High Strength Steel for the Earthmoving Industry Material Trends 710499

Since the introduction of the 100,000 psi minimum yield strength constructional steels in 1953 there has been a definite trend toward the use of thinner sections and leaner, less expensive alloys tailored to provide the properties needed in the thinner sections. In many cases, the leaner alloys can provide satisfactory performance with significant material savings. In other cases, the use of the leaner alloys requires more demanding and expensive processing techniques and the added cost partially or totally offsets the material savings. Although the overall trend is toward leaner alloys there will be a continued demand for steels of varying greater alloy content to satisfy the various performance levels demanded by design and fabrication limitations.