Metallurgy Question:

Steel is an alloy of iron and carbon, consisting of iron phase and iron carbides. Crude steel produced from iron contains an undesirable amount of oxygen and some sulphur. Manganese plays a key role because of two important properties: its ability to combine with sulphur and its powerful deoxidation capacity. When there is insufficient manganese, the sulphur combines with iron to form a low melting point sulphide, which melts at hot rolling temperatures, causing a surface cracking phenomenon known as “hot shortness”. Desulphurization processes reduce the need for manganese in this respect. Some 30 of the manganese used today is still used for its properties as a sulphide former and deoxidant.

The other 70 of the manganese is used purely as an alloying element. These alloying uses depend on the desired properties of the steel being made. Steel, as has been noted, contains iron and carbon. At room temperature, iron crystallizes into a body-centered cubic structure named alpha iron (ferrite). At a high temperature (above 910 degrees C), the structure is transformed into a face-centered cubic form, which is called a gamma iron (austenite). When the steel is cooled down slowly, the carbon, soluble in austenite, precipitates as iron carbide called cementite, the austenite transforms to ferrite and they precipitate together in a characteristic lamellar structure known as pearlite.