Can 1026 steel be soldered

Question

Can 1026 steel be soldered?

Answer 1

Soldered capability of Iron-Carbon alloys is a function of their carbon content and reduces as their carbon increases. Plain carbon steels can be generally categorized in three main groups:

i) Low carbon plain steels that have under 0.2wt% carbon and are the mainly wieldable and heat treat-able carbon steels,

ii) Medium carbon plain steels with the carbon content of a 0.2-0.5wt%C, and

iii) High carbon plain steels with over 0.5wt%C.

The 1026 steel is the medium carbon steel (10 at beginning implies its being plain carbon steel and 26 at the ending denotes that it have 0.26wt%C). Therefore, 1026 steel falls in the second category which although are not as wieldable as those of the first group, still are quite wieldable? Post heating (to facilitate establish controlled cooling) can lessen the risk of its becoming hard as well as brittle after welding operation.