Steel: The Backbone of Industry, The Guarantee of the Future

To understand the value of an engineering material, one must look at its history. Steel built bridges, erected skyscrapers, and transformed production lines throughout human history. Today we still ask the same question: Why steel? The answer lies at the intersection of numbers and metallurgy.

What Do the Numbers Say?

World crude steel production was around 40 million tons in 1900, reaching 1.6 billion tons by 2013. This is not just a growth story; it's proof of steel's indispensability. During the same period, aluminum, magnesium, and plastics entered the scene, but none could shake steel's throne.

The reason lies in a simple energy equation: The energy required to obtain iron is only one-tenth of primary aluminum production. Economically viable raw iron ore reserves stand at approximately 170 billion tons. This means iron-based materials offer a long-term guarantee in terms of resource security.

What Makes Steel Special?

Behind such a wide range of applications lies a unique combination of properties. Steel is one of the rare materials that can offer both high and ultra-high strength simultaneously. It's suitable for hot and cold forming, weldable, and machinable. It can balance hardness with ductility; resist wear, corrosion, high-temperature heat, and deformation.

The secret to this flexibility lies in steel being a "designable" material. The European Steel Register published by VDEh Steel Institute classifies 1,500 special steel types; the total number of steel grades reaches 2,000.

The Compass of Research and Development

R&D work on steel systematically addresses all stages including manufacturing and heat treatment. Metallurgy science provides the necessary foundation for this development. Ongoing research focuses on specific areas:

• Achieving narrow composition ranges in chemical composition
• Guaranteeing high cleanliness and regularity of structure
• Determining the chemical composition and structure of existing phases
• Finding and controlling the ratio and distribution of phases in microstructure
• Adjusting grain size exactly according to requirements

Alya's Perspective

As Alya, bringing Sheffield's steel heritage to Turkey, we closely follow these developments. Our 30+ years of experience has taught us that steel is not just a material, but an engineering philosophy.

Steel grades like D2, M2, and 440B that we use in industrial blade production are concrete products of these global R&D efforts. Every HRC value, every microstructure decision, every coating choice builds upon this accumulation.

Steel is not just today's material, but tomorrow's as well. And we will continue to stand by the manufacturers shaping this future.