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By Karl Berger, Michael Steinkogler

The evolution in Metal Cutting: Inventors around the world have been successfully developing innovations for decades, but only some of these developments have had „GAME CHANGING“ potential. One of these innovations is the new developed saw blade LINCUT®, a patented changing system that paves the way for a fundamental reorientation of the entire saw blade industry worldwide through a simple and economical concept for rolling mills or heavy forging lines. Cost efficiency starts with the raw material: Circular saws equipped with a standard saw blade are expected to have a necessary 2 percent standstill per year due to required tool changing. The applied technology reduces this unnecessary loss of production by more than 50%. The ROI can therefore be reached faster which immediately lowers your production costs. No matter what material, conventional carbon steel or highly alloyed stainless steel, the coating and shape of carbide plates is perfected for extended tool life up to 25% with increased performance. Due to LINSINGERs own tool-technology-centre in Austria specialized in research and development of tools, constantly expanding R&D activities, best results are achieved in quality and cost efficiency: a (r)evolution in metal cutting.

Oct 1, 2019

By J. N. Stevens, M. Tulwin, P. J. Lawlor

All metals producers are on an unending search for a competitive advantage. They need to produce in the most cost effective way. Sometimes a new mill might be considered but in this paper we present examples of how this might not always be necessary. A detailed investigation by an equipment vendor who can consider the mill and or plant as a complete entity: mechanics, automation and process control can often find solutions that are both lower cost and can be implemented in shorter time frames.

Oct 1, 2019

By Christoph Aichinger

A smart combination – Primetals Technologies developed the Circular Pelletizing Technology (CPT), which is a combination of the well-proven travelling-grate pelletizing technology with the design of a circular dip rail cooler of modern sinter plants. The overall space requirement and the installed weight for a CPT plant is significantly less compared to conventional technologies and by that CPT is a very attractive alternative for new projects.

Aug 16, 2017

By Haruki Inami, Takashi Ishida, Kazuhiro Ohara, Hiroyuki Imanari

The highly competitive business environment of the international metals industry is driving demand for more cost-effective operation of steel making facilities, rolling mills, and strip processing lines. Achieving stable operation is vital if the steel industry is to produce high-quality products constantly and productively. In recent years, advances in computer processing speeds, data acquisition rates, and data storage capacity have rapidly led to greater use of the new technologies of big data, analytics, the IoT, and AI by control system designers and process engineers, and the introduction of industrial applications. The “Smart Rolling Mill” solutions for hot strip mills have been developed by our group with the goal of achieving sophisticated, state of the art, and automated operation in steel rolling mills. The various solution engines improve process stability, increase the performance of mill equipment, and provide improved process control. These solution engines are based on extensive knowledge of the rolling process and the associated control systems. Two solution engines in particular are the diagnosis systems for rolling condition and for product quality that contribute to cost-effective operation and lower yield loss. This paper focuses on the diagnosis systems for rolling condition and for product quality in hot strip mills. Advanced information technologies using big data analytics and machine learning are applied to real-time data collected from the automation system that controls operation and the rolling process. We have developed diagnosis solutions for rolling condition and product quality utilizing predictive and clustering diagnosis. Predictive diagnosis prevents serious problems by detecting changes in the state of the plant or in the rolling condition. Clustering diagnosis classifies patterns of fluctuation in product quality trend charts, providing effective tuning guidance for improving product quality. This paper describes these applications with several examples.

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 Daniele Tolazzi

In today’s highly competitive market situation, it is of outmost importance for EAF steel makers to optimise their processes in order to reduce operating costs and to improve safety and reliability of the equipment. The laser based off-gas analysis technology, With laser units installed on the fix duct, downstream the combustion gap, uses the “Tuneable Diode Laser Absorption Spectroscopy” (TDLAS). The system performs real-time off-gas emissions measurements of CO, CO2, O2, H2O and temperature. A closed-loop operation is in place for dynamic control of the chemical energy package combustion/post-combustion of CO, H2 and CH4 gases into the EAF furnace shell. A statistical framework which builds on a data analysis engine, based on Danieli Automation Q3Intelligence technology, evaluates the “fingerprint” of the process represented by average and deviation trends of both gases and other process parameters. Process fingerprinting is conceived both for offline profile optimisation and on-line control of the refining process. This paper describes how the technology has been applied and the results achieved at ACCIAIERIE BERTOLI SAFAU (Italy) 100 t AC Electric Arc Furnace.

