Unalloyed carbon steels

Example :     C35C
     C-steel with 0,35 % carbon and for the cold forming

C stand for carbon

35 indicates the carbon content
     100 x middle C content

The letter behind the number has the following meaning :
C     for cold forming
D     for wire drawing
E     specified max. S content
G     other features
R     specified area of the S content
S     for springs
U     for tools
W     for welding wire
 

Low alloyed steels

Example :     21CrMoV5-7
     steel with 0,21 % carbon , 1,25 % chromium and 0,7 % molybdenum , vanadium specifically alloyed

The number at the beginning of the material name stands for the carbon content
     100 x middle C content

The abbreviations of the alloying elements are in the order of their % shares

The numbers at the end of the material name indicates the % share of the alloying elements under consideration of a conversion factor. Factor for the individual elements :
factor 4 :     Cr , Co , Mn , Ni , Si , W
factor 10 :     Al , Be , Cu , Mo , Nb , Pb , Ta , Ti , V , Zr
factor 100 :     C , N , P , S
factor 1000 :     B
 

High alloyed steels

Example :     X5CrNi18-10
     steel with 0,05 % carbon , 18 % chromium and 10 % nickel

The X at the beginning of the material name is the identification for high alloyed steels. In these cases the numbers at the end has to be seen as full % shares of the alloying elements. There aren't any conversion factors. The abbreviations of the alloying elements are in the order of their % shares.
 

High-speed steels

Example :     HS6-5-2-5
     steel with 6 % tungsten , 5 % molybdenum , 2 % vanadium and 5 % cobalt

The X at the beginning of the material name is the identification for high-speed steels. The numbers are the % shares of the alloying elements in the following order.
1. number :     tungsten
2. number :     molybdenum
3. number :     vanadium
4. number :     cobalt

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