Engineering Steel – The Ultimate FAQ Guide

Essentially speaking, engineering steels are made and designed for engineering and other similar applications.

Because of the boom in the engineering industry, the demand for engineering steel increased. Over the years, engineering steel has been looked for by businesses and organizations.

So, if you’re part of the demographic looking for the best and most trusted engineering steel supplier, you’re just in the right page!

Today, we’ll not only educate you on what it is, we will also give you details on where you can find the best wholesaler of engineering steel!

What is Engineering Steel?

Basically speaking, engineering steels are steels that have been made and designed for the purpose of being used for engineering applications.

Image of a collection of engineering steels being prepared for use

In addition to that, they’re the steels that you need to source and find if your business is involved in the structural or construction sector, in the engineering sector, and so on.

Engineering steels are part of engineering materials. These are materials that refer to a collective area of materials that you use for building or constructing establishments.

What separates engineering steel from regular steel is its ability to be used concurrently without breaking or being deflected.

You can find out the different types of steel here:

What Are Engineering Steels Used For?

From the term alone, engineering steel are the steels you would want to use in the engineering or the structural sector.

You can find use for engineering steels in various business industries and sectors

The primary and function of these engineering steels is involved in the construction sector.

Since these engineering steels are picked and selected carefully, you can fully bank and count on their toughness, overall ductility, strength, flexibility and elasticity, and fatigue resistance.

We can therefore say that engineering steels are used for various industries and sectors, including:

• Automotive Industry
• Architecture and Engineering Sectors
• Machinery Building Industry
• Shipyard and Shipbuilding Industry

Its properties are mainly reserved for the most exhaustive; for sectors and industries wherein you’d have to make the most effort.

What’s the Composition of Engineering Steel?

Engineering steel isn’t far from what the composite of regular steel is.

As a matter of fact, engineering steel is an alloy that contains about 1% manganese, 2% carbon, as well as small amounts of sulfur, phosphorus, silicon, and oxygen.

But, because it’s used for structural and engineering purposes, it contains other variants, which include:

• Titanium
• Copper
• Chromium
• Nickel
• Aluminum

The compounds and elements in the list we gave above aren’t found in usual and regular carbon steel. Instead, these alloying elements are intended for the purpose of ensuring that the steel will tolerate impact, abrasion, as well as over usage.

You can understand steel more by watching this video here:

Shapes of Engineering Steel You Can Purchase

Akin to the different kinds and types of steel, you can also purchase engineering steel in different shapes, forms, and dimensions.

You can purchase engineering steel in various shapes and sizes – like these shapes

The reason for it is because not all applications would require them to be at a specific shape. As a matter of fact, you can buy and purchase them in different shapes, some of which include:

Round Bar

The round bar is probably the most famous and the most popular of all engineering steel shapes. Due to the fact that it’s the easiest to work on, it also is the most common shape you use in the engineering field and area.

Flat Bar

You can also purchase engineering steel in the shape of a flat bar. It’s like a flattened round bar, and usually has the same dimensions of one.

Flat bars are not as common as round bars but they’re usually what you use for support.

Square Bar

The square bar is akin to a layered flat bar. The same as a flat bar, the square bar is used as a form of support or a filler.

Precision Ground Bar

Precision ground bars have the shape of a round bar but with high quality steel and high precision materials.

It’s not used for support; in fact, it’s what you use for the polishing or the finishing of surfaces.

Hexagonal Bar

Since engineering steels are also used for machinery creation and engineering, hexagonal bars are what you use for this purpose.

The main purpose of these hexagonal bars is for braces and precise pieces.

Plate

Engineering steel plates are made and manufactured to be reshaped and reformed for another purpose.

Unlike the other shapes in the list, the plates are actually the one that follows round bars as the most customary shape of engineering steel.

Different Properties of Engineering Steel

Since engineering steels are part of engineering materials, the properties in which you can distinguish them are:

Cracking and breaking – part of the natural life cycle of engineering steels

Brittleness

Brittleness refers to the property of the material to be easily fractured when load or force is applied to it. You can imagine regular soda-lime glass; it’s a hard material, but it’s brittle because when force and stress are applied, it cracks and breaks easily.

Toughness

It’s the property or the primary ability of material to absorb the energy and get plastically deformed without the fear of fracturing. Unlike just regular strength, toughness refers to both the strength as well as the ductility of the material.

Strength

Strength is the property that’s the measurement of how a material opposes breakdown or deformation of it subject to load or external forces.

Ductility

Ductility, basically, is the state that measures the deformation capability of solid materials under tensile stress and pressure.

By category, ductility is known and distinguished by the ability of the material to be drawn, pulled, or stretched without breaking or being damaged.

Malleability

While ductility is the property that talks about the deformation of a material under tensile stress, malleability is the property that’s indicated in terms of how a material is deformed under compressive stress.

The malleability of materials is dependent on temperatures – when the temperature of the material rises or increases, so does its malleability.

Resilience

Last but definitely not the least in the list of the most important and the most significant properties of engineering steel is resilience.

