Ironmaking

Ironmaking. When making steel from iron ore, a blast furnace chemically reduces the ore
(ironoxide) with carbon in the form of coke. Coke is a sponge like carbon mass that is
produced from coal by heating the coal to expel the organic matter and gases. Limestone
(calcium carbonate) is added as a flux for easier melting and slag formation. The slag,
which floats atop the molten iron, absorbs many of the unwanted impurities. The blast
furnace is essentially a tall hollow cylindrical structure with a steel outer shell lined on the
inside with special refractory and graphite brick. The crushed or pelletized ore, coke, and
limestone are added as layers through an opening at the top of the furnace, and chemical
reduction takes place with the aid of a blast of preheated air entering near the bottom of
the furnace (an area called the bosh). The air is blown into the furnace through a number
of water-cooled copper nozzles called tuyeres. The reduced liquid iron fills the bottom of
the furnace and is tapped from the furnace at specified intervals of time. The product of
the furnace is called pig iron because in the early days the molten iron was drawn from
the furnace and cast directly into branched mold configurations on the cast house floor.
The central branch of iron leading from the furnace was called the “sow” and the side
branches were called “pigs.” Today the vast majority of pig iron is poured directly from the
furnace into a refractory-lined vessel (submarine car) and transported in liquid form to a
basic oxygen furnace (BOF) for refinement into steel.
 HEAT TREATMENT OF STEEL

One of the very important characteristics of steel is the ability to alter the microstructure
through heat treatment. As seen in the previous sections, many different microstructural
constituents can be produced. Each constituent imparts a particular set of properties to
the final product. For example, by quenching a steel in water, the steel becomes very hard
but brittle through the formation of martensite. By tempering the quenched steel, some
ductility can be restored with some sacrifice in hardness and strength. Also, superior wear
properties can be obtained in fully pearlitic microstructures, particularly if an accelerated
cooling process is employed to develop a fine interlamellar spacing. Complex parts can be
designed by taking advantage of the formability and ductility of ferritic sheet steel through
cold rolling and annealing. The amount of pearlite in ferritic steel can be adjusted by
carbon content and cooling rate to produce a wide range of hardness and strength. In
quenched and tempered steels, a bainitic microstructure has a unique combination of high
strength and toughness. Thus steel, more than any other metallic material, can be
manipulated through heat treatment to provide a multiplicity of microstructures and final
properties. The common types of heat treatment are listed below:
Annealing (Full Annealing).One of the most common heat treatments for steel is
annealing. It is used to soften steel and to improve ductility. In this process, the steel is
heated into the lower regions of the austenite-phase field and slow cooled to room
temperature. The resulting microstructure consists of coarse ferrite or coarse ferrite plus
pearlite, depending upon carbon and alloy content of the steel.
Normalizing. Steel is normalized by heating into the austenite-phase field at temperatures
somewhat higher than those used by annealing followed by air cooling. Many steels are
normalized to establish a uniform ferrite plus pearlite microstructure and a uniform grain
size.
Spheroidizing. To produce a steel in its softest possible condition, it is usually spheroidized
by heating just above or just below the eutectoid temperature of 727∘C and holding at
that temperature for an extended time. This process breaks down lamellar pearlite into
small spheroids of cementite in a continuous matrix of ferrite, as seen in Fig. 14. To obtain
a very uniform dispersion of cementite spheroids, the starting microstructure is usually
martensite. This is because carbon is more uniformly distributed in martensite than in
lamellar pearlite. The cementite lamella must first dissolve and then redistribute the
carbon as spheroids whereas the cementite spheroids can form directly from martensite.
Process Annealing (Recrystallization Annealing). Process annealing takes place at tem-
peratures just below the eutectoid temperature of 727∘C. This treatment is applied to
low-carbon, cold-rolled sheet steels to restore ductility. In aluminum-killed steels, there
crystallized ferrite will have an ideal crystallographic texture (preferred orientation) for
deep drawing into complex shapes such as oil filter cans and compressor housings.
Crystallographic texture is produced by developing a preferred orientation of the fer- rite
grains, i.e., the crystal axes of the ferrite grains are oriented in a preferred rather than
random orientation.
Stress Relieving. Steel products with residual stresses can be heated to temperatures
approaching the eutectoid transformation temperature of 727∘C to relieve the stress.
Quenching. To produce the higher strength constituents of bainite and martensite, the
steel must be heated into the austenite-phase field and rapidly cooled by quenching in oil
or water. High-strength, low-alloy steels are produced by this process followed by
tempering. It must be noted that employing microalloying additions such as Nb, V, and Ti
can also produce HSLA steels. These microalloyed steels obtain their strength by
thermomechanical treatment rather than heat treatment.
Tempering. When quenched steels (martensitic steel) are tempered by heating to
temperatures approaching the eutectoid temperature of 727∘C, the dissolved carbon in
the martensite forms cementite particles, and the steels become more ductile. Quenching
and tempering are used in a variety of steel products to obtain desired combinations of
strength and toughness.
 Stainless steels

Stainless steels are those alloys of iron and chromium, with or without other elements,
containing at least 11% chromium. This is the minimum amount of chromium necessary to
form a stable, passive chromium oxide film. It is this film which is the basis for the
corrosion resistance of all stainless- and most nickel-based corrosion-resistant alloys.
There are six basic classifications of stainless steels: ferritic, martensitic, martensitic age
hardening, duplex austenitic–ferritic, and austenitic. The most commonly produced of
these are the ferritics 409 for automotive applications and 430 for
corrosion-resistant/decorative uses, the martensitic grade 410, and the age-hardening
martensitic 17-4PH®. The most popular of the austenitic–ferritic duplex grades is alloy
2205, with pitting corrosion resistance generally superior to 316L. For seawater
applications the “superduplex” alloys, such as 255, SAF® 2507, and ZERON® 100, are
required. The most broadly used austenitic stainless grades are 304L and 316L. A number
of “superaustenitics” contain about 6–7% molybdenum, with moderate nickel, 18–25%. A
nitrogen addition is required to maintain the austenitic structure. Of the higher nickel
grades 20Cb-3® stainless is used for sulfuric acid and general chemical processing. The
most commonly used of the very high nickel alloys is C-276. The austenitic stainless steels
form a continuum with the nickel-based heat- and corrosion-resistant alloys. They are
distinguished on the basis of nickel content by commercial definitions.
There is no recognized metallurgical definition of where one ends and the other begins.