Material Science - conclusion - Assignment Example

Conclusion Carbon steel is an alloy of steel composed of carbon, as well as iron. It can be categorized into four types, which include low carbon steel, medium carbon steel, high carbon steel, and very high carbon steel. Carbon steel AISI 1040 can be used on crankshafts, couplings, as well as cold headed parts. As it is known for its strength and machinability, it is also widely used for mechanical applications. Carbon Steel AISI 1040 has a couple of issues. First, the relationship between the hardness and tempering temperature shows that the correlation between the two is inversely proportional, which means that if the tempering temperature increases, the hardness decreases, and when the temperature decreases, the hardness increases.

The lower the presence of carbon in the alloy, the lower the grade of the carbon steel is, thus, the softer the metal is. Whereas, the higher the presence of carbon content, the higher the grade, and the stronger the carbon steel is. Another issue is the machinability per se of the metal. As it enters the high machining zone, it could potentially lead to poor surface quality.In order to improve the process of machining, the involvement of heating, cooling, and mechanical vibrations should be integrated into the external energy assisted machining.

The future trend should be of perfecting the machining process of metals instead of the use of external energy assisted machining per se. Moreover, considering the applications where Carbon steel is commonly used, it is important that it should be heated and machined properly.