Resilience is the ability of the steel to absorb energy when deformed by applying stress and releasing it as energy when the stress is transformed or removed.

These are some of the most customary and the most important properties of engineering steel that you would want to take note of because in purchasing engineering steels, you’d need to know these “specifications.”

Uses of Engineering Steel

While the general utilization and use of steels are second-nature to us, the use of engineering steels is different.

Engineering steels are mainly used for foundations and for protection

In the simplest and the best ways possible, engineering steels are used best in the manufacturing and the general engineering sectors.

You can find many different uses for engineering steel in sectors that involve building, refurbishing or polishing.

To give you some of the most typical uses and applications of engineering steel, they include:

Automotive Parts

You can use engineering steel for the production and the manufacturing of automotive parts, some of which include the exhaust, chassis, engine, brakes, levers, etc.

NOTE: These parts aren’t substitutable with other materials such as plastics and wood. They need to be steel or any of the same alloy in order for them to function and to work like how they are supposed to work.

General Engineering Components

You would already have a clue what engineering steels are for – for engineering. Therefore, it’s safe to say that one of the uses they have in the industry is to be for the creation and the making of engineering parts and components.

Some of the most common engineering components include, but are not limited to: nuts and bolts (different types), impellers, rocker arms, water pump bodies, cover and stopper plates, compressors, and others.

Manufacturing Industry

Apart from the engineering and structural industries, as well as the automotive industry, you can also use engineering steels in the processing or the manufacturing industry.

To give you some of the things that you can get, here are a few of the typical applications of engineering steels in the manufacturing industry: Die casting dies, connecting rods, clutch plates, shafts, tie rods, and many more!

Oil & Gas Industry

You can also find the best uses for engineering steels in the oil & gas industry. In fact, you can use it for valve stems, shafts, hose fittings, actuators and regulators, pumps, separators and filters, and many more!

These are the applications and the industries where you’ll be able to find the most use for engineering steel.

If you thought that those were all of it, think again! Because of some of the properties of engineering steel, you can find many uses for it in various sectors and business industries.

Engineering Steel Grades

Akin to regular steel, the different grades of engineering steel span to more than 3,500 different grades, each of which has unique properties and profiles that make them different and distinct from one another.

When it comes to engineering steel grades, though, there are the most customary. Here’s a quick list to help you understand some of the different grades of engineering steel:

• EN8 or Carbon Steel
• C45 Steel or Unalloyed Medium Carbon Engineering Steel
• 42CrMo4 or a Heat Treatable Steel
• 16NiCr4or a Low Carbon Case Hardening Engineering Steel
• 17NicCrMo6-4or Low Carbon Case Hardening Engineering Steel (Different Levels of Compounds)
• C60 Steel or Unalloyed Medium Carbon Engineering Steel

These are the grades of engineering steel that you’ll most likely see in all manufacturers and suppliers.

Should you be in need of any of these, you can definitely give us a call here at Waldun!

Benefits of Using Engineering Steel

There are quite a few benefits of using engineering steel over wood in the construction or the structural sector. Some of these benefits and pros include:

Reusing and Recycling

If you choose to utilize wood for your construction, then you’ll not be able to use it again in the future.

However, if you use engineering steel, you’ll be able to recycle it as it’s 100% recyclable; in fact, the steel that manufacturers use in creating the steel you’ll need are from scraps and recycled steel.

Sustainability

When it comes to sustainability, wood will never outrun steel. Engineering steel has proven its sustainability in the past decades; that is the reason why steel is progressively improved, developed, and enhanced.

Strength and Durability

Take wood and steel, put them side-by-side and see which one breaks first. Wood is a natural product that mainly comes from trees.

While there are trees that are strong and tough, it will never be harder and tougher than steel – which is a combination of alloys and other elements.

These are some of the benefits of using engineering steel, you’ll find out a lot more when you’re already utilizing it.

Where Can You Purchase Engineering Steel?

The world has an abundance of suppliers and wholesalers of engineering steel. Whether you’re in the United States, you’re in Europe, Africa – and even here in Asia, you’ll never experience a shortage in engineering steel.

But, if you’re looking for the best and the most affordable engineering steels, work with a Chinese engineering steel manufacturer!

The naysayers who tell everyone that Chinese products are low quality are just insecure – Chinese manufacturers have everything, from cheap prices with high quality, to multiple and versatile product lines and equipment.

Are Chinese Engineering Steel Manufacturers Trustworthy?

Yes, Chinese engineering steel suppliers can be trusted 100%! In fact, we here at Waldun are offering our engineering steels in the best and most competitive rates there is!

Unlike other engineering steel wholesalers, our company is focused on the provision of extra-high quality products. Moreover, we’re also skilled in providing you with custom engineering steel!

So, wherever you are in the world, if you need engineering steel, Waldun is just an email or a call away!

Work with us and get quality-engineering steels fast and urgently!

You can also get tool steels and high speed steels from us! Contact us and we’ll get you a free quotation!