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• Feb 19, 2025
• Products & Services | Blog
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Crude Oil falls over 1% again, making it nearly full...

Crude Oil falls over 1% again, making it nearly full losing week for Crude Oil, seeing the latest headlines. Overnight data revealed that China’s steel output and Oil refining continued to slump in October. The Oil refining output fell to a three-month low because domestic demand is simply nonexistent. The US Dollar Index (DXY), which tracks the performance of the Greenback against six other currencies, also consolidates on Friday after a steep rally this week. The rally was fueled for the most part by former US President Donald Trump, who took the lead in some polls ahead of the November 5 presidential elections. That was enough for market participants to start positioning for a Trump win on November 5, with the Greenback rallying nearly the whole week. However, according to FiveThirtyEight, US Vice President and Democrat nominee Kamala Harris is leading polls by 2.4 percentage points, suggesting a neck-to-neck competition between both candidates. For starters, there isn’t a universal scale for strength.At best, there are four. Keep reading to discover these four different types of strength as they relate to metallurgy.From there, you will gain better insight into metals leading the pack in terms of strength. Tensile Strength Tensilestrength refers to a material’s ability to resist tension. In other words, it looks at the amount of force required tostretch or pull something apart. A material with low tensile strength would pull apart more quickly than a material withhigh tensile strength. Compressive Strength Compressive strength refers to a material’s ability to withstand beingsqueezed together (compressed). To test compressive strength, an external force places pressure upon a material,tracking to what degree the material can resist size reduction. A widely accepted test for compressive strength is MohsHardness Test. The test relies on a scale that rates minerals from 1-10, or softest-hardest. Yield Strength Yieldstrength refers to a material’s ability to withstand permanent deformation or bending. It’s a way of testing the elasticlimit of a given material. Usually determined via a bend test where two ends of a beam or bar are gripped, and stress isapplied. The intent is to discover how much stress it requires to exceed the material’s yield point, or the point atwhich the material will not return to its original shape upon removal of the stress. Impact Strength Impact strengthrefers to a material’s ability to withstand a blow without fracturing or shattering. In other words, it’s a method fordetermining the limit of how much energy a material can absorb via impact. Since a metal’s strength depends on multiplefactors, there isn’t a simple answer to the question, “what is the strongest metal on earth?” Instead, there are severalmetals that are known to be among the strongest. Here is a list of some of the strongest metals on earth, sorted byalphabetical order. CHROMIUM STRENGTH Chromium is a hard and brittle transition metal with a steel-gray color. Thismetal is rated an 8.5 on the Moh’s Hardness Test, making it one of the hardest metals on earth. The only metals abovechromium on this chart are boron (9.5) and diamond (10). INCONEL STRENGTH Inconel is a group of nickel-basedsuperalloys known for their ability to withstand extremely high temperatures. When looking at Inconel's tensilestrength, it can reach up to 103-160 ksi (compared to stainless steel’s score of 73.2 ksi). Due to itstemperature-resistant qualities, this alloy is considered one of the strongest on earth. STAINLESS STEELSTRENGTH Stainless steel is an alloy of iron reputable for resistance to rusting and corrosion. Because stainless steelhas many variations, the strength of each alloy can differ significantly. Grade 304 stainless steel, for example, standsout with incredible tensile strength of up to 621 MPa or 90 KSI. TITANIUM STRENGTH Titanium metal is an elementalearth metal with an extremely high melting pot. It has a notably high strength-to-weight ratio, making it an ideal metalfor applications where weight is minimized, but strength must bemaximized.