Chapter 5 - Steelmaking

STEELMAKING - INTRODUCTION
Steels are made by oxidising ‘charge materials’ in a

suitable high temperature furnace, followed by refining
the molten steel and then casting the molten steel into a
pre-designed shape e.g. ingot, billet, slab, thin strip etc.
Charge materials could be:
 liquid iron (popularly called hot metal from the blast
furnace route—
a liquid pig iron with higher carbon, approx. 4.0%,
silicon (Si), phosphorus (P), and other elements which
do not at that stage represent the desired composition of
the steel to be made),
steel scraps,
sponge iron or
any other iron bearing material, and some chemical
fluxes.
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1 Ferrous Pyrometallurgy: Chapter 5 - Steelmaking @ M Toga
STEELMAKING – MAJOR ROUTES
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STEELMAKING – MAJOR ROUTES
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STEELMAKING – BOF AND EAF
The basic oxygen process consists essentially of
blowing oxygen of high purity onto the surface of the
bath in a basic lined vessel by a water cooled vertical
pipe or lance inserted through the mouth of the vessel.
BOF AND EAF are the dominant steelmaking processes.
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STEELMAKING
Important steps for clean steelmaking in the above
diagram are:
Injection treatment of hot metal for desulphurising and
deposhporising the hot metal from the blast furnace,
which is generally high in sulphur (S) and phosphorus
(P);
Bottom stirring in the Basic Oxygen Furnace (BOF) (e.g.
LD furnace);
Argon flushing for removing inclusions and uniformity in
temperature;.
Injection treatment for lowering of sulphur and inclusion
modification; and
Ladle furnace/vacuum treatment for low hydrogen and
sulphur control, in specific, and inclusion removal in
general. (STEPS VARY FROM PLANT TO PLANT)
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STEELMAKING
oWhile blast furnace iron making is essentially a
reduction process—where iron bearing ores are
reduced in blast furnace at appropriate high
temperature—CONVERTING THIS IRON TO STEEL IS
DOMINATED BY OXIDATION, followed by de-
oxidation process, in order to remove/control all
undesirable elements and impurities.
oThe main steel making process may be followed by
what is known as ladle metallurgy – an additional
refining step for improved steel quality.
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STEEL –OXYGEN BLOW
After scrap and hot metal are charged, the furnace is
set upright and the oxygen is supplied through a water-
cooled lance.
There are two lance lift carriages above each furnace
but only one lance is used at a time; the other is a spare.
The oxygen blow times typically range from 13 to 25
minutes from one shop to another with an average of
about 20 minutes.
 The oxygen is added in several batches. Each batch is
characterized by a different lance height above the
static steel bath and sometimes by an oxygen rate
change.
These blowing rates and lance heights vary
considerably from shop to shop and depend on the
pressure and quality of the oxygen supply.
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The oxygen blow rate ranges from 560 to 1000 Nm3 per
minute.
A practical limit on the rate is often the volume of the furnace
and the capacity of the gas collection and cleaning system to
handle the gaseous reaction product and fume.
The first batch lance height is very high to avoid the possibility
of lance tip contact with the scrap and to safely establish the
oxidizing, heat generating reactions.
If the lance would contact the pile of scrap in the furnace, a
serious water leak could result causing a dangerous steam
explosion.
The second batch lance height is usually approximately 20 to
30 inches lower than the first batch and approximately 20 to 30
inches higher than the main batch.
The purpose here is to increase the reaction rate and control
the early slag formation. This second or middle batch generates
some early iron oxide to increase proper slag formation.
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The main batch is where most of the action occurs—it is by far
the longest batch.
The lance height is an empirical compromise between achieving
faster carbon removal rates and proper slag making.
Some shops have more than three batches.
Some change oxygen conditions (blow rate and lance height)
nearly continuously.
Other shops will raise the lance and change the blow rate near
the end of the main batch to control the viscosity and chemical
reactivity of the slag by raising its FeO content.