Aug 16, 2017

By Liao Jianfeng

The Baosteel Zhanjiang 5,050m3 blast furnaces have been built with highly independent integration and innovation technologies and represented the state of the art of the world’s huge BFs. The proper of BF1 and BF2 is designed with long-campaign technology; both BFs share the same set of stockhouse, water and PCI systems; the BCQS serial-hopper no-bell top, TRT and blower are all local equipment as applied; four top-combustion stoves systems are matched; the BFG is cleaned by fully dry process; and the automation control system for the main process is self integrated. The BFs have been started up and performing with sound indicators. Their smooth proceedings symbolize China’s huge blast furnace ironmaking technology ascending a new high.

Oct 30, 2017

By Andreas Jungbauer

Two Arvedi ESP plants going into operation in 2015 will allow a Chinese steel producer to better serve the extremely attractive local and export markets for high-quality, thin-gauge strip products. The energy consumption and the related costs are reduced by up to 45% compared to conventional casting and rolling processes. This also means a major reduction in CO2 emissions. The new plants are designed for an annual production capacity of 2 x 2.55 million tons of high-quality, ultra-thin, hot-rolled strip products with widths of up to 1,600 mm and thicknesses down to 0.8 mm. The project scope also features a comprehensive training and assistance package for plant start-up and operations by personnel from the existing ESP plant at Acciaieria Arvedi SpA, Italy. The plant setup, the trainings and assistance program as well as latest results from the ESP plant in Italy will be presented. While this project is under execution three further ESP lines have been ordered by the same customer summing up now to five ESP lines at the same location.

Jul 30, 2018

By Michel Rodrigo Luiz, Glaudistoni da Silva Félix, Osmar Duarte Junior

This article deals with a project to reduce the preparation time and threading the coils in the input section of a pickling line coupled to the cold strip mill (PLTCM) at ArcelorMittal Vega. The project developed serves for the detection and elimination of bottlenecks in the input section. The project was conceived by the philosophy of the Theory of Constraints (TOC) and Lean Six Sigma (6 sigma), here seen as sequencing serial / parallel in the preparation and threading the coils. In this context, a proposal to modify the automatic sequencing and reduction of interruptions due to failure of the automation / equipment confirmed its effectiveness reducing the total time preparation time and threading the coils in the entry section by 15%. This project was developed without investment costs, bringing gains on the order of US$613,769.00.

Oct 1, 2019

By Arnaldo Forgas Júnior

Three techniques for ferrite quantification were applied in a duplex stainless steel UNS S31803 solution treated at three different temperatures, 1000, 1100 and 1200°C, in order to verify their compliance with the results from ThermoCalc® prediction. It is verified that only austenite and ferrite phases are present in the samples and that an increasing in solution treatment temperature led to the increase of the volume fraction of ferrite. It is also observed that quantitative stereology technique shows absolute values closer to ThermoCalc® predictions. On the other hand, measurements by ferritoscope and XRD show significant deviations, probably due to texturing effect imposed by the rolling process.

Aug 16, 2017

By John Hinton

Electromagnetic based (EM) sensor technology has been shown to detect changes in the magnetic permeability of steel strip travelling down the run out table after rolling. Measuring below the Curie temperature, these changes can be interpreted in terms of the phase transformation from austenite (paramagnetic) to ferrite (ferromagnetic). These real time measurements provide a detailed insight into the changes in the structure at high temperature providing the steel producer with feedback on quality control, product consistency and product development. However unlike mill microstructure models, the sensor measurement provides a point reading at a distance through the cooling course. To map the transformation in more detail, a sensor array is required along the length of the Run Out Table i.e. to measure points on the austenite to ferrite transformation curve. This paper describes the process and metallurgical factors that should be considered in the optimum design of a sensor array, i.e. the number and location of the sensor heads. Examples of cooling strategies for different steel grades e.g. low carbon, structural and dual phase steels are used to demonstrate the importance of sensor location. In addition, the effect of variability within typical industrial parameters e.g. cooling speed, on the sensitivity of sensor output and location will be considered.

