Small-Scale Rapid Alloy Prototyping of Extra-Low Carbon Steel to Investigate the Effects of Cu and Cr Residuals

A small-scale, rapid alloy prototyping (RAP) route is presented for accelerated lab-scale development of an array of steels across many applications in which alloys can be tailored with individual or combined elements to a compositional precision down to 0.1%. At the level of 40 g, over twenty unique compositions can be manufactured and validated in a week, with the process including compacting and melting raw materials, casting into a bar, followed by rolling and heat treatment. A specific application of RAP is presented whereby incremental additions of residual elements, in this instance Cu and Cr, are added to an extra-low carbon steel with the aim of understanding the effects of increased scrap recycling on the final product properties. ASTM tensile test results are discussed reflecting the effects of seven levels of Cu and Cr, up to 36 times the current industrial limits, showing the versatility of this RAP route.