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STEEL –WATER COOLED OXYGEN LANCE TIP
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STEELMAKING –IN THE MIDDLE OF OXYGEN BLOW
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STEELMAKING
Most basic functions in steelmaking are the removal or
reduction of carbon, sulphur, phosphorus and various
gases and impurities in the liquid steel.
Impurities in steel—which come not only from the
charged material but also from the erosion and wear of
refractory lining of the vessels at high temperature—can
be effectively removed during blowing or by ladle
metallurgy, and gases can be removed by vacuum
treatment.
Right control of slag chemistry and temperature is
necessary for carbon and phosphorus removal.
For sulphur removal, special de-sulphurising agents are
added in the ladle.
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STEELMAKING
Due to chances of erosion of refractory lining material
during high temperature operation of steelmaking
process, care is necessary in the use of high quality
refractories, which can withstand higher temperature and
do not vigorously react with the slag layer.
Slag chemistry is very important for steelmaking as it
has to absorb and retain the oxidised products, including
the impurities; also, it should not react with the
refractory wall.
Thus, the quality of steel produced is dependent on
steelmaking process and quality of slag and refractory
practices.
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STEELMAKING
For carrying out the oxidation of extra carbon in the
charged materials, high purity oxygen is used for
steelmaking.
The de-oxidation products are then allowed to float off
or made to float off by special mechanisms in order to
improve the quality of steels.
Along with carbon, other trapped elements in the molten
steel also get oxidised.
Therefore, for clean steelmaking, the primary task is to
remove these de-oxidation products as completely as
possible. One of the popular modes of removing the
deoxidised products is by ladle furnace (LF) treatment
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STEELMAKING – LADLE METALLURGY
Ladle metallurgy process is done to:
 improve the steel homogeneity in composition, inclusion
content,
Reduce residual gases,
and accurate control of casting temperature for better
integrity of cast product.
For more effective removal of residual gases,
especially hydrogen, vacuum degassing (VD) of molten
steel is carried out.
Vacuum degassing is particularly used for removal of
hydrogen gases using stream degassing or
recirculation-degassing (RH), where the molten steel
is sucked into the vacuum chamber and continuously
recirculated.
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STEELMAKING – LD FURNACE TREATMENT
In ladle furnace treatment, high purity argon gas (or high
purity nitrogen gas) can be bubbled through the molten
steel, where argon gas being inert gas does not react
with the molten steel but purges out the impure gases
and inclusions out of the molten steel.
The purging takes place as the rising argon bubbles rise
through the melt and any particle or impurity that comes
on the way gets attached to the bubble due to surface
tension effect and gets carried on to the surface.
Slag chemistry on the surface is so maintained that
these oxidised products are quickly absorbed into the top
slag.
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STEELMAKING – VACUUM DEGASSING
Ladle furnace is not effective for removing hydrogen
from the steel.
Hydrogen removal from the liquid steel requires VD.
 Methods of vacuum ladle degassing utilise the reaction
of de-oxidation by dissolved carbon in the steel
according to the equation:
where, [C] and [O] denote carbon and oxygen dissolved

in liquid steel and {CO} denotes gaseous carbon
monoxide.
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STEELMAKING –VACUUM DEGASSING
Vacuum treatment of molten steel decreases the partial pressure
of CO, which leads to shifting equilibrium of the reaction of
carbon oxidation, giving rise to large number of bubbles of carbon
monoxide.
Hydrogen dissolved in liquid steel then diffuse into the carbon
bubbles and is evacuated by vacuum system.
Vacuum degassing also helps in further removal of inclusions,
which agglomerate due to bath agitation under vacuum and gets
floated up and absorbed in the slag.
Thus, steels refined by vacuum are characterised by low gases,
low inclusions and homogeneous structures.
Sources of hydrogen in molten steel are primarily moist air, wet
refractories, wet fluxes and ferro-alloys used in the steel making
process.
