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By Roman Vaynshteyn

In places where Blast Furnaces are usually located, climatic factors may be unfavorable. Raw materials may be exposed to e.g. rain during transport/storage, bringing moisture into the process with consequences for stability and hot metal cost. This paper describes a technology for drying and pre-heating pellets and coke in the stockhouse. It does not require additional handling or logistical equipment and does not introduce extra transfer steps and degradation. Not only can moisture content be reduced, it can be controlled to a stable level by the operator.

Aug 16, 2017

By André de Cabral Oliveira

With the onset of the global economic crisis in 2008, and more precisely from 2009, production routes in iron making as blast furnace, sinter and coke oven, indicated a significant increase in frequency as well as intensity of undesirable incidents. The cost impact of such deteriorations of the production chain cause significant losses ranging up to several hundred million dollars annually. On the other hand, opportunities for processes improvement are contributing to enhance process efficiency and results, and also reduce or even avoid losses from unexpected incidents. The use of specialized services for processes has gained projection along the plants and emerged as an attractive alternative to increase results by increasing the performance and reducing costs and expenses. Process Services are formatted to achieve cooperative and customized solution during planned or urgent interventions, conducting feasibility studies, process improvement, training, among others, providing knowledge, information and crucial actions to preserve and optimize processes and plant facilities.

Aug 2, 2018

By Tobias Krull

The characterisation of iron ore from a materials handling point of view is paramount in order to provide the best possible design for the desired application and maximise equipment uptime at the lowest possible capital and operational expenditure. Problematic issues in materials handling applications often arise in the iron ore industry due to the high density of the ore as well as the abrasive nature of the product. One of the key issues encountered during the handling of iron ore is excessive wear due to either impact or sliding abrasion. The applications and equipment typically affected by accelerated wear issues are mass flow hoppers, transfer chutes and conveyor belts. These wear issues often result in unplanned down times and loss in production which can lead to a considerable loss in revenue. This paper provides an overview of the best practises in the materials handling characterisation of iron ore and discusses available techniques for the modelling of iron ore in applications where accelerated wear is experienced. The application is illustrated through a number of industry relevant case studies for which engineering design work was undertaken to successfully reduce the wear rates of different materials handling equipment.

Aug 1, 2018

By Thomas Germershausen

Worldwide BOF-based steel plants are faced with demanding environmental requests and rising energy costs. For cleaning of primary gases from the BOF the scrubbing technology is worldwide adapted. For wet-scrubbers there is a direct relation between pressure loss and achievable clean gas dust content. Subsequently main energy consumers within Gas Cleaning Plants are the driving fans. To evaluate actual performance and to identify optimization measures extensive field measurements at existing Gas Cleaning Plants were performed. The operational results from various BOF plants worldwide will be presented and benchmarked. As a conclusion, advanced control strategies for reduced energy consumption and lower environmental impact were developed and implemented.

Jul 30, 2018

By Emanuele Osto

In late 2013, the installation of the world's first application of a break-through technology for rail hardening was started at Baogang Iron & Steel (Group) Co. Ltd. in Inner Mongolia, China, one of world's leading rail producers. The "Injector Dualphase Rail Hardening" (idRHa+) system was developed by Primetals Technologies and Centro Sviluppo Materiali S.p.A. (RINA-CSM) a Technical Center headquartered in Rome, Italy. Baogang was a key partner, providing its large expertise of premiumrail producer, including its experience with existing offline technologies. With a design based on thermal, mechanical and metallurgical models, idRHa+ can apply customized cooling protocols, so to obtain the desired microstructure and hardness distribution across the rail head, with a high degree of accurateness and operation flexibility. idRHa+ can be installed in inline or offline configurations. During 2014, the system was successfully commissioned at rail mill #2 in the city of Baotou, Inner Mongolia, and entered the regular commercial production. This paper gives an overview of the key concepts behind idRHa+'s design, the progression of its commissioning and testing till the ramp-up to consistent industrial operation. Derived from idRHa+ research and experience, other water-cooling technologies are available for different applications such as: quenching & tempering of medium-large sections, control of distorsion of merchant bars, quenching of stainless grades for improving the resistance to corrosion.

Aug 16, 2017

By Jean-François Stumper, Mario Moser, Mark Kruessmann, Volker Langer, Daniel Bastos Martins Cruz, Claude Meisch

The latest generation of probes and casthouse machines provide a wealth of data that has not been available a few years ago. The evaluation of this data gives direct feedback to improve the blast furnace efficiency, the equipment maintenance and design and it allows the early detection of critical or deviating process situations. A stable operation with lower operation and maintenance costs are the final customer benefits.

