What is "maraging steel"

n. A high-strength, but low-carbon, workable steel alloy with 15-25% nickel and lesser amounts of cobalt and other materials, that achieves it strength by a martensitic structure achieved by heat treatment and aging.

Maraging steels (a portmanteau of " martensitic" and "aging") are steels ( iron alloys) that are known for possessing superior strength and toughness without losing malleability, although they cannot hold a good cutting edge. Aging refers to the extended heat-treatment process. These steels are a special class of low- carbon ultra-high-strength steels that derive their strength not from carbon, but from precipitation of intermetallic compounds. The principal alloying element is 15 to 25 wt.% nickel. Secondary alloying elements, which include cobalt, molybdenum, and titanium, are added to produce intermetallic precipitates,. Original development (by Bieber of Inco in the late 1950s) was carried out on 20 and 25 wt.% Ni steels to which small additions of Al, Ti, and Nb were made; a rise in the price of cobalt in the late 1970s led to the development of cobalt-free maraging steels

The common, non-stainless grades contain 17–19 wt.% nickel, 8–12 wt.% cobalt, 3–5 wt.% molybdenum, and 0.2–1.6 wt.% titanium. Addition of chromium produces stainless grades resistant to corrosion. This also indirectly increases hardenability as they require less nickel: high-chromium, high-nickel steels are generally austenitic and unable to transform to martensite when heat treated, while lower-nickel steels can transform to martensite. Alternative variants of Ni-reduced maraging steels are based on alloys of Fe and Mn plus minor additions of Al, Ni, and Ti where compositions between Fe-9wt.% Mn to Fe-15wt.% Mn have been used. The Mn has a similar effect as Ni, i.e. it stabilizes the austenite phase. Hence, depending on their Mn content, Fe-Mn maraging steels can be fully martensitic after quenching them from the high temperature austenite phase or they can contain retained austenite. The latter effect enables the design of maraging-TRIP steels where TRIP stands for Transformation-Induced-Plasticity.