Thus, vacuum treatment of steels is frequently specified,
especially for heavy section or for critical applications, e.g. ball
and roller bearing steels, rotor forging steel.
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STEELMAKING – PRIMARY CASTING
Next step in steelmaking is to cast the molten steel into
a primary shape—like ingot, billet, slab etc.
Casting is also a critical operation for quality steel
making, because when the molten stream of steel comes
out of the casting ladle, it can react with the atmosphere
and again pick up oxygen and gases, which forms
inclusions and pin-hole porosity in the subsurface areas
of the solid metal.
Hence, the molten metal is directed through a nozzle
tube to cover the liquid stream or the stream is shrouded
by an inert gas to protect it from exposure to
environment.
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STEELMAKING – PRIMARY CASTING
The casting method can be
conventional ingot casting with interrupted pouring in
between the ingots lined up in a pit or
continuous casting under mechanised condition where the
cast length moves over a set of rollers under water spray
(for cooling) and the casting is automatically cut after the
mass has completely solidified at an ‘ear-marked’ distance
from the casting table.
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STEELMAKING – STEELMAKING ROUTES
Though there had been many steelmaking routes in
vogue, now-a-days steelmaking route is limited to either
‘Oxygen process’ or ‘Electric Arc process’
Electric arc furnace is a very high energy consuming
route and entails high cost of energy.
Hence, electric arc furnace (EAF) route of primary
steelmaking should be selectively used—such as for
steelmaking using high percentage of steel scraps or for
special grade steels which cannot be easily made through
oxygen process.
Therefore, mostly ‘oxygen steelmaking’ route is preferred
because its economical, unless the steelmaking becomes
difficult by the oxygen process due to problems in alloy
recovery, e.g. stainless steelmaking —where recovery of
chromium will be erratic due to oxygen blowing.
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Though there had been many steelmaking routes in
vogue, now-a-days steelmaking route is limited to either
‘Oxygen process’ or ‘Electric Arc process’
Electric arc furnace is a very high energy consuming
route and entails high cost of energy.
Hence, electric arc furnace (EAF) route of primary
steelmaking should be selectively used—such as for
steelmaking using high percentage of steel scraps or for
special grade steels which cannot be easily made through
oxygen process.
Therefore, mostly ‘oxygen steelmaking’ route is preferred
because its economical, unless the steelmaking becomes
difficult by the oxygen process due to problems in alloy
recovery, e.g. stainless steelmaking —where recovery of
chromium will be erratic due to oxygen blowing.
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Popular oxygen process is the ‘LD converter’ process,
which is carried out in a special vessel where high purity
oxygen is blown through the top or bottom tuyers.
The process of oxidation is exothermic, which generates
enough heat of reaction to sustain the steelmaking
reaction velocity in the LD converter.
Reaction rate in LD converter is very high and hence the
process requires sophisticated control mechanisms.
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STEELMAKING – SALIENT FEATURES
The salient process features of steelmaking steps
through LD or EAF route are:
Decarburisation:
This is carried out by controlled oxygen lancing of the
liquid steel.
During this process carbon in the liquid steel reacts with
the oxygen to form carbon monoxide (CO), which
escapes from the bath as combustible waste gas.
If any other solid oxides form in reaction with fluxes etc.
present in the bath, those reaction products are taken
into the slag by appropriate slag composition control to
absorb them.
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STEELMAKING – DE-OXIDATION
De-oxidation of steel melt is done by adding aluminium
(Al), silicon (Si), ferro-manganese (FMn) etc. which are
oxidising elements to the impurities or gases present in
the liquid metal.
Of these, aluminium de-oxidation (popularly called Al-
killing) is preferred for making the grain size inherently
fine grained and resistant to coarsening during
subsequent hot-forming or heat treating.
 it is effective in stopping grain growth during
subsequent heating and rolling.
Silicon killing is carried out for some special grades
where electrical property or coarser grains are
preferred.
