Comparing Mild Steels and Carbon Steels

Steel is an Iron alloy, with carbon often used as a hardening agent (resulting in Carbon Steel). The hardening occurs by limiting the movement of dislocations in the iron lattice. You can find relevant information in the wikipedia article on Steel and various topics in materials science. You'll find the difference between mild steel and other types of Carbon Steel in the article on Carbon Steel - as one would expect, mild steel simply indicates a low carbon content, resulting in a more malleable material. Note that Mild Carbon Steel is a TYPE of Carbon Steel, and not distinct from it.

Studying phase diagrams is helpful; I found this one in a Google Search:

http://www.sv.vt.edu/classes/MSE2094_NoteBook/96ClassProj/examples/kimcon.html

The grades of steel which you listed are designations in the standards of steel. (There are a few standards used; the one you may be interested in is ISO.) The difference between grades is in terms of their chemical composition (how much steel, chromium, and other elements are present). As an example, the following link provides information on the 316 grade:

http://www.azom.com/details.asp?ArticleID=863

-Aman

1) Between Mild steel and Carbon steel, both are steels with differences in % of Carbon present in them

2) In alloy steels i.e. Stainless Steels the major difference in them is % of Molybedum, Vanadium, Chromium

Between 316 & 316L, here L stands for Low Carbon.

Mild steel would be a carbon steel with low carbon content. Besides carbon steels, you have alloy steels, with apart from carbon have additional elements in their composition, either in minor quantities (low alloy steels) or larger quantities for special purposes (stainless steel or tool steels). For a given composition, the lower the carbon content, the softer the steel, hence mild steel is expected to be soft.

1) mild steel is low-carbon steel, containing no more than 0.25 percent carbon. it has low tensile strength and is easily welded, requiring no special methods, preheat, nor post heat. Mild steel can be in the as rolled, or it can be cold finished condition (bars). Carbon steel is an iron based metal containing manganese and and carbon which has no specified minimum quantities for any alloying elements. (Carbon steels specify weight percent of Carbon, Manganese, Phos, Sulfur, Silicon (sometimes) and Aluminum or other grain refiners (sometimes.) Carbon steels can range from superlow carbons (.02wt % for electrical use) to over 1.00% (drill rod). Thus it can be seen that mild steel is a carbon steel.

Alloy steels are steels which have specific requirements for additional chemical constituents to be added so that a particular set of properties can be achieved through heat treatment. While one could correctly argue that stainless steels are alloy steels, it is general practice commercially and in the industry that the class of Alloy Steels does not include stainless, heat resisting and tool steels.

2) the different grades of stainless steel reflect their different chemical makeup. This different chemical makeup imparts specific sets of fabrication, corrosion resistance, mechanical and physical properties.

milo

how many persent od carboen is in mild steel

You're kidding, right?

milo