Iron and Steel The refining of the heavy metal element iron can be considered as one of the technologies with the greatest impact on today's society. This is primarily because iron makes a series of modern products, particularly commercial iron that is commonly known as steel (which is rich in carbon). Iron and steel are increasingly used to make several modern products and items such as cars, skyscrapers, tractors, rails, guns, bridges, ships, and trains. The increased use of iron and steel in the manufacturing of these products is attributable to the fact that they make them strong. However, the importance of iron can be traced back to the Iron Age period where primitive societies learned how to refine it and use it in making several products, tools, and items. The significance of iron and steel in today's manufacturing processes can be understood through examining these metals with regards to their advantages.

Overview of Iron and Steel

Iron is a soft metal that is easily shaped since its atoms are organized in a regular way that enables layers of atoms to slide over each other. However, poor iron is considered too soft for several uses in the manufacturing processes (British Broadcasting Corporation, n.d.). When extracted from the blast furnace, iron is an alloy of approximately 96% iron that comprises carbon and other impurities. At this stage, the alloy is hard but too fragile for most uses, especially in manufacturing several products. Consequently, iron from the blast furnace is mostly converted into steel through eliminating some of the carbon and other impurities....

Iron is the Earth's second most common metal after aluminum since it reacts readily with moist air or oxygen. Similar to aluminum, iron exists inside the Earth in the form of oxides or seven main ores i.e. raw, rocky minerals obtained from Earth. These seven main ores are siderite, goethite, hematite, limonite, magnetite, taconite, and pyrite. The different ores from which iron is extracted or mined contain different amounts or levels of iron.
The physical properties of iron include the fact that it's a silvery-white metal that can be easily shaped or soft enough to cut through using a knife albeit relatively difficult. Moreover, iron can be hammered into sheets or used to create wires. Similar to most metals, iron conducts heat and electricity appropriately, which makes it easy to magnetize. The chemical properties of iron include its reactions with moist air to generate a flaky, reddish-brown oxide that is known as rust (Woodford, 2015). Generally, iron easily and readily combines with oxygen, which makes it increasingly difficult to see or use pure iron. Apart from its reaction with moist air, iron also reacts with other elements like silicon, carbon, halogens like chlorine, and sulfur. Iron compounds are generally divided into two major groups i.e. ferrous and ferric iron compounds. Ferrous iron compounds have a chemical combining capability of +2 whereas ferric iron compounds have a chemical combining capability of +3. Ferric iron compounds are used to manufacture magnetic materials such as computer hard drives and cassette tapes as well as in manufacturing several…