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STEELMAKING – DE-OXIDATION
The mechanism of grain size refinement by Al-killing
involves reaction of nitrogen gases of the molten steel
with aluminium and precipitation of fine aluminium nitride
(AlN) particles on solidification, which pins the moving
grain boundaries from growth.
Aluminium nitride being stable at high temperature, it is
effective in stopping grain growth during subsequent
heating and rolling.
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STEELMAKING – ALLOYING
Alloying: Alloying of the steel is carried by adding
measured quantity of respective ferroalloys or metallic
alloys at the appropriate temperature during steelmaking,
with precautions to ensure correct recovery of alloying
elements.
Care should be taken during alloying to avoid loss of
expensive alloying elements due to oxidation or
entrapment in the top slag layer. Final adjustment of
alloying is done by trimming addition after degassing
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STEELMAKING – DEGASSING
Degassing: Degassing can be done by vacuum treatment
or by inert gas (argon) bubbling at controlled conditions
and temperature during steelmaking—when rising argon
bubbles carry the adsorbed gases and inclusions along
with it to the surface layer.
For full degassing, vacuum tank is used, and argon-
bubbling is used for partial degassing and inclusion
removal.
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STEELMAKING – TEMPERATURE CONTROL
Temperature adjustment before casting is necessary in
order to regulate the shrinkage inside the cast product,
macrostructure of cast product—which is influenced by
the cooling rate from the casting temperature—and
tendency to form thermal crack at the points of contacts
with the mould or constraints.
Use of ladle furnace (LF) is a popular method for
adjusting and controlling the final casting temperature.
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STEELMAKING – making clean steels for critical applications
Clean steel relates to steel with low level of sulphide
and oxide inclusion contents as well as low levels of
hydrogen, nitrogen, phosphorus, and sometime even
carbon.
Extra low-carbon Interstitial-free steel with %carbon
(%C) less than 25 ppm—which are in demand for critical
automobile parts formation—is an example of the latter.
An idea as to how the definition of clean steel will
depend on the criticality of end use.
Cleanliness level of steels is to be chosen as per the
end-use requirement due to its impact on cost and
availability.
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Clean steelmaking involves:
Removal of oxide and sulphide impurities in steel;
Removal of gases like the hydrogen and nitrogen; and
Controlling other residual elements from the steel as per
application requirement or agreed supply specification.
Impurities in steel mean anything that remains trapped
inside the solid steel and cause deterioration of
properties, like physical, mechanical, chemical (e.g.
corrosion), forming etc.
Impurities are generally the products of de-oxidation
process, dissolved gases and suspended non-metallic
that might come from refractories and fluxes used in
steelmaking.
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On cooling into ingot or slab, these impurities remain
trapped in the steel and cause dirtiness in the steel—that
act as discontinuities in the steel matrix and impair
mechanical properties, machining property, forming
property etc.
Dissolved gases—like oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen, etc.—
on cooling segregate and might cause ‘ageing’, ‘flaking’,
‘hydrogen cracking’ etc. that create internal flaws and
loss of certain properties.
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To fulfil such stringent cleanliness requirements,
steelmaking technology is getting continuously improved
by optimising each stage of steel production.
These stages or steps are:
Iron making (pig iron),
Iron treatment (hot metal treatment),
Oxygen steelmaking process (e.g. LD or EAF),
Tapping,
Ladle treatment,
Tundish treatment, and
Continuous casting (CC).
Clean steelmaking calls for precautions to control the
aforesaid elements in all stages of production by
appropriate means.
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STEELMAKING –clean steels sulphur control
Major source of sulphur in steel is the pig iron (hot metal
from the blast furnace). Hence, hot metal
desulphurization is carried out by using sulphide-forming
agent like calcium compound (e.g. lime injection) in a
reducing atmosphere inside the treatment vessel.
Calcium carbide with some additive is preferred for its
comparatively lower cost. However, during oxygen
steelmaking (e.g. the LD process) molten steel
encounters high oxidizing atmosphere inside the vessel
and again some sulphur gets picked up.
