What's in Cor-Ten?

Would someone please tell me what materials and processing are used to make the USS self-protective-rusting Cor-Ten steel? Dan Shanefield snipped-for-privacy@ieee.org

It is a steel that contains copper. This improves the adherence of the rust to the surface. This provides some corrosion resistance. Applications need to be controled. Don't use it where it will get rubbed, such as a hand rail. Don't use it in a buried or partially buried application. To work well it needs to be able to drain and dry. The splash zone in marine use ought to be terrible for this material.

Dan: Go to Rautaruukki Steel's web site at http://www.ruukki.com / Then click on Products and Services, and on the left click on Brochures and Publications, and under Hot Rolled Strip and Plate products, click on Weathering Structural steels. This will download a big Acrobat file (1.86 Mb). See Table 4 for compositions (Cu-Cr-Ni).
Pittsburgh Pete

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Be carefull if specifying weathering steels, they are excellent in the right application but some applications are not suitable.
http://www.corusconstruction.com/library_pdfs/Weathering%20Steel%20Bridges%202005.pdf
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David Deuchar wrote:
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Brochures
click
file
the right
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http://www.corusconstruction.com/library_pdfs/Weathering%20Steel%20Bridges%202005.pdf
David: You are correct, design must be done carefully, and sea coasts are not suitable places for conventional weathering steels. (Recently the Japanese have made some 3% Ni seacost weathering steels though).
For older US experience on bridges, see the FHWA TECHNICAL ADVISORY : UNCOATED WEATHERING STEEL IN STRUCTURES T 5140.22, October 3, 1989 http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/legsregs/directives/techadvs/t514022.htm
Pittsburgh Pete

Thanks to all you guys, for those answers (especially the first one). Dan Shanefield