Oct 1, 2019

By Adriane Lopes Mougo

Super duplex stainless steel presents a biphasic structure composed by ferrite and austenite with different characteristics and properties. In the micromilling process the cutting edge radius has similar dimensions to the grain size. The biphasic structure found in this material could influence on the cutting tool life and the surface integrity of the workpiece. Due to its low machinability, caused by high hardening level and low thermal conductivity, the process can produce built-up edge and high surface roughness (Ra). In this work it is performed an experimental study of the micromilling of super duplex UNS 32750 and the influence of the cutting speed (Vc) and feed per tooth (fz) on the surface integrity and tool wear. The design of experiments considered two levels and three replicates. Results indicate the increase of roughness for bigger feed per tooth, small influence of the cutting parameters on the burr formation. The tool presented flank wear after the experiments.

Aug 8, 2018

By Breno Totti Maia

In these hard days for Brazil steel market, all steel shops want to achieve the same goal, work with: productivity, low costs and high performance. In this scenario the Slagless® technology (which is applied into BOF converter) was important to reach these targets. After use has been reduced the number of times of tip exchange in more than 04 times. Was reduced too, the time to remove lance skulls. Lance keeps clean during all his life with record number of the life 1255 .Blow keep stable due strong measure control at the nozzles and more improvements are planning.

Oct 30, 2017

By Fernando Ruiz Díaz

En aplicaciones a elevadas temperaturas como por ejemplo en cámaras de combustión y toberas de vehículos aeroespaciales se requiere el uso de aleaciones que permitan una elevada extracción de calor y buenas propiedades mecánicas. En este trabajo se realiza un análisis comparativo de las aleaciones Cu-Cr-Zr y Cu-Ag-Zr. Las mismas fueron sometidas a ensayos de resistividad eléctrica entre 25ºC y 700ºC y de tracción a 150ºC, 450ºC y 700ºC. Los resultados de los ensayos de resistividad eléctrica fueron convertidos a conductividad térmica mediante la relación de Wiedemann- Franz. A través de este análisis se observa que la aleación con mejor conductividad térmica es la de Cu-Ag-Zr presentando además un cambio de fase que no es observado en la aleación Cu-Cr-Zr. Respecto al ensayo de tracción la aleación Cu-Cr-Zr presenta mayores valores de resistencia a la tracción y tensión de fluencia a las temperaturas estudiadas.

Aug 16, 2017

By Anna Carolina Cerqueira Neves

Synthetic fibers have been gradually replaced by lignocellulosic fibers. Compared to the synthetic fiber, natural fiber showed economic and environmental advantages presenting interfacial characteristics with polymer matrices that favor the impact energy absorption by the composite structure. However, so far little has been reported about the hemp fiber embedded in polymer matrices, such as tensile properties. This study aims to evaluate the resistance in tensile tests of epoxies composites reinforced with different percentages of hemp fiber. Tensile tests were submitted with percentage of 0%, 10%, 20% and 30% incorporated hemp fiber in epoxy matrix. The tensile strength and deformation substantially increased the relative amount of hemp fibers incorporated into the polymeric matrix.

Aug 16, 2017

By Vitor Guarnier Domiciano

Pre-shaped refractory burner blocks play an important role in reheating furnaces operation and melt shops production since they are responsible for heating the billets/plates so that they reach the temperature required for lamination. This paper presents the main characteristics and properties of a new refractory castable developed for pre-shaped burner blocks, which significantly improved the performance of reheating furnaces burner blocks. Tests carried out in 3 different melt shops have shown that the new refractory castable was able to extend the service life of the refractory burner blocks from 1 year (standard product) to more than 3 years (new castable), showing perfect conditions to continue operating for a longer period.