Therefore, some extra precautions are taken during
steelmaking and tapping the steel to control sulphur as
well as oxygen..
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STEELMAKING –clean steels sulphur control
Some common steps include:
Slag-free tapping i.e. slag is a source of oxygen—general
course is to bubble some inert gas through the molten steel to
float off all slag to the surface and then add some protective
reducing agent;
The use of vessel lined with basic refractory lining e.g.
dolomite;
Adjusting pouring temperature of the liquid steel for better
sulphur removal;
Use of desulphurising agent e.g. injection of calcium silicide
(CaSi) wire;
Pouring the liquid steel into the mould or tundish (in case of
continuous casting) under protective shroud cover (or nozzle), to
avoid oxygen pick-up from the surrounding air.
In addition to control of sulphur, shape of sulphur—which is
generally lenticular —can also be controlled by using CaSi
wire, where the shape of sulphide becomes more spherical and
35 less harmful.
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Ferrous Pyrometallurgy: Chapter 5 - Steelmaking @ M Toga

STEELMAKING –clean steels Phosphorus control
Phosphorus control in steelmaking requires virtually
opposite of steelmaking conditions used for sulphur
control.
Lower steel temperature and higher oxidation potential
in the melt is the right condition for phosphorus removal,
which is applicable to both oxygen process and EAF
process.
Lower phosphorus in LD steel is achieved through a
special blowing process during steelmaking called
combined blowing where top surface is highly oxidise by
controlled oxygen blowing on the top slag for making
phosphorus partition to the slag easier, and
simultaneously blowing inert gas through bottom tuyeres
of LD vessel to ensure intimate contact of melt with the
oxidising top slag.
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STEELMAKING –clean steels Phosphorus control
Further, phosphorus control requires use of low
phosphorus fluxes and ferroalloys that are to be added, if
required, subsequently.
And, strict slag removal measure is also needed to take
care that no oxidising high phosphorus slag is left over in
the melt after tapping.
In general, slag free tapping, use of active slag cover of
the melt, and inert gas bubbling from the bottom
considerably improves the cleanliness of steel with
regard to oxide inclusions as well.
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STEELMAKING –clean steels (Homogenisation of steel melt )
This is another step in clean steelmaking.
This is necessary not only for chemical cleanliness and
uniformity, but also for uniformity and consistency of
alloy recovery at the later stages of alloy adjustment and
better control of casting temperature.
Homogenisation of the melt is largely attended by
stirring effect of the inert gas blown from the bottom
tuyeres.
Control of casting temperature is largely achieved at this
stage by cooling the melt by adding select-scraps or by
additional heating if required, for which provisions are
generally provided in the ladle metallurgy process.
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STEELMAKING –clean steels (Vacuum Degassing Treatment)
This is a popular process for improving the cleanliness
of steel, especially the alloy steels.
The process involves churning of liquid steel under
vacuum in a closed chamber so that all absorbed gases
get sucked out of liquid pool and are thus removed.
Vacuum degassing is a must for steels with low
hydrogen requirement.
In a low pressure environment in the vacuum chamber,
chemical reactions that produce different gaseous
products in the liquid steel get accelerated and the
vacuum system takes those gaseous products out of the
liquid steel pool.
Such a vacuum treatment can for example be combined
with the other options of secondary steelmaking as well
in a tank degasser, as indicated already in earlier figures.
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The low pressure causes a remarkable reduction in
hydrogen and nitrogen content of the steel.
Thus, the VD process has the versatility to remove
hydrogen, nitrogen, and other atmospheric gases, on one
hand, while removal of volatile impurities like tin, lead,
arsenic etc. that may come from scrap used for
steelmaking on the other.
Vacuum degassing also helps in reduction of metal
oxides, removal of de-oxidation products, and control of
alloy recovery and adjustment to close limits.
