Uses of wrought mild for making railings and stairs

wrought mild for making railings and stairs

Most of the people may think that cast iron and wrought iron are same but there is difference between the two. Cast iron is the iron which is melted and then poured in a mold and then allowed to cool. Whereas, wrought iron is iron which is heated and then worked with tools. An iron alloy which has low carbon content, is known as wrought iron or wrought mild. Carbon percentage in cast iron is higher than that of wrought mild. Wrought iron or wrought mild is tough corrosion resistant and can be welded easily. Wrought mild is malleable means it can be converted in to thin sheets and ductile which means it can be converted in to thin wires. Before the development of steel, wrought iron was most commonly in use and the name wrought, given to it is due to reason that it was hammered and rolled.

Wrought iron consists of more than 99% of iron by mass and a small amount of slag, which is forged into fibers and it is thoroughly refined. Slag present in wrought iron makes it easy to use for blacksmithing operations, and also makes it fibrous. Silicate filaments in slag, protects the iron from getting corroded and reduce the effect fatigue, which may be caused due to shock and vibration. Refined wrought iron was used to produce swords, axes, cutlery and chisels and most of the sharp-edged tools. Uses of wrought iron were declined after mild steel came in use, due to improvement in its property of brittleness with ferrous metallurgy and steel was cheaper than wrought iron. Now-a-days, wrought iron is not produced on commercial scale, and many products, which are said to be made of wrought iron are made from mild steel.

Basically, wrought iron were used for decorative fences, railings, porches, grill, hardware etc; Few of the characteristics of wrought iron are, it is ductile, magnetic, malleable and it has high elasticity and tensile strength and it becomes stronger when it is more worked. Wrought iron may deteriorate over long period of time and it can be controlled by preventive maintenance. Other than this, there may be human induced problems such as vandalism, which can occur randomly. Wrought mild is generally fatigue resistant, even if deformation is caused due to overloading, it will function properly. There may be permanent deformation, when wrought iron is overloaded beyond its yield point. There may be connection failure due to chemical or mechanical processes.