Difference Between Carbon Steel and Iron

1) What is carbon steel?

In fact, carbon steel refers to the carbon content in the steel on which its mechanical properties depend. Generally, steel without alloying elements is also called plain carbon steel or carbon steel, which refers to an iron-carbon alloy with a carbon content of less than 2%, while carbon steel also contains a small amount of silicon, manganese, sulfur, and phosphorus in addition to carbon. Generally, carbon steel with higher carbon content will have higher hardness and strength, but lower plasticity.

2) What is iron?

Iron is a chemical element and a commonly used metal, a transition metal. Iron Fe, atomic number 26, relative atomic mass 55.847. Iron has many allotropes and is a relatively active metal, ranking ahead of hydrogen in the list of metal activity sequences.
At room temperature, iron is not easy to react with non-metallic elements such as oxygen, sulfur and chlorine in dry air, but it reacts violently at high temperature.

3) The difference between carbon steel and iron

1. The difference between carbon steel and iron is that the carbon content is different. Steel is a general term for iron alloys, and its carbon content is 0.02% to 2.04%. The chemical composition of steel can vary greatly. Steel containing only carbon elements is called carbon steel or ordinary steel; in actual production, steel often contains different alloying elements, such as manganese, nickel, vanadium, etc., according to different uses.

Low carbon steel: the carbon content is generally lower than 0.25% (mass fraction);
Medium carbon steel: the carbon content is generally 0.25%~0.60% (mass fraction);
High carbon steel: The carbon content is generally higher than 0.60% (mass fraction).

2. Iron is divided into pig iron and wrought iron, both of which are iron-carbon alloys, which are distinguished by carbon content. Generally, the carbon content of less than 0.02% is called wrought iron or pure iron, and the content of more than 2% is called pig iron. Wrought iron is soft, plastic, easy to deform, low in strength and hardness, and not widely used; pig iron has a large carbon content, is hard and brittle, and has almost no plasticity; steel has the advantages of pig iron and wrought iron, and is widely used by humans.

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