Oct 1, 2019

By Uwe König

Traditionally quality control of iron ore sinter, its raw materials and raw mixtures has relied on time-consuming wet chemistry. The mineralogical composition that defines the properties is often not monitored. XRD analysis in combination with Rietveld quantification and statistical data evaluation using Partial Least-Square Regression (PLSR) has been successfully established to determine the mineralogical composition and process parameters such as the FeO (Fe2+) content and basicity of iron sinter within an analysis time of less than 8 minutes per sample. Both methods take the full XRD pattern into account and can be simultaneously applied on the same measurement. In addition the Rietveld method was used to quantify the phase content of raw mixtures to monitor the composition of blending beds.

Aug 16, 2017

By Marcelo Rebellato, Leonardo Silvestre, Zhang Yongqing, Felipe Bastos, Zhang Weiqiang

This work reviews the new version of GB1499.2-2018 Chinese national standard and specification, which governs the production of high-strength reinforcing hot rolled ribbed bars in China. In addition, it discusses the main concerns from Chinese rebar makers that might affect production and application of Nb-bearing rebars, like reheating temperature required to dissolve given niobium additions, the promotion of bainite microstructure and continuous yielding, as well as Nb strengthening effects. Through extensive investigation involving both thermomechanical laboratory simulations and industrial trial, the existing state and effects of Niobium along the reheating, rolling and cooling are illustrated. At the end, optimum processing conditions have been established to produce high strength rebars for the specified requirements. The adoption of new process conditions reflected in an amount of about 20.0 million tons of Nb-bearing rebar being produced in China in 2018 with required tensile properties and microstructure, and helped rebar makers to reduce production costs considerably. Based on production data, Niobium demonstrated positive strengthening effect for high strength rebars, in particular for small diameter rebars with earthquake resistant performance. What is more, the results of the research enrich the knowledge of the application of Niobium in steels when TMCP rolling is not used.

Oct 1, 2019

By Joachiim Lehner

The application of post-combustion (secondary oxygen) to avoid skull formation on BOF lances was tested in industrial trials. The main findings are that no negative impact on the metallurgical targets (i.e. carbon, temperature and phosphorus at end of blow as well as iron–oxide in the slag) could be observed. The technology is capable of avoiding the buildup of lance skull and consequently increasing the average life of lance tips. The application of post-combustion not only affects the skull formation, there are also interactions with the refractory lining, especially thermal wear, and the utilization of the process gases (CO Recovery) that have to be considered. Special attention has to be paid to the parameters determining the use of secondary oxygen because rather small changes can strongly affect the points mentioned above. Since August 2016, the PCD (Post-CombustionDistributor) lances are used on a daily basis in the steelplant LD3 in Linz.

Oct 30, 2017

By Rene Grabowski

Optimization of workflows and intelligent stock management; Slab stacking improvement by automated transport orders; and System automatically registers any slab movements even in manual operation. Case story: Steel producer ArcelorMittal Eisenhüttenstadt GmbH in Germany uses Primetals Technologie’s new stock yard logistics system in its finishing department. An exact image of its slab storage at any times is given by the warehouse logistics system to the company. It not only enhances the composition of the stacks of slabs, but also automates recording of manual restacking operations. Therefore the solution improves workflows and simplifies stock control. Cycle times have also been reduced due to the fact that the slabs can be charged to reheating furnaces ahead of the rolling mill due to less restacking operations within the slab storage. The expandable, modular system is based on the Siemens Simatic IT and Primetals Technologies’ IT4METALS Logistics product platform. It provides a large number of organizational and commercial features in the form of sophisticated graphics and tabular evaluations. For example, it can show how many crane movements have been made per shift for any category of slab, so that the time and cost for each operation can be calculated accurately.

Aug 16, 2017

By Marcos Paulo da Silveira, Carolina Conter Elgert, Messias Prado de Almeida, Rafael Stella Galdino

Microalloyed steels have been intensely studied as an alternative to increase strength by grain refinement and/or precipitation hardening. Long steel products have a wide range of opportunities to apply well-defined principles of controlled rolling (CR) in order to increase strength and toughness with reduced costs. To evaluate the effect of microalloying elements as Nb and Ti with thermomechanical treatment, three conditions were tested: DIN 16MnCrS5 with hot rolling (HR), DIN 16MnCrS5 with Nb and CR and DIN 16MnCrS5 with Nb+Ti and CR. Austenitic grain size, obtained by direct quenching after rolling, has shown a decrease 32% with Nb addition, and 29% when Nb and Ti was added. Controlled rolling generated higher grain refinement and pancacked grains near the surface. When comparing ferritic grain size, controlled rolling plus niobium and titanium additions resulted in significant reduction of 35%. Yield strength increased 15% with microalloying and CR and more than 270% in impact toughness, even at -40°C.