Hence, for steels with narrow specification range, high
degree of cleanliness requirement, and freedom from any
trapped oxides—such as bearing steel—VD is a
necessary process.
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Low carbon stainless steel, ball bearing steels, high
quality forging steels for critical applications like turbine
blades, steel for ship hulls etc. are made through VD
process.
The clean steel produced through VD route is of
consistently high quality, with highly improved properties
in transverse to rolling direction.
Amongst the VD processes, RH-degasser technique is
very popular for mass production—like production of
extra low carbon stainless steel —due to its flexibility for
handling large tonnages and fast processing time.
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STEELMAKING –clean steels (Casting/continuous casting)
This is the stage of solidification of liquid steel into a
mould (ingot mould) or to the shape of billet or bloom,
etc.
Steels, made clean by following the processes discussed
earlier, may become dirty again if adequate care is not
taken for protecting gas absorption—like oxygen,
nitrogen, and hydrogen—by the liquid stream while being
cast.
Besides, liquid steel can also get contaminated by the
erosion of refractory being used in the tundish or the
clogged oxide particles at the casting nozzle tips.
Since the liquid steel is made low in oxygen and of other
gas contents, there would be a tendency to absorb these
gases again from the environment, if not:
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STEELMAKING –clean steels (Casting/continuous casting)
If not:
The vessel carrying liquid steel is continued with mild
stirring to float off any such oxidation product;
The liquid pool at the casting point is covered; and
The casting stream is shrouded from the atmosphere.
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STEELMAKING –
Killing of Steel: Killed, Rimmed and Balanced Steels
Liquid steel has excess oxygen content, coming from the
oxidation process during steelmaking which extensively
uses oxygen to oxidise the impurities.
Dissolved oxygen in the liquid steel is undesirable, because
it will react with carbon to form gaseous carbon monoxide.
Oxygen will also react with alloying elements to form
oxides.
Continuation of such reactions at the time of tapping the
steel poses problem for bath composition adjustment for
final tapping.
Moreover, gases produced by oxygen reaction also cause
foaming of the liquid steel bath and formation of gas-holes
in the castings.
Hence, it is necessary to reduce the oxygen level in liquid
steel to negligible level before the final composition
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STEELMAKING –
 The process of fixing the oxygen in the liquid steel is
called killing.
Degassing or killing of steel is done during tapping by
using special de-oxidation agents which readily and
preferentially combine with oxygen in the bath.
These deoxidising agents are aluminium, ferro-silicon and
ferro-manganese.
The name killing comes from the fact that presence of
high oxygen in the melt causes foaming from the gasses
formed by oxidation reactions, and the bath, or the mould,
in which the melt is cast, becomes foamy.
When deoxidising agents are added and oxygen gets
readily drawn out of the bath, bath becomes quiet.
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STEELMAKING –
The process is technically known as de-oxidation
process.
All de-oxidation products have to be suitably separated
from the liquid steel and absorbed into the slag—so that
they do not lead to entrapment of oxides in the steel and
make the steel dirty i.e. high in inclusion content.
Amongst the deoxidation agent, aluminium is most
reactive and widely used.
Though it is more expensive than silicon killing,
aluminium killing is known to produce inherently fine
grains in steel due to pinning and locking of grain
boundaries by aluminium-nitride particles that form by
reaction between nitrogen gas in the bath and added
aluminium.
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STEELMAKING –
All forging grade steels and fine grained steels for
engineering and automotive applications specifically call
for ‘aluminium killing’ because of finer and more stable
grain sizes obtained by aluminium killing vis-a-vis
silicon killing.
Silicon killing is also effective in removing excess
oxygen, but it is ineffective in controlling grain sizes or
grain growth.
Grains produced in silicon killed steel can undergo
rapid grain growth process when re-heated for hot
working or hot rolling.
Such large grains are not desirable for good strength
and ductility.
