Glossary of Steel Terms

Glossary of Steel Terms

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Waloon Process
An early two-hearth process for making wrought iron by refining cast iron. The conversion proper was carried out in a hearth furnace known as a finery; re-heating for forging was carried out in a second hearth furnace known as a chafery.

Wasters
Sheets that have prohibitive defects, for example, seams and buckled plates. Generally fit for re-melting purposes only.

Watch Main Spring Steel
Usually supplied cold rolled and annealed in large widths and cut and hardened by the spring manufacturers. Carbon content about 1.15 and Tungsten .17, extra precision rolled.

Water Hardening
Process of hardening high carbon steels by quenching in water or brine, after heating.

Wavy
Not flat. A slight wave following the direction of rolling and beyond the standard limitation for flatness.

Wedge
A hardwood stick used as a forming tool in spinning.

Weld
A union made by welding.

Weld Bead
A deposit of filler metal from a single welding pass.

Weldability
Suitability of a metal for welding under specific conditions.

Welding
A process used to join metals by the application of heat. Fusion welding, which includes gas, arc, and resistance welding, requires that the parent metals be melted. This distinguishes fusion welding from brazing. In pressure welding joining is accomplished by the use of heat and pressure without melting. The parts that are being welded are pressed together and heated simultaneously, so that recrystallization occurs across the interface.

Welding
Joining two or more pieces of material by applying heat or pressure, or both, with or without filler metal, to produce a loxalized union through fusion or recrystallization across the interface.

Wetting
A phenomenon involving a solid and a liquid in such intimate contact that the adhesive force between the two phases is greater than the cohesive force within the liquid. Thus a solid that is wetted, on being removed from the liquid bath, will have a thin continuous layer of liquid adherring to it. Foreign substances such as grease may prevent wetting. Addition agents, such as detergents, may induce wetting by lowering the surface tension of the liquid.

Wetting Agent
A surface-active agent that produces wetting by decreasing the cohesion within the liquid.

Widmanstatten Structure
A structure characterized by a geometric pattern resulting from the formation of a new phase on certain crystallographic planes in the parent phase. The orientation of the lattice in the new phase is related cystallographically to the orientation of the lattice in the parent phase.

Widmanstatten Structure
A structure characterized by a geometrical pattern resulting from the formation of a new phase along certain crystallographic planes of the parent solid solution. The orientation of the lattice in the new phase is related crystallographically to the orientation of the lattice in the parent phase. The structure was originally observed in meteorites but is readily produced in many other alloys with certain heat treatment.

WMB, WHB and Extra WHB Grades
Spring steel wires produced from aced open-hearth steels.

Wootz
A carbon steel containing 1 to 1.6% C produced by melting a bloomery iron or an inhomogeneous steel with charcoal in a crucible. The process originated in India as early as the 3rd century A.D.

Work Hardening
Increase in resistance to deformation (i.e. in hardness) produced by cold working.

Work Hardening
Same as strain hardening.

Workability
The characteristic or group of characteristics that determines the ease of forming a metal into desired shapes.

Wrought Iron
An iron produced by direct reduction of ore or by refining molten cast iron under conditions where a pasty mass of solid iron with included slag is produced. The iron has a low carbon content.

Wrought Iron
Iron containing only a very small amount of other elements, but containing 1-3% by weight of slag in the form of particles elongated in one direction, giving the iron a characteristic grain. Is more rust-resistant than steel and welds more easily.

Wrought Iron
A commercial iron consisting of slag (iron silicate) fibers entrained in a ferrite matrix.

Wustite
The oxide of iron of lowest valence which exist over a wide range of compositions the do not quite include the stoichiometric composition FeO.