I know that mild steel is more brittle than cast iron....but that is all.......please help??Thank you in advance......Ruby:D
I know that mild steel is more brittle than cast iron You know wrong - cast iron is very brittle and mild steel is easy to bend and work. Cast iron is a high carbon product while mild steel is much lower carbon
Mild steel is iron that has had most of the carbon removed in an open hearth furnace or a Bessemer converter. It is mainly the carbon content that makes iron brittle (iron is brittle, not steel).
This Site Might Help You. RE: what is the diiferent in composition between mild steel and cast iron? I know that mild steel is more brittle than cast iron....but that is all.......please help? Thank you in advance......Ruby :D
Actually, the opposite is true. CAST IRON is generally brittle, while mild steel is not. Cast iron has a carbon content from about 2%-4%. Mild steel has less than one tenth as much carbon as cast iron- around 0.2% - 0.3%. Cast iron also typically has from 1%-3% silicon. Most mild steel contains no more than 0.3% silicon. Steel melts at ~1450 degrees C. The addition of large amounts of carbon and silicon to C.I. lower the melting point to around 1200 C and make it more fluid than molten steel. Obviously this makes it easier to melt and to pour. The main advantage of cast iron is it's cheap to produce. It also has some desirable properties despite it's brittleness. For example it's easy to cut and carve with machine tools. It's also very heat resistant and excellent at absorbing vibration. For this reason C.I. was commonly used for engine blocks and exhaust manifolds in cars and trucks in the past, (Cast aluminum engine blocks are more common these days because Al is much lighter and conducts heat better.) Cast iron also rusts much more slowly than steel which is why it's still commonly used for pipes. C.I. pipes have been known to last 300 years.
