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Stainless Steel Is Now Literally A Space Age Material!

By Rob Ellis | 11th March, 2019

We at West Yorkshire Steel are big fans of big engineering. We find it fascinating that people require vehicles that stand 30 feet high, or the amount of scientific knowledge that’s needed to drill into the sea bed for oil. There’s one area of engineering that is so large, so futuristic and so complex that many people don’t think of it even as engineering – and it even has its own idiom as exceptionally difficult; “it’s not rocket science!” To this day we still view rocket science in this light, even though the principles of the technology are cracking on... [read more]

Can You Really Cut Steel With A Flame?

By Rob Ellis | 30th January, 2019

We admit that there’s a lot of terminology around processing steel and the engineering that is involved, which can be confusing! To help, we have a glossary page full of terms that you may not feel are instantly obvious in their meaning, but one term that often gets a confused look is for ‘flame cut steel’. A flame is something that we think of as small, in everything from an open flame fire to the famous Flame-grilled Whopper, so would it really be sufficient to cut through a strong, tough steel? It is possible to slice through steel with a... [read more]

Tool Steel Properties

By Rob Ellis | 14th December, 2018

Tool steel grades are supplied in a wide variety which commonly belong to a specific group or type providing various characteristics. Most tool steel properties require grades that suit heat treatment to achieve a high hardness. Tool steels are frequently used for the shaping of other materials. Popular types of tool steel include cold work, hot work, plastic mould and shock resisting which are used for a wide range of applications. The choice of steel for a particular application depends on which tool steel properties suit best, such as the required hardness, shock resistance, strength and toughness. Other considerations include... [read more]

A Titan of Metals…and not just in name!

By Rob Ellis | 11th December, 2018

Metallurgy has a reputation of being a complicated or in-depth science, but it’s quite astonishing how much information the average person picks up regarding materials sciences. It’s general knowledge that copper is used in wiring because it’s highly conductive and relatively cheap, or that iron left outside in the rain will tarnish, rust and eventually corrode away to nothing. Some of this knowledge could be down to how we use words of metals according to their characteristics. “Worth its weight in gold” denotes value and “lead footed” relies on the density of lead to show something is sluggish and heavy.... [read more]

Can You Really ‘burn’ Steel?

By Rob Ellis | 27th November, 2018

Talking about steel always brings forward certain images and one of the most enduring is that of the foundry. People often imagine huge containers full of yellow hot metal, being poured or extruded into sections - and the chances are that if you asked people what it’s like to work in such an environment, they’d reply “noisy” and “incredibly hot”. It’s true that metalwork, even from the earliest times, has always involved working with temperatures that people find uncomfortable. The first people to heat Malachite in order to extract the copper had to basically form extremely hot fires, burning at... [read more]