Steel is an important engineering material due to its high strength and low cost. It has been used for thousands of years since the Iron Age began. Modern steel production involves blast furnaces to produce pig iron from iron ore, and then basic oxygen furnaces or electric arc furnaces to further process the pig iron into steel. Secondary steelmaking such as degassing, alloying, and casting then produces the final steel product. Heat treating processes like annealing, quenching, and tempering are commonly applied to steel to achieve desired material properties.
Steel is an important engineering material due to its high strength and low cost. It has been used for thousands of years since the Iron Age began. Modern steel production involves blast furnaces to produce pig iron from iron ore, and then basic oxygen furnaces or electric arc furnaces to further process the pig iron into steel. Secondary steelmaking such as degassing, alloying, and casting then produces the final steel product. Heat treating processes like annealing, quenching, and tempering are commonly applied to steel to achieve desired material properties.
Steel is an important engineering material due to its high strength and low cost. It has been used for thousands of years since the Iron Age began. Modern steel production involves blast furnaces to produce pig iron from iron ore, and then basic oxygen furnaces or electric arc furnaces to further process the pig iron into steel. Secondary steelmaking such as degassing, alloying, and casting then produces the final steel product. Heat treating processes like annealing, quenching, and tempering are commonly applied to steel to achieve desired material properties.
Steel is an important engineering material due to its high strength and low cost. It has been used for thousands of years since the Iron Age began. Modern steel production involves blast furnaces to produce pig iron from iron ore, and then basic oxygen furnaces or electric arc furnaces to further process the pig iron into steel. Secondary steelmaking such as degassing, alloying, and casting then produces the final steel product. Heat treating processes like annealing, quenching, and tempering are commonly applied to steel to achieve desired material properties.
Steel is the world's most important engineering and construction material. Because of its high tensile strength and low cost, it is a major component used in buildings, infrastructure, tools, ships, automobiles, machnines, appliances and weapons. With that, steel is the world’s most important enginering and construction material.
The development of steel can be traced back 4000 years to the beginning of the Iron Age. Proving to be harder and stronger than bronze, which had previously been the most widely used metal, iron began to displace bronze in weaponry and tools. Iron is the 4th most common metal on earth. Iron being a strong material has drawbacks such as rust. Rust is an iron oxide, a usually red oxide formed by the redox reaction of iron and oxygen in the presence of water or air moisture. Given sufficient time, oxygen, and water, any iron mass will eventually convert entirely to rust and disintegrate.
Cast iron was commonly used due to its strength but with its high carbon content of more than 2%, it had limits on shaping the material and is very brittle. Cast iron is produced using blast furnace. Iron ore mixed with coke, which is a refined coal, is to be heated in the blast furnace. The heat from the furnace burns the coke which produces carbon monoxide which reacts with the oxygen in the iron ore to remove it. A liquid slag is formed which is less dense than the molten drains at the higher outlet while the molten drains at the lower outlet. At higher temperatures, iron absorbs too much carbon which makes it cast iron. An extra step is needed in order to form wrought iron or steel which is the refinery. Iron is heated back up to oxidise the carbon and then beaten with a hammer to knock the oxidised carbon. Wrought iron is usually achieved since obtaining steel would require much skill.
Fig. 1 Blast furnace
Wrought iron replaced cast iron since it is more ductile and bends under loads without breaking. This is due to its low carbon content which is less than 0.08%. But with its very low carbon content, it was too soft and bends too much. Steel then came to be which had carbon content between 0.08% and 2% which gives an ideal balance between hardness and ductility. Steel is an alloy of iron and carbon containing less than 2% carbon and 1% manganese and small amounts of silicon, phosphorus, sulphur and oxygen.
Steel was first mass produced using the puddling furnace. Cast iron was heated using the radiative heat from the combustion of fuel and air from a separate chamber. As the iron would become molten, a worker would stir it to encourage oxidation of the impurities. This process is fuel and labor intensive which makes steel expensive.
Fig. 2 Puddling furnace
The advent of commercial steel production came in the late 19th century and was a result of Sir Henry Bessemer's creation of an efficient way to lower the carbon content in cast iron. A converter is a chemical reactor which turns raw iron into steel. Hot molten pig iron from blast furnace was poured in the converter, and then air was pumped in at the bottom with high pressure. After a couple of minutes, pig iron turns into steel.
