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By Michael McDonald

The cold-rolled steel output of cold-rolling mill (CRM) complexes are sometimes constrained by their batch annealing facilities (BAF). This paper examines a cost-effective solution to increasing capacity and quality of the BAF thereby making additional capacity available for CRM output. The solution involves applying a structured system of scheduling and operation to the BAF, using a proven level-2 software model. The system presented has been applied to a wide variety of BAF with all the leading furnace brands. Whether using traditional HN atmosphere or 100% hydrogen, peak performance can be achieved when using a properly configured, on-line, physical thermodynamic model. Given that it is not practical to place a thermocouple in each coil that is being annealed, various methods have historically been used to estimate the time required to properly anneal all the coils in the charge. This paper examines how the latest technology, in wide use throughout the USA, uses a physical thermodynamic model to shorten average cycle times, thereby increasing productivity and reducing energy consumption. The paper also examines the benefit of building thermodynamically balanced charges to further optimize the BAF operation and improve quality consistency by decreasing mechanical property variations.

Jul 30, 2018

By Lucas Teixeira Costa

A crescente demanda por aços ultrabaixo enxofre em usinas integradas a carvão mineral tem levado a esforços para reduzir o teor de enxofre no gusa e no aço. Todavia, a falta de uma visão integrada dos processos acarreta em otimizações isolados que nem sempre contribuem para uma efetiva redução de custos e aumento de produtividade final. No presente trabalho, foi construído e validado um balanço de massa capaz de realizar uma previsão do teor de enxofre de final de sopro a partir das entradas iniciais de enxofre na carga metálica e nas adições de fundentes. Para isso, considera-se que ocorre transferência de enxofre entre as fases, segundo seus teores e o coeficiente de partição de enxofre. A raspagem de escória de tratamento de gusa deve ser feita com muito cuidado para promover a melhor remoção da camada sobrenadante e ao mesmo tempo evitar perdas no rendimento metálico no processamento do aço. Utiliza-se o teor de enxofre do gusa carregado no LD como o principal parâmetro de controle, e recomenda-se que seu teor seja superior a 20ppm, uma vez que o esforço necessário para reduzir para teores abaixo desse limite será totalmente perdido no LD, devido à reversão durante o sopro.

Aug 17, 2017

By Tiago Nunes Lima

As propriedades mecânicas de ligas TiNbSn são dependentes do processamento termomecânico. O refinamento dos grãos das ligas é obtido através de processos de conformação a frio, atingindo valores de redução que podem estar acima de 80%. Esta deformação a frio permite o aumento das propriedades mecânicas, mas pode reduzir consequentemente a ductilidade e a tenacidade das ligas. Este estudo tem como objetivo observar o efeito da laminação e forjamento a frio nas propriedades mecânicas de ligas Ti35Nb2Sn com 80% de redução. Foram realizados ensaios de tração, dureza, metalografia e microscopia das fraturas. Ambas as ligas deformadas e envelhecidas apresentam as fases ß, a” e ? em suas microestruturas, porém, com algumas mudanças microestruturais. Foi notado que a liga forjada possui maior resistência máxima a tração e dureza que a liga laminada.

Aug 16, 2017

By Jean François Stumper

This paper presents the TMT “3D TopScan” profilemeter, which is a Radar-based profilemeter that measures the total burden surface within a few seconds and on a continuous basis. This equipment is based on an electronically steered solid-state radar scanner, such that a very large amount of surface data is collected within short time intervals. These new electronically steered antenna systems are the key to meet the demands for both accuracy and speed. The TMT probe is installed at a fixed location at the top cone, such that it does not interfere with the charging, enabling a continuous measurement and a compact design.Blast furnace charging optimization can be achieved based on its measurement data. The burden surface is continuously measured every few seconds, enabling the blast furnace operator to detect any details including asymmetries or irregularities in the surface pattern. A variety of process analysis tools are available. Due to the continuous and fast measurement, the burden descent speed can be supervised without process interruption on an ongoing basis. More accurate process models (layer models) than ever are obtained which fully consider the unsymmetries.This technology, developed by TMT Tapping Measuring Technology, is successfully in operation at Salzgitter Flachstahl GmbH at their blast furnace B. The probe and the data evaluation tools combine today’s technological capabilities in measurement technology with the practical requirements of blast furnace operation.