Oct 1, 2019

By Wolfgang Kern

The implementation of the Gas Treatment Plant (GTP) for CSPECEM, Ceara-Brazil is a result of the closed partnership between Paul Wurth Italia S.p.A. and DMT, the German leading company in Coke Oven Gas Treatment Plants. In addition to technical issues reducing emissions, avoiding of waste and saving environment and energy were technical challenges during the engineering phase. Below mentioned three descriptions of technical solutions represents examples of a number other innovations based on DMT’s know-how and experience in the field of by-product plants. Generally the design of the complete GTP is based on the consideration of modern features and design upgrading, with the aim of a safe operation with stable conditions and a long-living cycle of the whole of the plant.

Aug 16, 2017

By Breno Totti Maia

Due to operational conditions and locations, BOF suffers variations in important parameters whose effects on the liquid bath are usually neglected. The present paper investigated two aspects: inner BOF pressure and oxygen temperature in the stagnant reservoir. The results have shown that oxygen temperature changes properties like density and velocity but has small influence on jet penetration. The BOF inner pressure has significant influence on jet penetration and creates a new challenge regarding nozzles dimensions considering overexpanding and underexpading jets.

Oct 30, 2017

By "Andreas Steinwandter

The demand for increasing energy efficiency and CO2 reduction is one of the global megatrends of our time. Although the steel industry suffers from a volatile economic environment, the steel plants are interested to find opportunities for sustainable cost reduction and put efforts into healthy solutions for the environmental. Integrated steel plants are trying to cut electrical power and energy costs as these are among the biggest cost factors that can be influenced and taking all the advantages they can. For the integrated iron and steel making route the interaction of waste energy utilization along with process energy demand, natural and metallurgical gases, steam and heating systems as well as power generation has to be considered. Potential energy sources, such as sinter plant, basic oxygen furnace (BOF) cooling stack or reheating furnaces are considered in order to elaborate an integrated energy concept. Especially electric power generation is an attractive option for steel plant operators since it can easily be connected to the existing power grid of the steel plant. When direct local use of waste heat is limited, the best option is to convert it to mechanical/electrical power with a Rankine Cycle. A stand-alone system, compact design with minimum operational costs in order to fit into the existing steel plant layout, are the main requirements of such units. The objective of this paper is to demonstrate economic feasible opportunities for energy recovery for sinter cooler and basic oxygen furnace with focus on electric power generation via ORC modules taking at the same time advantages of CO2 reduction by utilizing waste heat from the process. Furthermore typical arrangements and layouts of such solutions as well as basic economic calculations will be presented in the paper.

Oct 30, 2017

By Juliano Braz Possatti, José Fagundes Júnior

This project involved a teamwork including process control, maintenance and operation specialists, R&D and CTO experts to identify and actuate on each opportunity to increase charging temperature, furnace efficiency, decrease discharging temperature when possible, decrease FM and RM cycle time (mainly speed increase and interpass time decrease), tracking zones optimization, safe use of equipment power limits, safety interlocks revision and tune models for Mill Pacing Control and Slab Design.As result of these efforts, ArcelorMittal Tubarão HSM today occupies a prominent position among the best HSM of similar layout and produced mix of the group and worldwide. This paper will show the path which was followed by the AMT HSM team to achieve more than a 20% productivity increase resulting in a hot coils production per year more than 700 million tons higher.

Oct 1, 2019

By Sebastien Maillard, Stephane Georges, Thomas Vallee, Stanislas Mauuary

Steel strip manufacturing ever reinvents proposing new grades, requiring to tackle technical limitations of production systems. Primetals Technologies breaks through strip welding by expanding the welder LW21L “Asolid” technology used on low gauges for high-end market such as automotive CAL/CGL. Addressing the usual drawbacks in maintenance, operation and safety of current welding system based on mechanical cutting and CO2 laser welding, the newly developped LW21H “Asolid” technology processes thicker strips up to 7 mm with solid-state laser cutting and welding. This new welder is brought to reality through a scale 1:1 pilot developed, manufactured and tested in Primetals Technologies workshop.

