INTRODUCTION Steel is the generic term for a large family of iron-carbon alloys, which are malleable, within some temperature range, immediately after solidification from the molten state. The principal raw materials used in steelmaking are iron ore, coal, and limestone. These materials are converted in a blast furnace into a product known as "pig iron," which contains considerable amounts of carbon, manganese, sulfur, phosphorus, and silicon. Pig iron is hard, brittle, and unsuitable for direct processing into wrought forms. Steelmaking is the process of refining pig iron as well as iron and steel scrap by removing undesirable elements from the melt and then adding desirable elements in predetermined amounts. A primary reaction in most steelmaking is the combination of carbon with oxygen to form a gas. If dissolved oxygen is not removed from the melt prior to or during pouring, the gaseous products continue to evolve during solidification. If the steel is strongly deoxidized by the addition of deoxidizing elements, no gas is evolved, and the steel is called "killed" because it lies quietly in the molds. Increasing degrees of gas evolution (decreased deoxidation) characterize steels called "semikilled", "capped," or "rimmed." The degree of deoxidation affects some of the properties of the steel. In addition to oxygen, liquid steel contains measurable amounts of dissolved hydrogen and nitrogen. For some critical steel applications, special deoxidation practices as well as vacuum treatments may be used to reduce and control dissolved gases. The carbon content of common steel grades ranges from a few hundredths of a per cent to about 1 per cent. All steels also contain varying amounts of other elements, principally manganese, which acts as a deoxidizer and facilitates hot working. Silicon, phosphorus, and sulfur are also always present, if only in trace amounts. Other elements may be present, either as residuals that are not intentionally added, but result from the raw materials or steelmaking practice, or as alloying elements added to effect changes in the properties of the steel. Steels can be cast to shape, or the cast ingot or strand can be reheated and hot worked by rolling, forging, extrusion, or other processes into a wrought mill shape. Wrought steels are the most widely used of engineering materials, offering a multitude of forms, finishes, strengths, and usable temperature ranges. No other material offers comparable versatility for product design.