Aug 16, 2017

By Noan Tonini SImonassi

Fibras de rami (Boehmeria nivea) estão entre as lignocelulósicas naturais com potencial para utilização em compósitos poliméricos. O presente trabalho avalia a resistência ao impacto deste tipo de compósito. Corpos de prova normalizados foram confeccionados com percentuais de até 30% em volume de tecido de rami alinhadas ao longo de todo o comprimento. As fibras foram embutidas sob pressão em matriz de resina poliéster do tipo ortoftálica curada à temperatura ambiente por 24 horas. Os corpos de prova foram ensaiados em pêndulo de impacto Izod e as superfícies de fratura analisadas por microscopia eletrônica de varredura, MEV. A resistência ao impacto aumentou exponencialmente com a quantidade relativa de tecido de rami reforçando o compósito. Este desempenho foi associado à dificuldade de ruptura imposta pelas fibras bem como ao tipo de trincas resultantes da interação tecido de rami/matriz de poliéster que ajuda a absorver a energia do impacto.

Aug 17, 2017

By Jan Lückhoff

The introduction of the EAF Quantum furnace by Primetals Technologies represents an important milestone in the field of electric steelmaking during the last 15 years. In this process the latent and chemical heat of the off-gas generated during a melting process in an EAF is used to pre-heat scrap in an integrated shaft prior the melting of the scrap in the vessel. Combining proven own technologies, Primetals EAF Quantum enables nearly continuous process, cutting down idle times and enhancing availability for production. The essential benefits will be shown in this Paper.

Aug 16, 2017

By Theodore James Kurela

Analysis of adverse technical issues has traditionally relied on a snapshot of the state of the operation complemented with both the melt shop’s archived data and eyewitness accounts of adverse events. The GrafTech ArchiTech System is helping EAF shops solve problems faster by combining continuous analysis of information with statistically based alerts of process deviations. After one year of system implementation, a number of cases have been detected and communicated to melt shops worldwide. The objective of this paper is to examine a few of these cases; the early detection, statistical analysis, deviation reporting and the resulting countermeasures implemented.

Aug 17, 2017

By Leandro de Arruda Santos, Lorena Isabela de Oliveira Ribeiro, Jéssica Dornelas Silva, Pedro Damas Resende, João Victor Lucas Amim, Suzanny Cristina Soares Martins, Vicente Tadeu Lopes Buono

O objetivo do presente estudo foi avaliar a resistência à fadiga de duas ligas de NiTi diferentes sob condições de teste controladas por deformação a 25°C por meio de testes de fadiga por flexão rotativa. Além disso, as propriedades mecânicas, térmicas e estruturais dos fios foram caracterizadas por ensaios de DSC, DRX, MEV/EDS e tração. Os resultados revelaram que ambos os materiais são superelásticos à temperatura ambiente e, portanto apresentaram composição basicamente austenítica de sua matriz. Os resultados de ensaio de tração são condizentes com a caracterização térmica e estrutural, pois os materiais apresentam recuperação total de forma após ciclos de carga e descarga em tração. Ambos os materiais são ricos em titânio, um deles apresenta camada de óxido superficial enquanto o outro apresenta acabamento superficial. Apesar das propriedades similares a amostra 1 apresentou média de 77 ciclos até a falha, enquanto a amostra 2 resistiu a 1827 ciclos..