Oct 30, 2017

By John Malcolm Gray

Interest in X-80 linepipe steels emerged in the early 1980’s and it was first used in 1985 by Ruhr Gas [1]. The early steels were extensions of conventional Nb-V or Nb-Mo microalloyed X-70 steels but other alloying concepts emerged based on Nb-Mo-B alloying (NKSTAF [2] and ULCB [3]). The latter had acicular ferrite/bainitic microstructures and carbon contents below 0.05 percent. In parallel renewed interest developed in ultra low carbon (0.02 percent) higher niobium steels which had first been studied in 1962 [4]. Such steels exhibited excellent notch toughness when processed with high finish rolling temperatures (>950°C) which made them suitable for processing on weak, older rolling mills. With time such steels, designated “High Temperature Processed”, or HTP steels, were further optimized and produced in modern, very strong rolling mills due to their superior economy compared with traditional vanadium and molybdenum containing steels. The chronology of the HTP development is presented in the present paper. Full scale demonstration heats of a 0.06 percent carbon 0.10 percent niobium steel were produced by Bofors Steel Plant in 1972 and were converted from slabs to plates by nine different steel mills [5-7]. Commercial application in API Grade X-70 first occurred in Canada in 1974 [8,9] but the concept was only used sporadically after that until 1998 when it was applied for the API Grade X-70 Sour Service Cantarell Project [10] in Mexico. Soon thereafter, the El Paso Cheyenne Plains Project used a 0.05%C 0.095%Nb 0.27%Cr variant of the HTP steel [10-12]. Nowadays the HTP concept is being utilized for construction of approximately 6000 km of 48” OD x 18.4 mm X-80 per year in China. The metallurgical principles and history of the development are presented in details in this paper.

Aug 7, 2018

By Maycon de Almeida Gomes

Fiber reinforced polymeric composites have received widespread attention in the past four decades because of their high specific strength and modulus. In particular, research works have disclosed the potential advantages associated with the use of lignocellulosic fibers as the reinforcing phase in polymer composites (2-3). Among various natural fibers, pineapple leaf fibers exhibit excellent mechanical properties. The main chemical constituents of pineapple fibers are cellulose (70–82%), lignin (5- 12%) and ash (1.1%). The superior mechanical properties of pineapple leaf fibers are associated with their high cellulose content (6). This work aims to make the analysis of the Izod impact energy against volume fraction of palf fibers of epoxy composites reinforced with PALF. The fibers were incorporated into the epoxy matrix with volume fraction from 0 to 30%. After fracture the specimens were macro photograph analyzed.

Aug 16, 2017

By Rafael Abreu Fraga, Carlos Noberto Paula da Silva, Emanuelle Garcia Reis, Daniel Bojikian Matsubara

Since 2016 Gerdau Ouro Branco has been producing steel plates of various qualities and grades. However, it was not until 2018 that the first plates produced by accelerated cooling process were made available for external testing, in this case for large diameter UOE pipes manufacturing. Recent line pipe and OCTG specifications are showing that the oil and gas market still consumes regular API grades, such as X60, X65 and X70, however with increasing wall thicknesses, reaching values up to 1.5 inches. These specifications also demand longitudinal and transverse tensile guarantees and drop weight tear tests in temperatures as low as -40°C. Projects with these types of mechanical properties present process requirements as challenging as those necessary for higher API grades in lower thicknesses. This paper shows the steel design concepts and rolling routes for achieving the necessary properties for X70 steel plates in 28.15 mm. The microstructural features were also investigated and associated with the production process and the tensile and toughness results. Finally, challenges such as tensile anisotropy and DWTT abnormal fracture are presented.

Oct 1, 2019

By Álvaro Lúcio

This paper outlines the DPC process as na economic and environment friendly option for the use of cultivated forest as a source of raw material for metallurgical charcoal.The DPC process was specially developed to bring logistic, environmental, technical, economic and global energy efficiency when compared to termal1 the existing biomass carbonization process. The DPC process utilizes the volatile materials (condensable and non condensable) as a source of the energy required by the carbonization process guarantying its complete combustion. As result the DPC process avoids the burning of termal1 the loaded wood, obtaining a higher charcoal to biomass yield, and avoids the emission to the atmosphere of polluting gases. Gases emitted by the carbonizing wood have na energy termal1e enough to dry the wood soon after its harvesting. By avoiding the storage in the field during na average of 150 days, the resulting economy is quite significant. As a termal1e1 the higher charcoal to biomass yield na termal1e1e economy is obtained through the reduction of the cultivated forest term. This paper emphasizes the economic advantages of the DPC process.

Aug 16, 2017