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cast iron and steel
- Thread starter metalmann
- Start date
- Replies 3
- Views 1,166
johnoder
Diamond
- Joined
- Jul 16, 2004
- Location
- Houston, TX USA
Cast iron is melted and poured into molds and used largely as molded with some machining
Steel is cast into ingots and rolled and otherwize hot worked into finished products like beams, angles and plates.
The make up of the two is entirely different.
There is also cast steel.
This is a teeny little introduction to a huge amount of interesting subject matter
John
Steel is cast into ingots and rolled and otherwize hot worked into finished products like beams, angles and plates.
The make up of the two is entirely different.
There is also cast steel.
This is a teeny little introduction to a huge amount of interesting subject matter
John
A
art_deco_machine
Guest
Get yourself a copy of this book:
ebay book
It came out in different years. I think mine is a 1966.
You put coke, limestone and iron ore in a blast furnace, and burn it, and you get pig iron, which is basically cast iron. Steelmaking is Step Two. You put the pig iron into an open hearth furnace and burn out the excess carbon, and add some alloying metals as desired, and then you have steel.
You can also put it into a Bessemer converter and burn out the excess carbon with compressed oxygen.
(Or you can put it into a puddling furnace, and stir on it for eight to twelve hours with a rake, and come out with wrought iron. This is very pure iron with silica mixed in. This method ceased in the USA back about WWII. It was the main method prior to the Bessemer converter. To make steel from wrought iron, you have to put some carbon back in.)
Then you pour the molten steel, from the Bessermer converter or open hearth furnace, into a ingot mold. When it is cooled to a plastic stage, you take it out and put it in the rolling mill, as mentioned by John. For very large parts, you would take the ingot to a very large forging press. For small forgings, you usually start with the finished product of a rolling mill.
Steel can also be cast in a mold to give a finished product.
There is also a crucible method of making steel.
So, basically, you start out making cast iron, then you perform another step to convert the cast iron to steel. That is the normal way, but it isn't the only way.
Cast iron is cast into molds. Cast iron is not malleable and is not rolled or forged. Cast iron castings can be make malleable by packing limestone or something around it that will absorb carbon, and then putting it into a furnace to soak for about a week. But what you take out of the furnace is a finished casting, the shape that you gave it in the mold. You can machine it, but it isn't mormally forged. Besides, it probably won't be malleable all the way to the core.
Cast iron melts at a lower temperature than steel, so casting from cast iron is a little easier than casting from steel. I believe that cast iron is also more fluid than steel and thus pours easier and fills details in the mold well.
THere are many variations, and processes. There are several ancient and historic processes. You could do a lifetime of study on your one question here.
ebay book
It came out in different years. I think mine is a 1966.
You put coke, limestone and iron ore in a blast furnace, and burn it, and you get pig iron, which is basically cast iron. Steelmaking is Step Two. You put the pig iron into an open hearth furnace and burn out the excess carbon, and add some alloying metals as desired, and then you have steel.
You can also put it into a Bessemer converter and burn out the excess carbon with compressed oxygen.
(Or you can put it into a puddling furnace, and stir on it for eight to twelve hours with a rake, and come out with wrought iron. This is very pure iron with silica mixed in. This method ceased in the USA back about WWII. It was the main method prior to the Bessemer converter. To make steel from wrought iron, you have to put some carbon back in.)
Then you pour the molten steel, from the Bessermer converter or open hearth furnace, into a ingot mold. When it is cooled to a plastic stage, you take it out and put it in the rolling mill, as mentioned by John. For very large parts, you would take the ingot to a very large forging press. For small forgings, you usually start with the finished product of a rolling mill.
Steel can also be cast in a mold to give a finished product.
There is also a crucible method of making steel.
So, basically, you start out making cast iron, then you perform another step to convert the cast iron to steel. That is the normal way, but it isn't the only way.
Cast iron is cast into molds. Cast iron is not malleable and is not rolled or forged. Cast iron castings can be make malleable by packing limestone or something around it that will absorb carbon, and then putting it into a furnace to soak for about a week. But what you take out of the furnace is a finished casting, the shape that you gave it in the mold. You can machine it, but it isn't mormally forged. Besides, it probably won't be malleable all the way to the core.
Cast iron melts at a lower temperature than steel, so casting from cast iron is a little easier than casting from steel. I believe that cast iron is also more fluid than steel and thus pours easier and fills details in the mold well.
THere are many variations, and processes. There are several ancient and historic processes. You could do a lifetime of study on your one question here.
