Molten Steel

Molten Steel is the liquid form of Steel, produced when Steel is heated to 2429.85°C and solidifying only when cooled to 1080.85°C. That wide gap between melting and freezing makes it one of the most useful working fluids for very high-temperature industrial setups, because it remains liquid under conditions that would instantly freeze many other materials. It can also be reheated in a Metal Refinery.

Its most important uses come from its extreme temperature and heat capacity. Molten Steel can melt Regolith into Magma, which generates a large amount of waste heat in the process. It can also melt natural Metal Tiles, avoiding the 50% mass loss that normally comes from mining them. In the same way, it can turn Sand into Glass, and this method is much more efficient than using a Glass Forge: it produces glass at 4 times the rate, or 8 times the effective rate if mining loss is taken into account, while also requiring less labor and power.

Molten Steel is also useful as a thermal management tool for dangerous overheat chains. In a vacuum, cooling water with a Steel Thermo Aquatuner can release enough heat to melt the Thermo Aquatuner itself before it is damaged by overheating, allowing a single setup to produce up to 1200 kg of Molten Steel at once. A Steel Liquid Pump can likewise be used to exploit the extra reach of a Liquid Pump, repair overheat damage, or repeatedly deconstruct and rebuild a pump to move the liquid into a pipe network.

Because of its very high melting point and low freezing point, Molten Steel is especially suited to endgame heat-processing builds and other situations where materials must stay liquid under extreme thermal stress.