Iron alloys

Article By:

McGannon, Harold E. Research and Technology Division, United States Steel Corporation, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Last reviewed:January 2020

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1036/1097-8542.353200

Solid solutions of metals (including silicon) or carbon, singly or in combinations, in iron as the base or solvent. A great number of commercial alloys have iron as an intentional component or alloying addition, but these are not, correctly, iron or iron-based alloys. Rather, they are alloys named after the major component or base metal that contain iron. Iron is the major constituent of wrought and cast iron and wrought and cast steel. Alloyed with usually large amounts of silicon, manganese, chromium, vanadium, molybdenum, niobium (columbium), selenium, titanium, phosphorus, or other elements, singly or sometimes in combination, iron forms the large group of materials known as ferroalloys that are important as addition agents in steelmaking. Iron is also a major constituent of many special-purpose alloys developed to have exceptional characteristics with respect to magnetic properties, electrical resistance, heat resistance, corrosion resistance, and thermal expansion. Table 1 lists some of these alloys. See also: Alloy; Ferroalloy; Steel

The content above is only an excerpt.