Fig. 3 Bessemer Converter
Cabriles, Lyle David Steelmaking Ironmaking is the first step in making steel. It involves the raw inputs of iron ore, coke, and lime being melted in a blast furnace. The resulting molten iron also referred to as hot metal, still contains 4-4.5% of carbon and other impurities which make it brittle. To remove the carbon content and other impurities and at the same time produce steel, there are 2 modern methods: Basic Oxygen Steelmaking and Electric Arc Steelmaking Basic Oxygen Steelmaking More than half of the world’s steel is produced through the basic oxygen process. - Uses pure oxygen to convert a charge of liquid blast-furnace iron and scrap into steel. - The basic oxygen furnace is a tiltable converter wherein a water-cooled lance is inserted to blow oxygen through nozzles at supersonic speeds onto the charge. - Carbon content will be reduced by 0-1.5%.
The use of pure oxygen at high flow rates results in such fast oxidation of the elements contained in the blast-furnace iron that it only takes about 20 minutes to refine one charge. As the carbon content and other impurities are being oxidized, they tend to float on top of the hot metal. This is because their density is lighter than that of the hot metal’s. With the separation of oxidized impurities, liquid steel is what is left below the layer of impurities.
Oxygen lance –provides oxygen for the oxidation of the steel elements present in the hot metal. Furnace lining – is made of a special type of cement that has the ability to reflect heat. Slag - is the waste material from the process of creating steel. Consists of impurities. Electric Arc Steelmaking About one quarter of the world’s steel is produced by the electric arc steelmaking method. - Uses high-current electric arcs to melt steel scrap and convert it into liquid steel at a specified temperature. - Permits better thermal control compared to Basic Oxygen Steelmaking - Electric arc steelmaking is not as oxidizing as basic oxygen steelmaking, therefore, electric arc steels have carbon contents higher than 0.05% - Also, they have higher nitrogen content with 40 to 120 parts per million compared to 30 to 50 parts per million of Basic Oxygen Steelmaking
Secondary Steelmaking A major component in secondary steelmaking is the ladle. A ladle is an open topped cylindrical container made of heavy steel plates and lined with refractory material. This is where all secondary metallurgical work takes place. The simplest form of form of steel treatment present in the ladle when the mixing effect of the tapping stream is used to add deoxidizers and small amounts of alloying agents Slag Removal Slag can be removed at slag-skimming stations, where the ladle is tilted forward and a rake scrapes the slag into a slag pot parked beneath the ladle. After slag removal, an insulating layer is added to minimize heat loss and reoxidation. Stirring In most casting operations, it is necessary to maintain minimal fluctuations in steel temperature, this is achieved through a ladle stirring station to establish a uniform temperature throughout the ladle. Desulfurizing Powdered metal which is fluidized by argon is injected into the ladle. These metals, specifically, metallic calcium, desulfurizes by forming the very stable compound calcium sulfide. Vacuum Treatment Exposing steel to vacuum has a profound effect on all metallurgical reactions involving gases. - It lowers the level of gas dissolved in liquid steel. Casting of Steel - Is the process in which a liquid metal is poured into a mold for hardening and also for molding.
An open cavity oxidizes steel, therefore, making the produced steel, unreliable. So, to prevent cavities from forming, the cavity can be made shallower by keeping the top of the ingot hot and liquid longer. This is done by inserting insulating refractory heads and by adding exothermic powders; more liquid steel can also be added after a good-sized shell has formed. Forming of Steel Forming processes convert solidified steel into products useful for the fabricating and construction industries. The objectives are to obtain a desired shape, to improve cast steel’s physical properties (which are not suitable for most applications), and to produce a surface suitable for a specific use. There are a number of steel-forming processes, these are forging, pressing, piercing, drawing, extruding, and rolling. Rolling is the most important process by far.
