What is Special Steel?

Tohoku Steel commercializes mainly wires and bars by processing them (e.g., drawing, cutting, and heat treatment). To ensure high quality, we use ultrasonic and eddy current testers to test each product for internal and surface defects.

In 1820, electromagnetism was discovered; iron becomes magnetized only when current flows through it. Later, in 1960, Tohoku Steel developed soft-magnetic stainless steel. Soft-magnetic stainless steel not only generates electromagnetism but is less likely to be oxidized. So, it has various applications as a material for anti-corrosive electromagnets.

One application that uses the features of soft-magnetic stainless steel is as an iron core of a solenoid valve because it is less likely to respond to fluid but will respond to the magnetic field. This property enables response in milliseconds (one-thousandth of a second); an iron core made of soft-magnetic stainless steel moves inside a component to allow or stop the flow of fluid when the magnetic field affects the electromagnet's properties.