nickel, chromium, vanadium, and molybdenum, among others.
These additional elements help improve the strength, hardness, hardenability, and toughness of alloy steel. This makes it ideal for use in more high-performance applications like those in aerospace, defense, and oil and gas.
In addition, these elements also improve the corrosion resistance, heat resistance, and wear resistance of alloy steel.
Is Alloy Steel Stronger than Carbon Steel?
Alloy steel is stronger than carbon steel, due to various levels of manganese, nickel, chromium, vanadium, and molybdenum, contained within these steels.
The specific strength range depends on the specific composition of an alloy. The level of strength of alloy steel is further enhanced by the processing and heat treatment methods used on the material.
For example, thermal treatment of quench and tempering can be applied to many alloy grades, which improves the strength of the material.
What are Some Common Alloy Grades?
4140/4150 are widely used alloy grades. They are considered to be the ultimate “general purpose” grades and are low in cost. The typical composition of these grades is roughly .95% chromium and .20% molybdenum.
A broad range of strength and toughness is attainable through variations in heat treatment. These grades also exhibit good hardenability, strength, wear resistance, toughness, and ductility.
In terms of fee-machining alloy bars, 41L40 is among the most common. This chrome-molybdenum alloy contains .40 carbon and .15/.35 lead. It can be quenched and tempered to a broad range of strength levels.
8620 is the most widely used of all case hardening alloys. Considered to be “general purpose” 8620 is low in cost and contains good properties. Its composition is well balanced, nominally .55% nickel, .50% chromium, .20% molybdenum.
4340 is a highly alloyed steel, nominally 1.80% nickel, .80% chromium, and .25% molybdenum, assuring deep hardness when quenched and tempered, with high strength characteristics attained throughout the section. This grade can be used for heavily stressed parts operating under heavy-duty conditions.
Steel is one of the largest industries in the world and is produced by combining iron with other metals and non-metals elements. The purpose of this combination to manufacture steel is to obtain different chemical properties for specific applications. During material selection for steel CNC machining, various properties of alloy steel vs carbon steel for a suitable material selection should be considered. Alloy steel and carbon steel are the two types of steel. Understanding alloy steel and carbon steel differences give us the ability to utilize them accordingly in our respective industry to get benefits from them.
Selecting steel for the manufacturing of CNC machined parts and components is a big challenge. In this article, we will discuss alloy vs carbon steel differences and their types, applications, alloying elements, and properties. This will help you to judge the best steel for your project and get the finest parts and products.
Alloy steel is mixed with several alloying elements such as silicon, chromium, molybdenum, boron, vanadium, nickel, aluminum, etc. These alloying elements increase the strength, toughness, hardness, and wear resistance of the alloy steel. Some of the alloying elements and their effects are shown below.
Alloy steel is the combination of steel with some elements to get unique characteristics and properties. It has two types based on the weight of elements used to form the alloy steel that ranges from 1% to 50%. The flowing will mention two groups of alloy steel.
The alloy steel is used in many industrial sectors and it helps manufacture hundreds of products. Their extreme strength, hardness, toughness, and machinability make them the most demanding material for many industries. Consequently, alloy steel is ideal for structural components, automotive, mining, machinery, railway, and many other industries.
Tip: You can read our in-depth article about the applications of steel.
Carbon steel is a common type of steel. To define carbon steel in simple words, it is an alloy of iron and carbon. As its name suggests, carbon steel has a higher carbon content with a lower melting point and greater durability as compared to stainless steel. Carbon steel is the most important group of engineering alloys and they account for the majority of the steel applications depending upon processes.
The types of carbon steel are ordered and categorized by the carbon content it contains. Then, let’s have a look at some of the types of carbon steel and their characteristics that make them desirable in specific applications.