Oct 25, 2019

By Rob van Opbergen, Edo Engel

The highly dynamic economic climate of recent years has tightened the operating envelope for steel producers world-wide. Steel producers continue to experience immense pressure to respond quickly to changing circumstances and the focus has shifted towards efficiency improvement and maximizing flexibility in operations. The ability to safely stop, restart and ramp-up production facilities has become essential. Establishing this level of flexibility, without sacrificing efficiency, requires sound process control, fit-for-purpose process management practices and solid know-how and experience regarding special situations in blast furnace ironmaking operations. The same business environment that demands this increased flexibility has made it increasingly difficult for steel producers to sustain sufficient knowledge about these situations. While many experienced, senior operational staff have retired, a new generation of ironmaking specialists has acquired its hands-on experience over more recent decades, during which these process situations have been much less frequent than before. Over the past 10-15 years, the requirement in the industry for external operational support during e.g. blast furnace blow–downs, salamander tapping and restarts after planned and especially unplanned stops, has become increasingly frequent. This article presents a number of these cases from a process management perspective as well as with regard to project organization and optimized cooperation between internal and external teams of experts.

Oct 1, 2019

By Paul Pugsley

The EMSpec sensor employs the principle of measuring the complex impedance of the target steel over a range of frequencies these impedance values in turn varies with transformation fraction of the steel. A full scale implementation of the Real Time Transformation Monitoring has been installed at a quality large European steel producer to show the benefits of such a system. A total of three EMSpec sensor heads have been installed between the exit Finishing Mill and the Down Coiler on a HSM. For the successful production of Dual Phase, TRIP and TWIP steels increased control of the cooling regime is demanded; the use of surface temperature measurements alone cannot guarantee to achieve the desired mechanical properties. The EMSpec sensor, which is engineered to withstand this harsh environment, in real time directly measures the percentage transformation of the steel in the cooling area, typically in the accelerated water cooling zone. Using the information from the sensors integrated into the mill model enhances the models ability to predict the transformation profile.

Aug 17, 2017

By Božidar Šarler, Umut Hanoglu

A rolling simulation system has been developed to calculate the macroscopic rate of deformation, stress, strain, and temperature fields by using a novel meshless method. The model is based on two-dimensional traveling slice assumption. The slices are aligned towards the rolling direction. The initial size of the billet, bloom or slab and the geometry of the grooves at each rolling stand, the distances between the rolling stands, and continuous or reverse rolling can be arbitrarily considered. The purpose of this paper is to complement these development by predicting and visualizing also the grain size of steel over the strand cross-section for each position in the rolling mill. The grain size models have been in one-way coupled to the macroscopic calculations. First the critical strain for dynamic recrystallization is being checked. If the calculated strain is higher than that, considering also the time for meta-dynamic recrystallization, dynamic or meta-dynamic grain size calculations are carried out. If the strain is too low then only the static recrystallization is considered together with its required time. Finally, austenite grain size and ferrite grain size are calculated respectively as the steel cools down. The listed physical models are based on collection of empirical relations found in literature. The user of the system is free to choose or create the model he wants with his own parameters. The simulation system has been coded as a user friendly computer application for an industrial use based on C# and .NET framework and runs on regular PCs. The computational time for a rolling simulation is usually less than one hour and can thus be straightforwardly used for optimization of the rolling mill design in a reasonable time.

Oct 1, 2019

By Massimilinao Svetina

In 2010 Danieli & C. S.p.A. put into operation a new Pickling Tandem Mill in Cremona (Italy) at Acciaieria Arvedi, the last Pickling line coupled Tandem Cold Mill (PLTCM) in Europe. The plant was tailor-made to suit the specific requirements of this customer; a very broad range of sizes and grades (IF to AHSS as well as DP and TRIP1000) including ultra-thin hot band can be processed, achieving a total capacity of 1.6 Mt/y. The Danieli & C. S.p.A. Turboflo® process was selected because of its proven efficiency and ability to handle ultra-thin gauges at speeds exceeding 400 mpm in the pickling tanks. All the equipment, i.e. pickling section and rolling mills was provided with the last generation of Danieli market-oriented technologies. Danieli & C. S.p.A. - with the support of Arvedi and feedback from the field - is continuously improving its technical design solutions and optimizing plant operations.