Also large grains give rise to pancake structure after
cold rolling and stretch forming, which is an
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Ferrous Pyrometallurgy: Chapter 5 - Steelmaking @ M Toga

STEELMAKING –
Steels could be partly killed by silicon and finished by
adding aluminium i.e. Al-Si killing.
However, for distinct advantage of using aluminium
killed fine grained steels for automotive and engineering
applications, the overwhelming trend is to go for
aluminium killing, and there have been many
technological advances to perfect the technique of
adding or feeding aluminium wire at tap or during
teeming of hot steel for better control of the killing
process.
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STEELMAKING –
Sometimes, steel is purposely left without killing the
oxygen in the liquid, because of the necessity for
avoiding shrinkages and piping in ingot casting, where
gas holes produced by the oxygen reaction with carbon
compensate the shrinkage of volume with cooling.
This type of steel is known as rimming steel.
This type of steel casting is deliberately designed to
produce a chill layer of relatively purer metal on the
surface by partial deoxidation (mostly by small addition
of aluminium) and controlling the casting condition to
produce a thick chill layer.
Rimming steel may not be exactly without any de-
oxidation, but very controlled de-oxidation whereby
foaming is stopped but enough oxygen is left to cause
gas holes to compensate the shrinkage..
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STEELMAKING –
Due to chilling of the surface, gas holes produced move
away from the surface and towards the centre of the
ingot.
These gas holes are not oxidised; hence they mostly
get welded up under the pressure of rolling or forging.
 Because of soft surface, rimmed steels are easy to
form and cold draw.
As such, its applications are found in areas of very low
carbon steel where surface finish is not a big criterion,
such as for nails and screw forming in high speed
machines.
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STEELMAKING –
There is another type of steel called balanced
steel/semi-killed steel where the melt is deoxidized by
adding more aluminium than rimmed steel but just
enough to leave some oxygen for gas formation and
balance the shrinkage.
Benefit of semi-killed steel is its higher solid metal
yield due to less shrinkage, but the semi-killed steel
could have more and larger inclusions than fully killed
steels.
Hence, these semi-killed steels are not preferred for
any parts that may face fluctuating load in service i.e.
for fatigue and fracture sensitive applications.
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STEEL NOMENCLATURE
Grade:
Standard
Specification
Classification;
These terms are briefly explained to enable the

student to understand the “products” of Iron and Steel
Making,
IT IS IMPORTANT TO MENTION THAT THERE ARE
NO STRICT RULES IN THE USE OF THESE TERMS.
Steel is one of the most widely used materials in the
world,
03/19/2023
STEEL GRADE
This is the designation of the steel, based on
nationally or internationally recognised systems—the
aim is to identify the steel with a name which is
recognisable by all concerned.
Designation of steels is generally based on chemical
composition, applications or strength characteristics
under a ‘standard’.
ANY PRODUCER CAN GIVE A GRADE ID TO THE
STEEL SHE PRODUCES, HENCE WE FIND SO MANY
GRADES OF STEELS WHICH ARE SIMILAR.
Hence, one should establish an equivalent grade
based on the chemical composition and/or the
mechanical properties.
03/19/2023
STEEL - STANDARD
This is the mother of all the ‘grades’ and ‘specifications’.
Standard is a broad-based coverage of various grades of
steels with focus on specific uses, purpose or applications.
Standards are generally application specific and describe
the steel quality suitable for those applications—e.g.
‘standards’ for flame and induction hardening steels,
‘standards’ for case-hardening grade steels, ‘standards’ for
forging quality steels, etc.
Most standards cover sufficient details for the quality
required for the end-uses as per that standard; namely
chemical composition, physical, metallurgical and
dimensional properties, conditions for steelmaking
wherever applicable, important rolling conditions
influencing the end-quality, methods of testing and
certification, packing, marking and handling of steel lots
etc.
03/19/2023
STEEL -SPECIFICATION:
Specification refers to the specific requirements of the
steel for a given usage or application—it may be fully
covered by a standard or may require drawing up of
additional requirements by a user as per the specific
requirements.
