Introduction about wrought iron

1. WROUGHT IRON

2. • The meaning of “wrought” is that metal which possesses
sufficient ductility in order to permit hot and/or cold
deformation. Wrought iron is the purest iron with a small
amount of slag forged out into fibres. The typical composition
indicates 99 percent of iron and traces of carbon, phosphorus,
manganese, silicon, sulphur and slag. During the production
process, first all elements in iron (may be C, S, Mn, Si and P)
are eliminated leaving almost pure iron molten slag. In order to
remove the excess slag, the final mix is then squeezed in a press
and reduced to billets by rolling milling.

3. • The resulting material would consist of pure iron separated by
thin layers of slag material. The slag characteristic of wrought
iron is beneficial in blacksmithy / forging operations and
provides the material its peculiar fibrous structure. Further, the
non-corrosive slag constituent makes wrought iron resistant to
progressive corrosion and also helps in reducing effect of
fatigue caused by shocks and vibrations.
• Wrought iron is tough, malleable and ductile and possesses
ultimate tensile strength of 350 N/mm2.

4. • Its melting point is 1530°C. It can neither be hardened nor
tempered like steel. The billets of wrought iron can be
reheated to form bars, plates, boiler tubing, forgings, crane
hook, railway coupling, bolts and nuts, chains, barbed wire,
coal handling equipment and cooling towers, etc.