Glossary of Metalworking TermsAbrasion - The process of rubbing, grinding, or wearing away by friction.Abrasion-Resistant Steels - A family of steel products developed for those applications involved in sliding and/or impact abrasion. Abrasive - A substance capable of grinding away another material.Accordion Reed Steel - Hardened, tempered, polished and blued or yellow flat steel with dressed edges. Carbon content about 1.00. Material has to possess good flatness, uniform hardness and high elasticity.Acid Steel - Steel melted in a furnace with an acid bottom and lining and under a slag containing an excess of an acid substance such as silica. Steel produced in a furnace with an acid lining, i.e. consisting of a siliceous refractory and under a siliceous slag. With an acid slag, carbon, silicon and manganese only are removed so that the pig iron must not contain sulfur and phosphorus in percentages exceeding those permissible for the specification being made. Most steel manufactured today is in furnaces with basic linings.Acid-Brittleness - Brittleness resulting from pickling steel in acid; hydrogen, formed by the interaction between iron and acid, is partially absorbed by the metal, causing acid brittleness.Acid Dipped - Dry Rolled Finish. Produced by dry cold rolling bichromate dipped alloy with polished rolls resulting in a burnished appearance and retaining the color obtained by dipping (True Metal Color). Acid-Process - A process of making steel, either Bessemer, open-hearth or electric, in which the furnace is lined with a siliceous refractory and for which low phosphorus pig iron is required as this element is not removed. Activation - The changing of the passive surface of a metal to a chemically active state. Contrast with passivation. Age Hardening - Hardening by aging, usually after rapid cooling or cold working. The term as applied to soft, or low carbon steels, relates to a wide variety of commercially important, slow, gradual changes that take place in properties of steels after the final treatment. These changes, which bring about a condition of increased hardness, elastic limit, and tensile strength with a consequent loss in ductility, occur during the period in which the steel is at normal temperatures. Aging - A change in properties that occurs at ambient or moderately elevated temperatures after hot working or a heat-treating operation (quench aging in ferrous alloys), or after a cold working operation (strain aging). The change in properties is often, but not always, due to a phase change (precipitation), but does not involve a change in chemical composition. In a metal or alloy, a change in properties that generally occurs slowly at room temperature and more rapidly at higher temperatures. Air Cooling - Cooling of the heated metal, intermediate in rapidity between slow furnace cooling and quenching, in which the metal is permitted to stand in the open air.Air-Hardening Steel - A steel containing sufficient carbon and other alloying elements to harden fully during cooling in air or other gaseous mediums from a temperature above its transformation range. Such steels attain their martensitic structure without going through the quenching process. Additions of chromium, nickel, molybdenum and manganese are effective toward this end. The term should be restricted to steels that are capable of being hardened by cooling in air in fairly large sections, about 2 in. or more in diameter.AISI Steels - Steels of the American Iron and Steel Institute. Common and alloy steels have been numbered in a system essentially the same as the SAE. The AISI system is more elaborate than the SAE in that all numbers are preceded by letters: A represents basic open-hearth alloy steel, B acid Bessemer carbon steel, C basic open-hearth carbon steel, CB either acid Bessemer are basic open-hearth carbon steel, E electric furnace alloy steel.Alclad - Composite sheet produced by bonding either corrosion-resistant aluminum alloy or aluminum of high purity to base metal of structurally stronger aluminum alloy. The coatings are anodic to the core so they protect exposed areas of the core electrolytically during exposure to corrosive environment. Alkaline Cleaner - Uses an alkaline solution, usually sodium hydroxide, to clean residual oils and iron fines left on the strip from the cold reduction process. Allotriomorph - A particle of a phase that has no regular external shape.Allotropy - The property whereby certain elements may exist in more than one crystal structure. The property possessed by certain elements to exist in two or more distinct forms that are chemically identical but have different physical properties. In the case of iron the crystal structure has one form at room temperature and another at high temperature. When heated above 910oC the atomic structure changes from body centered cubic to face centered cubic but reverts again when cooled. The allotropy of iron modifies the solubility of carbon, and it is because of this that steel can be hardened.Alloy - A substance having metallic properties and composed of two or more chemical elements of which at least one is a metal.Alloy Steel - Steel containing substantial quantities of elements other than carbon and the commonly accepted limited amounts of manganese, sulfur, silicon, and phosphorus. Addition of such alloying elements is usually for the purpose of increased hardness, strength or chemical resistance. The metals most commonly used for forming alloy steels are: nickel, chromium, silicon, manganese tungsten, molybdenum and vanadium, Low Alloy steels are usually considered to be those containing a total of less than 5% of such added constituents. Alloying Element - An element added to a metal, and remaining in the metal, that effects changes in structure and properties.Alpha Brass - A copper-zinc alloy containing up to 38% of zinc. Used mainly for cold working. Alpha Bronze - A copper-tin alloy consisting of the alpha solid solution of tin in copper. Commercial forms contain 4 or 5% of tin. This alloy is used in coinage, springs, turbine, blades, etc. Alpha Iron - The polymorphic form of iron, stable below 1670 (degrees) F. has a body centered cubic lattice, and is magnetic up to 1410 (degrees) F. Aluminizing - Forming an aluminum or aluminum alloy coating on a metal by hot dipping, hot spraying, or diffusion.Aluminum Al Atomic Number: 13 Atomic Weight: 26.981538 Melting Point: 933.437 K (660.323C or 1220.581F) Boiling Point: 2792 K (2519C or 4566F)Density: 2.70 grams per cubic centimeter Phase at Room Temperature: Solid A silvery white metal of valence 3. Ductile and malleable; stable against normal atmospheric corrosion, but attacked by both acids and alkalis. Aluminum is used extensively in articles requiring lightness, corrosion resistance, electrical conductivity, etc. Its principal functions as an alloy in steel making; (1) Deoxidizes efficiently. (2) Restricts grain growth (by forming dispersed oxides or nitrides) (3) Alloying element in nitriding steel. Aluminum is also used to deoxidize steel and control grain size. Grain size control is affected by forming a fine dispersion with nitrogen and oxygen, which restricts austenite grain growth. Aluminum is also an extremely effective nitride former in nitriding steels. Aluminum Killed Steel A steel where aluminum has been used as a deoxidizing agent. Amorphous - Noncrystalline. Analog - Full-body electromagnetic induction testing; a type of non-destructive test.