Indian Alloy Steels for Engineering Industries

Abstract

The evolution of alloy steels during the last two decades has been characterized by serious efforts to make use of alloying elements as economically as possible and commonly to rely upon indigenous alloying elements as far as possi-ble. Nickel, cobalt, chromium , molybdenum, manganese, vanadium, tungsten, etc., are amongst the chief elements used for conveying high strength at room and elevated temperatures, toughness and corrosion resistance to alloy steels. If extensive production of alloy steels is to be undertaken in India, (a) the main alloying elements must be essentially those which occur in India and (b) the composition of alloy steels must be so adjusted that these new Indian steels will not be merely replicas of standard grades evolved in other countries, but should adequately replace them witliout impairment of properties such as hardenability and toughness together with any special characteristics called for by the service conditions. The subject has been discussed on this basis for alloy constructional steels, low-alloy high strength steels, corrosion-resistant steels, etc. The beneficial effects of rare earth and other minor additions have also been discussed. Some data in respect of alloy steels for the Indian automobile industries are presented.