×
INTELLIGENT WORK FORUMS
FOR ENGINEERING PROFESSIONALS

Log In

Come Join Us!

Are you an
Engineering professional?
Join Eng-Tips Forums!
  • Talk With Other Members
  • Be Notified Of Responses
    To Your Posts
  • Keyword Search
  • One-Click Access To Your
    Favorite Forums
  • Automated Signatures
    On Your Posts
  • Best Of All, It's Free!
  • Students Click Here

*Eng-Tips's functionality depends on members receiving e-mail. By joining you are opting in to receive e-mail.

Posting Guidelines

Promoting, selling, recruiting, coursework and thesis posting is forbidden.

Students Click Here

Jobs

The term "MILD STEEL" - where did "mild" come from?

The term "MILD STEEL" - where did "mild" come from?

The term "MILD STEEL" - where did "mild" come from?

(OP)
Just curious, where did the term "mild" come from when describing "mild steel"?

RE: The term "MILD STEEL" - where did "mild" come from?

I think it is in reference to the carbon content, "mild", "medium" or "high".

RE: The term "MILD STEEL" - where did "mild" come from?

It is a fairly old term, I have heard it used since the mid 1960's. This is just a guess, but I would say that it comes from the steel refining process in use in the 1960's and earlier, mainly the open hearth process. In an open hearth furnace, after the bath is up to temperature, iron ore is added to provide a source of oxygen to burn out the carbon from the pig iron, which the was the initial molten metal charge to the furnace. The oxygen causes the bath to boil. The longer it boils, the more carbon is burned out. The boil would be vigorous/agitated at the start and diminish until it became "mild" near the end. The (low carbon) steel produced when the boil had become mild would thus be termed "mild steel".

RE: The term "MILD STEEL" - where did "mild" come from?

(OP)
Thanks haynewp and swall.

RE: The term "MILD STEEL" - where did "mild" come from?

I did some searching, and didn't find an origin- but I think it is much older than 1960's, say, early 1900's or earlier.  One of the definitions was simply steel that could not be hardened.

Red Flag This Post

Please let us know here why this post is inappropriate. Reasons such as off-topic, duplicates, flames, illegal, vulgar, or students posting their homework.

Red Flag Submitted

Thank you for helping keep Eng-Tips Forums free from inappropriate posts.
The Eng-Tips staff will check this out and take appropriate action.

Reply To This Thread

Posting in the Eng-Tips forums is a member-only feature.

Click Here to join Eng-Tips and talk with other members!


Resources