Wrought Iron

wrought iron: see iron.

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wrought iron

One of the two forms in which iron is obtained by smelting. Wrought iron is a soft, easily worked, fibrous metal. It usually contains less than 0.1% carbon and 1–2% slag. It is superior for most purposes to cast iron, which is hard and brittle because of its higher carbon content. In antiquity, iron was smelted directly by heating ore in a forge with charcoal, which served both as fuel and reducing agent. While still hot, the iron-and-slag mixture was removed as a lump and worked (wrought) with a hammer to expel most of the slag and weld the iron into a coherent mass. Wrought iron began to take the place of bronze (being far more available) in Asia Minor in the 2nd millennium BC; its use for tools and weapons was established in China, India, and the Mediterranean by the 3rd century BC. Later, in Europe, wrought iron was produced indirectly from cast iron (see puddling process). With the invention of the Bessemer process and open-hearth process, steel supplanted wrought iron for structural purposes, and its use in the 20th century has been principally decorative.

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wrought iron

a. a pure form of iron having a low carbon content and a fibrous microstructure. It is made by various processes and is often used for decorative work

b. (as modifier): wrought-iron gates

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wrought iron [′rȯt ′ī·ərn]

(metallurgy)

A commercial iron consisting of slag fibers, primarily iron silicate, embedded in a ferrite matrix.

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wrought iron

A commercially pure iron of fibrous nature; valued for its corrosion resistance and ductility; used for water pipes, water tank plates, rivets, stay bolts, and forged work.

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Wrought Iron 

a commercial iron obtained through old production methods directly from iron ore or pig iron. The spongy masses of iron (blooms) formed in a furnace or hearth consists of iron crystals of high purity mixed with a certain quantity of uniformly distributed liquid slag. Upon extraction from the furnace or hearth, the hot bloom is subjected to forging or rolling, as a result of which the slag is ejected and the iron crystals are fused. Wrought iron has excellent mechanical properties, for example, malleability, corrosion resistance, and weldability. By the 1950’s wrought iron had been almost entirely replaced by steel.