Image Credit: Maksim Safaniuk/Shutterstock.com
Steel is essential for the modern world and is used in commercial and residential buildings, automobiles, airplanes, and oil rigs and pipelines. It has unique properties such as strength, malleability, and durability, and is suited to many applications. This article will discuss how heat treatment changes steel’s properties.
Heat-Treating Steel – A History
Steel has been used by humanity for thousands of years. Iron production can be traced back to Anatolia in about 2000 BC, with the iron age well-established by 1000 BC. By 500 BC, iron technology had reached the limits of Europe, and by 400 BC, it had arrived in China. Early iron was produced in small shaft furnaces, forming as solid lumps or blooms, which were then forged into wrought iron.