CARBON STEELS Round Bars

Steel round bar has properties such as high hardness, anti-corrosion, strength, and wear resistance. The metal bar is long and cylindrical. O’Hare Precision Metals offers various types that include hot-rolled or cold-rolled steel, aluminum, brass, stainless steel, or alloy steel.

Round bar stock sizes range between 1/4″ up to 24” in diameter. The round top bar can be low-carbon steel, medium-carbon steel, or high-carbon steel.

Low-carbon steel: It is the most widely used type of steel round bar. It has about 0.25 wt.% of carbon content which is very low. These round bars grades cannot be hardened using heat. Instead, cold work is used. They are also soft with low strength. However, they possess high-ductility. This quality makes them ideal for low-cost machining and welding. The low-carbon steels can also contain nickel, copper, vanadium, and molybdenum, which increase their strength.

Medium-carbon steel: The carbon content in these round bar stock is between 0.25 – 0.60 wt.%. It also contains a manganese content of 0.60 – 1.65 wt.%. Using heat, the mechanical properties in these carbon round bars improve, which is followed by quenching and tempering, giving them martensitic microstructure. As a result, hardened medium-carbon steel gains more strength. However, they have low ductility and toughness.

High-carbon steel: It contains carbon content between 0.60– 1.25 wt.%. If you want a round bar stock with high hardness and toughness, these steels make the best option. However, they have low elasticity. These round bars have a high resistance to wearing because they are hardened and tempered.

Additionally, there are die steels and tools steels that can contain other alloy elements. These elements include chromium, molybdenum, and tungsten. Adding these elements results in a hard, wear-resistant steel round bar.