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Term	Definition
Acid Steel	Steel produced in a furnace with an acid lining, i.e. consisting of a siliceous refractory and under a siliceous slag. With an acid slag, carbon, silicon and manganese only are removed so that the pig iron must not contain sulphur and phosphorus in percentages exceeding those permissible for the specification being made. Most steel manufactured today is in furnaces with basic linings.
Air-Hardening Steel	Sometimes referred to as self- hardening steel. A steel that becomes fully hardened when cooled in air from above its critical point and does not require rapid quenching by oil or water. The risk of distortion is greatly reduced by air hardening. High Speed Steel was one of the earliest examples of this type of steel.
Allotropy	The property possessed by certain elements to exist in two or more distinct forms that are chemically identical but have different physical properties. In the case of iron the crystal structure has one form at room temperature and another at high temperature. When heated above 910oC the atomic structure changes from body centered cubic to face centered cubic but reverts again when cooled. The allotropy of iron modifies the solubility of carbon, and it is because of this that steel can be hardened.
Alloy Steel	A steel to which one or more alloying elements other than carbon have been deliberately added (e.g. chromium, nickel, molybdenum) to achieve a particular physical property.
Alpha Iron	The body centered cubic form of iron which, in pure iron, exists up to 910oC.
Annealing	Heating steel to, and holding at a suitable temperature, followed by relatively slow cooling. The purpose of annealing may be to remove stresses, to soften the steel, to improve machinability, to improve cold working properties, to obtain a desired structure. The annealing process usually involves allowing the steel to cool slowly in the furnace.
Arc Furnace	A steel melting furnace in which heat is generated by an arc between graphite electrodes and the metal. Both carbon and alloy steels are produced in electric arc furnaces and scrap rather than molten metal is used as the base material. Furnaces with capacities up to 200 tonnes are now in use.
Austempering	Quenching from a temperature above the transformation range to a temperature above the upper limit of martensite formation, and holding at this temperature until the austenite is completely transformed to the desired intermediate structure, for the purpose of conferring certain mechanical properties.
Austenite	The solid solution of carbon in gamma (face centered cubic) iron.
Austenitic Steels	Steels containing high percentages of certain alloying elements such as manganese and nickel which are austenitic at room temperature and cannot be hardened by normal heat-treatment but do work harden. They are also non-magnetic. Typical examples of austenitic steels include the 18/8 stainless steels and 14% manganese steel.

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