What Is Forged Carbon Steel

The term forged carbon steel represents a combination of two basic metallurgical components,
namely carbon steel and forging. Carbon steel is a broad term applied to a range of steel varieties of
various compositions excluding stainless steel. Forging is a metal forming process that utilizes
repeated force to compress a piece of heated metal stock into the desired final shape. Forging is
generally accepted to produce finished items of a better quality due to the inherent lack of
imperfections in the steel structure found with other fabrication methods, making the parts wellsuited to high temperature and pressure applications. A few common forged carbon steel parts
include machine, valve, and piping system components.
Carbon steel is a fairly generic identifier for a range of steel alloys consisting of carbon as the main
alloying component along with varying quantities of other elements such as tungsten, cobalt, and
chromium. Generally in defining carbon steel, no minimum or maximum concentrations are quoted
for these elements, although it is accepted that stainless steel does not qualify. In other words,
concentrations of both the primary carbon and secondary alloying elements may be adjusted to suit
the intended end purpose of the steel. For example, increasing the carbon content of the alloy
increases its hardness while decreasing its ductility.
Forging is one of the oldest metal forming methods and involves repetitive manual or powered
impact to force red hot steel into a certain shape. The metal is heated in a forge and hammered over
a shaped jig or between the two halves of a fuller set to achieve its final form. Manual forging is
carried out by a blacksmith using smaller, handheld hammers, tongs, and chisels, with the
hammering typically taking place on an anvil. Forged carbon steel produced by powered forges are
hammered by large trip hammers capable, in some cases, of exerting significant amounts of
pressure when striking the hot metal.
Forged carbon steel parts are usually believed to be superior to those made by other methods such
as casting. This is due to the fact that the hammering of the metal during forming eliminates most of
the microscopic crystalline flaws, such as air bubbles and fissures, which characterize cast parts.
This structural integrity makes forged carbon steel parts stronger and better-suited to applications
that involve high pressures and temperatures. This strength makes these forgings ideal for oil and
gas piping systems, machinery parts, and the internal mechanisms of high-pressure valves.