Aug 16, 2017

By Antonio Fabiano de Oliveira

The aim of the present research work is to study the influence of hard chrome covered skin pass cold rolling rolls using 2D/3D surface topography, i.e. roughness characterization. The common stochastic structure Shot Blast Texturing (SBT) does not meet all requirements related to the production line regards to the finished product. The Hard Chrome layer, applied on these SBT rolls, can improve the sheet surface quality and is of fundamental interest mainly for those steel mills that do not have another alternative to new surface structures such as those that may be provided by the EDT, LT, EBT, etc. methods. The function of the generated surfaces, obtained by these different methods is going to influence the tribological properties during the subsequent forming processes. On the other hand, they can increase the product final cost or require large investments to obtain such surfaces. The results here presented are in accordance with other recently published research work, showing that there is a relationship between these parameters, and that further detailed studies are needed.

Aug 17, 2017

By Kermit Reins

The most recent modernization phase of the wire rod mill at Sterling Steel involved installation of a pre-finishing mill, using a Morgan Vee Mini-Block, a new water box and shear with utility systems and automation. The new mill configuration adds more stands to the mill for better drafting and is designed to improve finished product quality by providing a more uniform entry temperature, better control of the feed section into the No-Twist® mill as well as enhanced surface quality. The new shear improves cut length accuracy as well as decreases the amount of trimming to reduce yield loss. This paper explains the changes made in the mill and the features of the new equipment and automation.

Aug 17, 2017

By Charles de Abreu Martins

An experimental investigation was conducted using laboratory-processed, 0.12C–1.70Mn–0.2V steels with different Cr or Mo additions aiming to evaluate this influence on the microstructure and mechanical properties hot rolled steels. Steels were processed in a pilot rolling equipment, simulating a typical thermomechanical processing, with finishing rolling steps above Ar3, followed by accelerated cooling and 723 K (450 Celsius) coiling temperature. Microstructures and precipitates were analyzed using OM, SEM and TEM, while mechanical properties were evaluated by tensile and hole expansion tests. Since Cr and Mo increase hardenability of austenite, and as a consequence, the volume fraction of the acicular constituents increases with gradual additions of Cr or Mo. Moreover, Cr or Mo impacted V precipitation process, reducing average size of particles. At 0.50%Mo, V precipitation was inhibited. Effects of this microstructure evolution on the final mechanical properties were also analyzed, as well as a comparison between Cr and Mo effects, with Mo presenting more effective influence.

Jul 30, 2018

By Roberto Silva de Andrade

O inchamento é um grande problema durante a redução de pelotas de minério de ferro. Várias mudanças podem ser feitas nas pelotas para minimizá-lo. Conforme o sínter utilizado se torna cada vez mais básico, pelotas mais ácidas são desejadas. A adição de MgO, assim como a modificação da basicidade binárias das pelotas pela adição de CaO são soluções que têm sido apontadas. Dessa forma, este trabalho estudou os efeitos do MgO a da modificação da basicidade binária nas seguintes propriedades de pelotas: compressão a frio, porosidade e índice de inchamento. Foram preparadas pelotas com até 5% de MgO e com basicidades entre 0,67 e 1,5. O aumento do teor de MgO causou aumento de porosidade e queda de resistência. A basicidade diminuiu a porosidade e causou aumento de resistência nas pelotas de basicidade 1,0. Tanto o aumento de basicidade quanto a adição de MgO diminuíram o inchamento.

