Steel is the most important metallic material. Steel consists mainly of iron, but the other components have a major influence on the material properties. The iron is always accompanied by a certain amount of carbon. As the content rises, the material becomes more brittle. From a carbon content of 2%, one no longer speaks of steel, but of cast iron. Alloying, especially with chromium, nickel, molybdenum, manganese, and vanadium, allows the material properties to be changed within wide limits. Higher alloy steels, such as rustproof grades, can be found under the entry stainless steel.
Designation of the steels:
Structural steels can be recognized by the letter S for “structural steel”. This is followed by the minimum value of the yield point in N / mm², specified for the smallest product thickness. The leading letter D indicates sheets made of soft steels for cold forming, a C as the second letter stands for cold rolled.
Steel grades
The low-alloy standard structural steels offered here are sufficient for most applications. Depending on the sheet thickness, the following qualities are available:
DC01 (EN10139 / 1.0330) is a cold-rolled sheet in the thickness range 0.5 – 3.0 mm. This material is used instead of S235JR (see following entry) for thicknesses below 4 mm.
Attention: Please select DC01 in the material selection instead of the preset material S235JR if the thin sheet is required.
S235JR (ST 37-2 / 1.0038) is a hot-rolled, unalloyed, inexpensive standard structural steel in the thickness range 4 – 25 mm for general applications.
Attention: This material is preset in the material selection for laser cutting.
AS355J2G3: (ST 52-3 / 1.0570) is an unalloyed, stronger standard structural steel for general applications. Sheet metal thicknesses from 3 to 25 mm are available.