Definition of Wrought
- Shaped by hammering with tools. Used chiefly of metals or metalwork.
- Made delicately or elaborately.
Definition of Wrought Iron
Wrought iron is commercially purified iron. In the Aston process, pig iron is refined in a Bessemer converter and then poured into molten iron silicate slag. The resulting semisolid mass is passed between rollers that squeeze out most of the slag. The wrought iron has a fibrous structure with threads of slag running through it; it is tough, malleable, ductile, corrosion resistant, and melts only at high temperatures. It is used to make rivets, bolts, pipes, chains, and anchors, and is also used for ornamental ironwork.
Definition of Cast Iron
Cast iron is made when pig iron is re-melted in small cupola furnaces (similar to the blast furnace in design and operation) and poured into molds to make castings. It usually contains 2% to 6% carbon. Scrap iron or steel is often added to vary the composition. Cast iron is used extensively to make machine parts, engine cylinder blocks, stoves, pipes, steam radiators, and many other products. Gray cast iron, or gray iron, is produced when the iron in the mold is cooled slowly. Part of the carbon separates out in plates in the form of graphite but remains physically mixed in the iron. Gray iron is brittle but soft and easily machined. White cast iron, or white iron, which is harder and more brittle, is made by cooling the molten iron rapidly. The carbon remains distributed throughout the iron as cementite (iron carbide, Fe3C). A malleable cast iron can be made by annealing white iron castings in a special furnace. Some of the carbon separates from the cementite; it is much more finely divided than in gray iron. A ductile iron may be prepared by adding magnesium to the molten pig iron; when the iron is cast the carbon forms tiny spherical nodules around the magnesium. Ductile iron is strong, shock resistant, and easily machined.
Definition of Forge
- A furnace or hearth where metals are heated or wrought; a smithy. workshop where pig iron is transformed into wrought iron.
Definition of Forged
- To shape, break, or flatten with repeated blows
- To create by forming, combining, or altering material
- To form (metal, for example) by heating in a forge and beating or hammering into shape.
Definition of Steel:
Unlike Wrought Iron, Steel is an alloy of iron with small amounts of carbon; widely used in construction, used to frame skyscrapers and bridges because of its virtually unbreakable properties.
A generally hard, strong, durable, malleable alloy of iron and carbon, usually containing between 0.2 and 1.5 percent carbon, often with other constituents such as manganese, chromium, nickel, molybdenum, copper, tungsten, cobalt, or silicon, depending on the desired alloy properties, and widely used as a structural material. Strong, durable, long lasting items of extended and/or a lifetime of use such as a knife, skate blade or a sword, is made of steel.
Recent tests by the Swiss Institute for Arms and Armour have shown that during the 15th century the use of steel, iron strengthened by the addition of carbon, was mastered by both Italian and German craftsmen. After the middle of the century most armour was made from steel rather than iron, making it more durable, resistant to rust, and more easily heat-treatable.