Rolling - the steel workpiece is pulled by friction into the roll gap, which is smaller than the cross section of the workpiece. Slab
Billet
Bloom
Bar
Plate Rod Treating of Steel Heat-treating Heat-treating already takes place when steel is hot-rolled at a particular temperature and cooled afterwards at a certain rate. The simplest heat-treating process is normalizing. This is when steel is held for a short time at a temperature between 20 to 40 degrees Celsius and then cooled afterward in still air. Another process is holding the steel in the gamma zone, this transforms the as-rolled or as-cast microstructure into austenite, which dissolves carbides. Then, during cooling, a very uniform grain is formed consisting of either pearlite and ferrite or perlite and cementite, depending on the carbon content. In all heat-treatment operations, the temperatures, holding times, and heating and cooling rates are varied according to the chemical composition, size, and shape of the steel. Annealing This is when the desired steel product is ductile for subsequent forming operations. In annealing, the steel is usually held for several hours at a certain temperature and then slowly cooled. This process precipitates and coagulates the carbides and results in large ferrite crystals. Annealing is performed after the steel has undergone the hardening process to prevent it from brittle failure. Quenching and Tempering Quenching comprises the heating of steel, which is followed by immediate cooling in water, oil, and forced air. Tempering is done to attain greater toughness and ductility by decreasing hardness, after the completion of the steel quenching process to a required hardened state. Quenched and tempered steel is the ultimate choice for low weight applications that require high carrying capacity as it has high yield strength.
Marimon, Rica Engelle
SURFACE TREATING
The surface treatment of steel also begins during hot-rolling, because reheating conditions, in-line scale removal, rolling temperature, and cooling rate all determine the type and thickness of scale formed on the product, and this affects atmospheric corrosion, paintability, and subsequent scale-removal operations.
PICKLING
Before cold forming, hot-rolled steel is always descaled, most common operation is the pickling.
Iron oxide crystals are scales made up of thin layers. These crystals can be dissolved by acids (sulfuric acid, and nitric acid). CLEANING
The removal of organic substances and other residues from the surface of the steel.
Hot solutions used in cleaning are:
caustic soda phosphates alkaline silicates
SURFACE COATING
One-third of the steel shipped by the industry is coated on its surface by a metallic, inorganic, or organic coating.
Coatings:
zinc zinc alloy aluminum
STEEL GRADES AND PROPERTIES
Steel can be broadly categorized into four groups based on their chemical compositions:
Carbon steels contain trace amounts of alloying elements and account 90% of total steel production. There are three groups depending on their carbon content:
1. Low Carbon Steel – up to 0.3% carbon
2. Medium Carbon Steel – 0.3-0.6% carbon 3. High Carbon Steel – more than 0.6% carbon
Alloy Steel:
Alloy steels contain alloying elements (e.g. manganese, silicon, copper, aluminum, and more) in varying proportions in order to manipulate the steel's properties, such as its hardenability, corrosion resistance, strength, formability, weldability or ductility.
Applications for alloy steels:
pipelines auto parts transformers
Stainless Steel:
Stainless steels generally contain between 10-20% chromium as the main alloying element and are valued for high corrosion resistance. With over 11% chromium, steel is about 200 times more resistant to corrosion than mild steel.
Tool Steel:
Tool steels contain tungsten, molybdenum, cobalt and vanadium in varying quantities to increase heat resistance and durability, making them ideal for cutting and drilling equipment.
APPLICATIONS
Steel applications can be divided into five sectors:
1. Construction 2. Transport 3. Energy 4. Packaging 5. Appliances and Industry
Construction
The majority of steel goes to the construction industry. Sustainable steel structures can be built quickly at a low price. Steel, in its various forms and alloys, can be designed to meet the requirements of unique projects, which allow it to be incorporated into infrastructure in all environments. Depending on the conditions that the structure is exposed to, steel can be alloyed or surface treated differently for protection.
Steel can also be found in:
low and high-rise buildings
harbors tunnels coastal and flood defenses education and hospital buildings
Transport Engineering steels are wrought steels that are designed to have certain specific levels of elasticity, strength, ductility, and corrosion resistance. They are used in the general engineering and manufacturing sectors, but the bulk goes to transport vehicles.
All segments of the energy sector, including nuclear, wind power, electric and natural gas, demand steel for infrastructure. Steel is also used for resource extraction, such as in offshore platforms, earth-moving and quarrying equipment, cranes, and forklifts.
Steel packaging protects goods from water, air, and light exposure, and is fully recyclable. This method of storage has been around for over 200 years. Packaging steels are often made from low carbon cold-rolled steel strip and are surface finished. The steel is tin plated to prevent corrosion and then coated with a polymer, lacquered, and printed. The majority of steel packaging goes towards food and beverage container.
Appliances and Industry
About 75% of the weight of typical household appliances comes from steel. Steel is found in appliances like fridges, washing machines, ovens, microwaves, sinks, cutlery, etc. Steel also accounts for many industrial goods like farm vehicles and machinery, storage tanks, tools, structures, walkways, and protective equipment.
