Steel Elements:

Carbon (C)

• Increases edge retention and raises tensile strength.
• Increases hardness and improves resistance to wear and abrasion.

Chromium (CR)

• Increases hardness, tensile strength, and toughness.
• Provides resistance to wear and corrosion.

Cobalt (CO)

• Increases strength and hardness, and permits quenching in higher temperatures.
• Intensifies the individual effects of other elements in more complex steels.

Copper (CU)

• Increases corrosion resistance.

Manganese (M)

• Increases harden ability, wear resistance, and tensile strength.
• Deoxidizes and degasifies to remove oxygen from molten metal.
• In larger quantities, increases hardness and brittleness.

Molybdenum (MO)

• Increases strength, hardness, harden ability, and toughness.
• Improves machine ability and resistance to corrosion.

Nickel (NI)

• Adds strength and toughness.

Nitrogen (N)

• Used in place of carbon for the steel matrix. The Nitrogen atom will function in a similar manner to the carbon atom but offers unusual advantages in corrosion resistance.

Phosphorus (P)

• Improves strength, machine ability and hardness.
• Creates brittleness in high concentrations.

Silicon (SI)

• Increases strength.
• Deoxidizes and degasifies to remove oxygen from molten metal.

Sulfur (S)

• Improves machine ability when added in minute quantities.

Tungsten (W)

• Adds strength, toughness, and improves harden ability.

Vanadium (V)

• Increases strength, wear resistance, and increases toughness.