Oct 30, 2017

By Victor Costa de Mello Vasconcelos

O objetivo desse projeto é a preparação nanofolhas de óxido de níquel por calcinação e a formação de híbridos com nanopartículas esféricas de ouro e paládio. O trabalho focou na síntese de materiais com forma e tamanho controlados por meio de metodologias simples e ambientalmente amigáveis e na preparação de estruturas híbridas com dispersão uniforme entre componentes. Foram obtidos hidróxidos, óxidos e híbridos, cujos parâmetros de síntese (como temperatura, tempo de reação, entre outros) foram estudados. Uma vez caracterizadas, empregaremos as estruturas do tipo M/NiO (M = Au, Pd) como catalisadores nas reações modelo de oxidação do álcool benzílico e de redução do 4-nitrofenol, com o intento de estudar a natureza da interação metal-suporte.

Oct 30, 2017

By Douglas Glenn Stalheim

Hot strip structural steel coil used in construction, engineering, transport, structural applications and other applications are widely used in yield strengths from 300 – 700 MPa. However, structural design engineers are now not only requiring various strength levels but also other mechanical properties, primarily good formability, toughness and weldability. To produce a balanced approach to a cost effective structural steel, hot strip coil requires an understanding of utilization of an optimized alloy composition designed for the layout/equipment capabilities of a given hot strip mill to produce the desired metallurgy for optimum mechanical property performance. The term “cost effective” does not just focus on alloy design, but also ease of overall processing from steelmaking, casting, rolling and cooling, stable mechanical properties with a statistically normal distribution, no downgrades/rejections and a product that the end user recognizes as being superior to others. The desired metallurgy is simply understanding what will be the optimum microstructure and cross sectional grain size/distribution needed to meet the mechanical property requirements. This paper is a follow up paper that previously described optimum base alloy designs along with steelmaking/casting processing considerations and will focus on proper reheating, rolling and cooling metallurgy/processing strategies to produce quality cost effective hot strip structural steel coil.

Aug 17, 2017

By Gerhard Richter, Norbert Asamer, Gerwald Decker

At various stages during their manufacturing processes - from casting to finishing before delivery - semi-finished steel and special alloy products must be cut and surface-treated as well. The requirements for the individual conditioning steps, however, can be quite different. For example, the work piece can be hot, warm or cold. At any rate, the product must always be perfectly prepared for the next manufacturing step - reliably, in the shortest-possible time and at the lowest-possible cost. For cutting and grinding, BRAUN has developed innovative technologies and highly flexible, tailor-made solutions which meet these requirements in the most optimal way. In particular, BRAUN’s cutting and grinding technologies can also be used for large-scale products.

Oct 1, 2019

By Rodrigo Perito Cardoso

Low-temperature nitriding of stainless steels is applied to obtain wear resistant surfaces without losing its corrosion resistance. The treatment consists in introducing nitrogen into the steel surface avoiding chromium nitride precipitation. The corrosion resistance of martensitic stainless steels is expected to be improved if the treatment parameters are correctly selected. It can be related to ?Fe2-3N and a'N phase formation on the treated surface. In the present work the influence of the pretreatment and treatment temperature on corrosion resistance of plasma nitrided AISI 420 steel samples is studied. Annealed, as-quenched and 400ºC-tempered samples were nitrided at 300, 350, 400, 450 and 500°C, for 6 h at 600 V. The pressure was 3 Torr and the gas mixture was composed of 70%N2, 20%H2 and 10%Ar, at a gas flow rate of 3.34×106 Nm3s-1. Plasma was generated using a square-wave pulsed DC power supply and the sample temperature was controlled by the duty cycle. The modified layers were characterized by optical microscopy, X-ray diffraction and microhardness measurement. The corrosion resistance was studied by electrochemical characterization, by means of Open circuit potential and Anodic polarization curves. The maximum surface hardness was achieved at 400°C. This temperature seems to be near the limit temperature for low-temperature treatment aiming to improve or at least to keep unaltered the corrosion resistance in relation to that verified for non-treated steel samples. Results confirm that the pretreatment and treatment temperature significantly affects the corrosion resistance of the treated surface.

Aug 8, 2018