Oct 1, 2019

By Mauricio Monteiro Machado, Neyda de la Caridad Om Tapanes, Ana Isabel de Carvalho Santana, Rodolfo Salazar Perez, Rodrigo Ribeiro Soares, Roberta Gaidzinski

Vasos de pressão são equipamentos empregados nas mais variadas indústrias, sendo responsáveis por significativa parcela do orçamento. Os materiais mais utilizados para a construção de vasos de pressão para a indústria de óleo e gás são as ligas de aço carbono e em alguns casos se justifica o emprego de ligas de aços inoxidáveis. O objetivo deste trabalho foi estudar as características dos vasos de pressão, materiais de fabricação e o custo de aquisição de vasos de pressão por parte da Petrobras. Para o desenvolvimento foram utilizadas duas ferramentas de processamento de dados: a Lei de acesso à informação que permitiu a criação de uma base de dados, e o Planejamento de experimentos que possibilitou avaliar a influência do tipo de material e outras variáveis sobre o preço do vaso de pressão (variável de resposta). Os resultados estatísticos demonstram que, para as faixas analisadas o comprimento entre tangentes (CET) e o Diâmetro (D) possuem uma influência estatística direta sobre a variável de resposta Preço. Finalizando, o estudo conseguiu conciliar aspectos construtivos com os fatores financeiros, sendo de grande valia para os fabricantes de vasos de pressão.

Aug 1, 2019

By Isaias Moreira de Freitas

Componentes de alto custo como rodas ferroviárias estão em pleno desenvolvimento a fim de aumentar o desempenho em operação. Para isso, diversos materiais microligados têm sido testados para obter melhores propriedades mecânicas e metalúrgicas. Esses materiais estão fortemente sujeitos a fraturas devido às solicitações térmicas e mecânicas durante o trabalho. Muitas dessas fraturas frágeis são ocasionadas por propagação de trinca, impacto, fadiga ou alguma falha metalúrgica. Essas fraturas e riscos operacionais vêm aumentando gradativamente com as maiores cargas transportadas. Portanto, novos materiais e processos produtivos devem ser exaustivamente testados a fim de garantir alto desempenho e confiabilidade. O objetivo deste trabalho é avaliar as propriedades dos materiais atuais e de diferentes composições de aços microligados de rodas ferroviárias de vagões, fabricadas pelos processos de fundição e forjamento. As amostras foram submetidas a ensaios metalográficos, mecânicos e de tenacidade à fratura. Foram avaliadas rodas convencionais, microligadas ao vanádio e microligadas ao nióbio. Nas rodas forjada e fundida, foram observadas propriedades de tração e dureza similares, e superioridade para o microligado em relação ao aço convencional. As rodas forjadas apresentaram melhor resistência ao impacto e a tenacidade a fratura, destacando-se a microligada ao nióbio.

Aug 16, 2017

By Marcelo Macedo Fialho

No processo produtivo de aço, as empresas buscam continuamente a redução do custo de produção. Isto pode ocorrer através de diversas formas, tendo como as principais, o ganho de rendimento, o aumento de produtividade, a redução do homem hora aplicado e a redução do custo de matéria prima. Objetivando reduzir o custo de produção integrado placa bobina, a ArcelorMittal Tubarão busca aumentar o percentual de placas enviadas diretamente do Lingotamento Contínuo de Placas para o Laminador de Tiras a Quente. Os ganhos se dão, em primeiro plano, através da redução da intervenção nas placas aumentando o rendimento de placa e exigindo menos mão de obra para o corte e escarfagem de placa e, em segundo plano, através do aumento da temperatura média de enfornamento, propiciando maior produtividade no laminador de tiras a quente e menor consumo de energia para realizar o pré-aquecimento da placa antes do processo de laminação. Somado a isto, a maior disponibilidade de placas no pátio do LTQ, aumenta a chance de laminação exigindo menos paradas do LTQ e aumentando a produção. Os ganhos estimados com o projeto, apenas no que diz respeito a redução de custo de condicionamento são de 6MUSD/ano.

Jul 30, 2018

By Sandra Goulart-Santos

Os aços galvanizados são amplamente utilizados devido à sua excelente resistência à corrosão. Além disso, esses aços apresentam alta qualidade superficial, o que é um requisito importante para aplicações exigentes como as da indústria automobilística. Dentre os parâmetros de processo importantes para a qualidade dos revestimentos está o teor de alumínio no banho de zinco. Nesse estudo, foi utilizado o simulador do processo de galvanização a quente (HDPS), para investigar a influência do teor de alumínio efetivo do banho na qualidade superficial do revestimento galvannealed (GA), sendo avaliados os teores de 0,09% e 0,14%. Para acompanhar os estágios de formação das fases Fe-Zn foram realizadas interrupções do ciclo de galvanização ao longo das etapas de imersão no banho e de tratamento térmico de galvannealing. Utilizando a técnica GDOES, foi possível acompanhar as variações da concentração de alumínio ao longo do revestimento durante a formação das fases Fe-Zn. Os resultados das simulações mostraram que o alumínio efetivo mais baixo no banho favoreceu a cinética de formação das fases Fe-Zn durante o tratamento térmico e diminuiu a ocorrência de regiões com aspecto brilhante no revestimento, melhorando a qualidade superficial.

Jul 30, 2018