title = "Alloy Steels: Grades, Properties, and Applications"

content = """
Alloy steels are carbon steels enhanced with deliberate additions of alloying elements to achieve
mechanical, physical, or processing properties not attainable with plain carbon steel alone. Ridgecrest
Metalworks processes a range of alloy steel grades across forging, machining, and heat treatment operations.

Common Alloying Elements and Their Effects:

Chromium (Cr): Improves hardenability, corrosion resistance, and high-temperature strength. Present
in grades 41xx (chromium-molybdenum) and 51xx (chromium) steels as well as stainless steels.

Molybdenum (Mo): Significantly improves hardenability, prevents temper brittleness at the grain boundary,
and contributes to high-temperature strength. Paired with chromium in 41xx grades such as AISI 4140 and 4340.

Nickel (Ni): Improves toughness at low temperatures, enhances hardenability without increasing brittleness.
Prominent in 43xx series (nickel-chromium-molybdenum) such as AISI 4340, a high-strength alloy steel
used in aerospace landing gear and high-demand structural forgings.

Manganese (Mn): Improves hardenability and strength. High-manganese steels (Hadfield steel, 12–14% Mn)
are extremely work-hardenable and are used in high-impact wear applications.

Vanadium (V): Grain refiner that improves strength, toughness, and abrasion resistance. Often used
in tool steels and high-strength low-alloy (HSLA) steels.

Key Grades Processed at Ridgecrest:

AISI 4140: Chromium-molybdenum alloy steel. Through-hardenable in moderate sections. Widely used for
shafts, bolts, gears, and forgings requiring a combination of strength (tensile strengths of 95,000–
148,000 psi depending on heat treatment condition) and toughness. Excellent weldability in normalized
condition; requires preheat when hardened.

AISI 4340: Nickel-chromium-molybdenum alloy steel. Higher hardenability than 4140; suitable for
large-section parts requiring uniform hardness through the full cross-section. Used in heavy forgings,
aircraft structural components, and large shafts.

AISI 8620: Nickel-chromium-molybdenum carburizing grade. Used for case-hardened gears and cams where
a hard surface layer over a tough core is required.

Alloy steels must never be substituted for one another without engineering review. The heat treatment
condition significantly alters the final properties, and the as-supplied material condition (annealed,
normalized, or pre-hardened) must match the work order specification before machining begins.
"""

version = "0.0.1"
