An overview of ‘steel’

Steel is among the most popular materials used in the construction industry. According to the World Steel Association, in 2018 around 1,808 million tons of crude steel was produced worldwide and about 50% of this production was utilized by the construction industry. Further, they also state that there are as many as 3,500 different grades of steel and each grade offers environmental, chemical and physical properties unique to that grade of steel. Steel has undergone significant evolution through time and around 75% of all the types of modern-day steel were developed in the past 20 years. It is interesting to note that had the Eiffel Tower (constructed in 1887) been constructed in today’s times, it would require only one-third of the steel used back then.

Types of alloy steel

There are two kinds of alloy steel – low-alloy steel and high-alloy steel. As mentioned earlier, the composition and proportion of alloying elements determine the various properties of alloy steel. Low-alloy steels are the ones that have up to 8% alloying elements whereas high-alloy steels have more than 8% alloying elements.

Alloy steel products and their applications

There are hundreds of products that can be manufactured with alloy steels of varying compositions. These include Stainless Steel Pipe/tubes, alloy steel plates, sheets and coils, alloy steel bars, rods and wires, alloy steel forged fittings, alloy steel buttweld fittings, alloy steel flanges, fasteners and more. Alloy steels have many uses in various industries such as automobiles, mining, machinery and equipment, railways, road construction, buildings, appliances and off-shore applications.

Alloy steel flat products

Alloy steels are used to make flat products – plates and strips. Plates are available in a wide range of grades and sizes. These are used in building construction by welding plates into fabricated sections.

Alloy steel strip and coil products

Strips are available as hot and cold rolled strips and hot-dipped galvanized Stainless Steel Coils. Hot-dipped galvanized coils are used to make construction products that include wall and roof claddings, side rails, roof purlins, light steel frames and lintels.

Alloy steel long products

Alloy steels are employed in producing long products used in the construction industry such as girders, structural sections, Stainless Steel Bars, rails, rods and wires.

Alloy steel pipe products

Alloy steel pipes are important materials in the building and construction industry because of their performance characteristics such as ductility, ease of fixing without heat treatment and high durability. They are an Inconel Alloy of stainless steel, chromium and nickel. Some special types of alloy steel pipes include large diameter welded pipes, electric fusion welded pipes, welded pipes and seamless pipes. They are extremely useful for high-temperature or corrosive applications besides high-pressure environments.

Applications in building bridges

Bridges use special Nickel Based Alloy steels known as weathering steels. These provide enhanced protection from corrosion because of the presence of nickel, copper and chromium as alloying elements. Weathering steels also find uses in buildings as facing material to improve aesthetics. Weathering steel offers several benefits which include high safety, ease and quickness of construction, aesthetic looks, shallow depth of construction, low maintenance and amenable to alterations in the future. Because of its natural weathered finish, no painting is required thus avoiding environmental issues caused by paints. Weathering steels are extremely cost-effective in the long run.