Forged carbon steel is a combination of carbon steel and forging, a metal forming process that compresses heated metal into a desired shape. Carbon steel is a range of steel alloys with varying amounts of carbon and other elements. Forging eliminates microscopic defects, making it stronger and suitable for high pressure and temperature applications. Common parts include machine, valve, and piping system components.
The term forged carbon steel represents a combination of two basic metallurgical components, namely carbon steel and forging. Carbon steel is a broad term applied to a range of steel varieties of various compositions, excluding stainless steel. Forging is a metal forming process that uses repeated force to compress a heated piece of metal into the desired final shape. Forging is generally accepted to produce better quality finished items due to the inherent lack of imperfections in the steel structure found with other manufacturing methods, making the parts suitable for high temperature and pressure applications. Some common forged carbon steel parts include machine, valve, and piping system components.
Carbon steel is a fairly generic identifier for a range of steel alloys consisting of carbon as the major alloying component along with varying amounts of other elements such as tungsten, cobalt and chromium. Generally, no minimum or maximum concentrations are given for these elements in the definition of carbon steel, although it is accepted that stainless steel is not suitable. In other words, the concentrations of both the primary carbon and the secondary alloying elements can be adjusted to match the intended end purpose of the steel. For example, increasing the carbon content of the alloy increases its hardness while decreasing its ductility.
Forging is one of the oldest methods of metal forming and involves repetitive manual or electrical impact to force red-hot steel into a certain shape. The metal is heated in a forge and hammered into a shaped jig or between the two halves of a fuller set to achieve its final shape. Hand forging is done by a blacksmith using smaller hammers, tongs and chisels, with the hammering typically occurring on an anvil. Forged carbon steels produced by power forges are hammered by large hammers capable, in some cases, of exerting significant pressure when striking the hot metal.
Forged carbon steel parts are generally believed to be superior to those made by other methods such as casting. This is because hammering the metal during forming eliminates most of the microscopic crystalline defects, such as air bubbles and cracks, that characterize castings. This structural integrity makes carbon steel forgings stronger and more suitable for applications involving high pressures and temperatures. This strength makes these forgings ideal for oil and gas piping systems, machinery parts, and the internal mechanisms of high pressure valves.
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