Todays steel

With todays technology why is steel on new equipment inferior to steel on equipment from 50 or 60 years ago?

Lots of recycled impurities included
now.

A lot thinner metal with thinner and less durable
paint, too.

they have better steel now than ever before, They are just making shovels, hoes, and axes out if it. Working people low on the priority

The steel available today is better than ever before but somewhere in the organization of the manufactures there is a small man counting beans and he says you can save a nickel per unit produced if you cut the thickness or quality of the steel used.

I don't think the specifications for today's steels have changed. The choices of steels and other materials that manufacturers have to choose from is broader than what was available years ago.

It may be that the higher quality implements made years ago are the ones that survived. Just like today, the lower quality implements wore out faster or were deemed worthless, so they were scrapped many years ago.

Less additives like Nickel in the steel,has always been poor grades of steel around
like used in Farmall rears they always seemed to wear out and break.Side rails on the
AC WD/WD45 tractors are apparently very high quality I've used those for all sorts of things and they hold up well.

One word - China.....

I used to test metals of all sorts for construction use. The steel became so bad that it was hard to find anything usable. This was because of an influx of cheap (cr^p) steel from China. Most states began limiting the Chinese content in the 1990's, but it still contains a certain percentage.

China isn't the only one, though - even British metallurgy is not up to US standards. I remember working on Harrier engines (and other parts). The US made stuff even LOOKED better - some of the British parts looked like Swiss cheese (impurities, poor casting process). When we heat treated British stuff, there was a good chance it would fail during the process.

Even bolts, nuts, washers, etc are Chinese now.....

I had an old horse drawn wooden wheeled grain drill given to me. I saved the angle iron frame for scrap metal. It was riveted together. I could not drill that steel !

(quoted from post at 22:27:24 03/09/16) With todays technology why is steel on new equipment inferior to steel on equipment from 50 or 60 years ago?

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If you are referring to wear parts like disk blades and such I have to ask the source. Cheap knock offs from the local farm store or OEM replacement parts. I don't see thinks braking around here and we have guys using Quad Tracks and such. What I do see if people buying replacement parts, disk blades, digger points and such from the farm store that come from a manufacturer who isn't concerned with quality, just price.

On new equipment I don't see the stuff breaking unless you are buying the small stuff for compact and utility tractors. And there IMO it's you get what you pay for. Buy the cheapest thing on the market and it's most likely not going to last.

Rick

There was lots of AC machinery around here. The plows weren't much good, so they got parted out early on. I remember the old fellow who was the go-to guy around here for getting things welded (before farmers had their own) commenting on how the AC steel was good stuff.

It is a amazing on how some steel from older equipment was a lot heavier. I have parted out some rotobalers and All-Crop combines, the angle iron in them is top notch.

Jim

I worked welding for a factory. they bought the cheapest metal. It all is recycled in the US now, some of the metal would have garbage in it you would see a spot and try
to grind it out and just make a bigger divit in the metal. Some would be hard some soft no consistency

Like "RM-MN" said down a few posts, "BEAN COUNTERS" says it all. Steel can and is still as good or better in some cases as it ever was. Customers have more choices as to the price / quality than they ever had and just like carpeting, some trying to save a buck and make their job look "needed" will always take the $ 10 a yard carpeting. In the case of steel it will be the welders/benders/fabricators and end user that finally pay the price. I worked in a factory producing huge whole tree grinders/chippers and I've seen this first hand. 1/2" steel plate we used to bend 90 degrees without problems, now cracks at the bend and sometimes twice and their answer is to call out welders and go around machine and weld up all the cracks.Mill scale is another big problem. So bad it looks like "alligator hide" and my paint dept would get called out on it as if it were a "paint" problem. Once I proved it to them what it was and that they were having rust problems 6 mos down the road with customers, they priced "good" steel against the scab steel and would have had their problem solved be it not for the "bean counters". Take one guess which steel we continued top use? At least they knew better than to come to me as their "goat". The "beaners" will continue to win this war until a competitor comes forward and identifies it to customers and goes the other route. Not too likely. I couldn't even get them to go to urethane paint/primers until 2008 and then only because our customers/dealers were royally 9issed and forced it. Even then they forced our supplier to cut his bid/quality to come in where the "beaners" felt comfortable. Welcome to big business!

In a few words, most steel is made by the "basic oxygen process". This produces large quantities of cheap steel with lower emissions. Unfortunately, the steel is not very good. Somehow it meets specs, but every welder and manufacturer knows what a pain it is to work with. When it cracks beside the weld, the welder gets blamed. When it cracks at the bend, the press brake man gets blamed. When it falls apart in service, the assembly guys get blamed. Always lots of blame to go around, but no one will listen if you question the quality of the steel. The old open hearth furnaces produced superior steel, but have all been shut down due to emissions. We can still produce good steel, but management would rather swear at production than pay for the good stuff. Unc