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Carbon content is the main difference between cast iron and ste

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    Casting offers exceptional capacity for design detail, often eliminating the need for additional fabrication and assembly. Many materials can be cast, including several types of metals and synthetics, but iron and steel in particular feature excellent mechanical properties for a wide range of applications.

    While cast iron and steel may appear similar on the surface, they each have distinct advantages and disadvantages from production to application. Understanding these advantages and disadvantages and choosing appropriately can mean the difference between unforgiving strength and durability and fractured or deformed parts that will quickly lose their luster.

    Carbon content is the main difference

    Iron and steel are both ferrous metals comprised of primarily iron atoms. In manufacturing, however, it’s not that simple—there are many different alloys and grades. To understand them, it’s important to distinguish between the iron used in everyday products, and the scientific element iron (Fe). The elemental iron is the stuff that’s found in nature, typically in an oxidized form that requires intensive processing called smelting, to extract.

    Pure elemental iron is too soft to be useful in most applications. It gets harder, and therefore more useful, when it’s alloyed, or mixed, with carbon. In fact, carbon composition is the main distinction between cast iron and steel. Cast iron typically contains more than 2 percent carbon, while cast steel often contains between 0.1–0.5 percent carbon.

    Castability

    Most people haven’t encountered iron or steel in their molten state—which is understandable, since iron melts at about 2300˚F and steel melts at 2600˚F, and both are poured into molds at even hotter temperatures. People who do work with liquid iron and steel quickly discover that they differ dramatically in pourability and shrinkage rates.

    Cast iron is relatively easy to cast, as it pours easily and doesn’t shrink as much as steel. This means it will readily fill the complex voids in a mold, and requires less molten material to do so. This flowability makes cast iron an ideal metal for architectural or ornate ironwork structures such as fencing and street furniture.

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