Specification attempts to establish full requirements for
material properties and quality for a given application,
fulfilling the mandates of standards.
Hence, specification could be part of the detailed
standards or drawn out separately as per end-use
requirements.
03/19/2023
STEEL -CLASIFICATION
Classification of steel means assigning the steels to
‘restricted categories’ by following certain user-specific
‘norms’—in order to help the producers, users and buyers
in their respective areas of interests.
All steel products have been grouped into ‘classes’—called
classification of steels, and provided with ‘classified
designations’ which are also known as ‘grade of steels’.
Therefore, if classification of similar steel changes, the
designated names of the steel grades also change.
Hence, it is not surprising if we find that similar steel
composition when classified differently is also designated
differently.
03/19/2023
Shape—e.g. Flat steel Product, Long steel product, Tubes,
Pipes, Sections, Angles, Beams, Bright bars, etc.
Size—e.g. Blooms, Billets, Bars, Wire rods, etc.
Application/Utility—e.g. Structural steels, Engineering steels,
Forging steels, Carburising steels, Nitriding steels, Stainless
steel, Corrosion-resistance steel, Tool steel, etc.
Composition—e.g. Plain carbon steel, Alloy steel, Interstitial-
free steel, etc.
Structure—e.g. Ferritic, Ferritic-Pearlitic, Austenitic,
Martensitic, Bainitic, etc.
Properties—e.g. Mild steel, High-strength steel, Spring steels,
etc.
Each of these has its own purpose and helps the users to
‘zero-in’ on to the grade of steel required for uses and
applications
03/19/2023
There are a number of ways steels could be classified,
such as:
Popular steel classification systems can be said to be
based on:
Chemical composition of the steel—e.g. Plain carbon steel,
Low-Alloy steel, High-alloy steel, Micro-alloyed steel, etc.
Application or utility of the steel—e.g. Structural steel,
Engineering steel,Stainless steel, Dye and Tool steel, etc.
Properties—e.g. Mild steel, High-strength steel, HSLA
steel, Stainless steel, Wear resistance steel, Heat
resistance steel, Creep steel, etc.
Processing route of the steel—e.g. Machining steel,
Forging steel, Carburising steel, Nitriding steel, Deep
Drawing steel, Through-hardening steel, Induction
hardening steel etc.
03/19/2023
.
03/19/2023
STEEL –SLAG SPLASHNG
Splashing of slag to coat the refractory lining has become
a standard practice to increase the lining life.
Slag splashing is done as follows:
At the end of BOS process, steel is drained of and slag is
retained in the vessel. •
The O2 lance is lowered and high pressure N2 is used to
splash molten slag on the walls of BOS vessels for a period
of 2 to 4 min.
Slag refractory provides a consumable refractory lining which
protects the furnace lining.
The excess slag is poured out. .
03/19/2023
What is required for slag splashing?
a) Compositional adjustment of end slag against Fe Ox and MgO
concentration.
Presence of MgO in the end slag should be greater than 13% to
produce a high temperature phase and to increase slag
viscosity.
b) FeO reduces melting temperature of slag and increases the
amount of low melting phase in slag.
Low melting phase ensures good adhesion between slag and
refractory and high melting phase MgO.
Fe2O3 imparts erosion resistance to the lining.
c) Al2O3 content of slag should be low
d) For CaO/SiO2 ratio greater then 5, SiO2 should be added .
03/19/2023
.
03/19/2023

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Chapter 5 - Steelmaking

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STEELMAKING - INTRODUCTION

Steels are made by oxidising ‘charge materials’ in a

where, [C] and [O] denote carbon and oxygen dissolved

Ferrous Pyrometallurgy: Chapter 5 - Steelmaking @ M Toga

Ferrous Pyrometallurgy: Chapter 5 - Steelmaking @ M Toga

These terms are briefly explained to enable the

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