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Explore more:Due to carbon steel’s high versatility, it has a number of applications and is employed in a wide range of industries, especially in the petrochemical and oil & gas sector. We have gathered some applications of carbon steel in different industries to elaborate its vast usage in today’s market, such as:
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Get Instant QuoteBoth types of steel that somehow look similar physically have distinct chemical properties. However, these properties make them unique and give industries reasons to employ them and get benefits from them. We have gathered some alloy steel and carbon steel differences to give you a better understanding of both types of steel.
Alloy steel is used in various industries for the manufacturing of girders, structural sections, aircraft parts, propellers for ships, bars, rails, rods, screws, bolts, nails, and wires. On the other hand, carbon steel is also popular in many manufacturing industries for the production of automobile body components, food cans, wheels, crankshafts, gear, machinery parts, pipes, cutting tools, springs, dies, construction, and bridge components.
Alloy steel contains a high percentage of alloying elements other than iron and carbon. Whereas, carbon alloy has high carbon content and a low percentage of other elements.
Alloy steel is a good corrosion-resistant material as compared to carbon steel. The alloying elements in alloy steel make it more resistant to corrosion and it also improves its machinability.
High carbon content in carbon steel makes it harder. Alloy is less hard as compared to carbon steel.
Carbon steel is good in terms of strength. Alloy steel also has fine strength but is less than carbon steel.
The high number of carbon in carbon steel makes it tougher. On the contrary, alloy steel with different alloying elements other than carbon is less tough.
Multiple alloying elements in alloy steel reduce the malleability of the alloy steel. However, the carbon element in carbon steel increases its malleability.
Carbon steel possesses high weldability as compared to alloy steel. It is due to a reduced amount of alloying elements (other than carbon) in the iron. It will be more complex to weld steel if it contains elements like boron, magnesium, and silicon.
Steel can deform without fracture. It depends upon the alloying elements present in the steel. More carbon elements decrease the ductility of steel. Alloy is high ductile than carbon steel.
Alloy steel is a very expensive steel as compared to carbon steel. Carbon steel price varies and depends upon the carbon content. The higher the carbon content, the more the price.
Here’s a brief table showing some differences between alloy and carbon steel:
Alloy SteelCarbon SteelCorrosion resistanceGoodPoorHardnessLowHighStrengthLowHighToughnessLowHighMalleabilityLowHighWeldabilityLowHighDuctilityHighLowCostExpensiveInexpensiveIn this article, we have discussed alloy steel vs carbon steel differences to give you an understanding of these broadly used terms in the manufacturing and machining industry. Due to the excellent mechanical properties of alloy and carbon steel, they will continue to play a crucial and dominant role in the future. The formability, cost-effectiveness, and recyclability of these steels have a significant impact on industrial usage. If you are in search of a steel CNC machining partner with impeccable machining capabilities, look no further.
RapidDirect is a leading custom parts prototyping and manufacturing service provider that you can bank on. Our top-notch modern technological machinery has produced prototypes and parts for a number of our valuable clients across the globe. We took pride in our engineering team who has vast prototyping and manufacturing experience. Furthermore, we have a stringent quality control system to ensure you get the best parts and prototypes delivered to you with the utmost quality. Providing products as per the specifications and expectations of our customers is RapidDirect’s paramount priority. Contact us to get prototype production services now.
The material selection entirely depends upon the project or product requirements. In general, alloy steel has exceptional qualities as compared to carbon steel but one of its major issues is lack of corrosion resistance. Alloy steel is suitable for structural components.
Which one is stronger alloy steel or carbon steel?The tensile strength of low-carbon steel is approximately 450 MPa and the tensile strength of high-carbon steel is 965 MPa. The alloy steel has higher tensile strength as compared to carbon steel. The tensile strength of alloy steel ranges between 758 – 1882 MPa.
Is alloy steel the same carbon steel?No. Both are two different materials. Carbon steel consists of iron with carbon added and alloy steel includes various other materials. Adding other materials assists in modifying the physical and chemical properties of the material.
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