The high carbon steel strip is valued for its strength properties and operates at significantly higher levels than mild steel grades. In addition, it can be fully hardened by heat treatment. Of these steels, the company mainly focuses on the highest carbon grades, with a carbon content of 0.65% to 1.05%, in accordance with BS 1449:1991 Part 1 Standard Specifications CS70, CS80, and CS95. Internationally these will be recognized as Euronorm EN 10132 classes C75S, C85S, and C100S, and AISI 1070, 1080, and 1095 classes.

High-carbon steel strips can be produced in a variety of tensile strengths/hardnesses to suit subsequent component manufacturing processes and end uses. The softened/annealed condition provides maximum deformability for more complex part shapes or lower relative wear for part-forming tools. In this case, a typical hardness is 160 – 200 VPN (corresponding to a tensile strength of up to approx. 690 N/mm²). When working in softened conditions, the component can be subsequently heat treated to achieve the final desired strength/hardness level, which can be as high as 650 VPN (tensile strength 2200 N/mm²) depending on the grade. These steels have elastic properties with a hardness of 380 – 580 VPN (1280 – 1960 N/mm² tensile strength), while also developing cutting blade properties of 500 – 650 VPN.

In addition to being used in the annealed condition, high carbon steel strips can also be used in the hard cold rolled or pre-hardened and tempered condition, depending on the design of the end-use part and its method of manufacture. Hard rolled hardness grades typically range from 240 – 320 VPN (equivalent to 824 – 1090 N/mm² tensile strength), while pre-hardened and tempered hardness ranges from 380 to 650 VPN (tensile strength as described above).