| Acid-Process | (english) A process of making steel, either Bessemer, open-hearth or electric, in which the furnace is lined with a siliceous refractory and for which low phosphorus pig iron is required as this element is not removed. |
| Actual Weight | (english) The customer buys by the actual (scale) weight of the steel. The theoretical weight is used in estimating, however, it is not to be used for billing. |
| Adapters | (english) Steel segments that are bolted to the reel mandrel to increase their diameter so that large (24" ID) coils can be run. |
| Addition Agent | (english) 1) Any material added to a charge of molten metal in bath or ladle to bring alloy to specifications, 2) reagent added to plating bath. |
| Adeline Steelmaking Process | (english) Method of producing a precision casting of steel or steel alloys using aluminolthermic process and lost wax, followed by centrifugal action. |
| Aecm, Ae1, and Ae3 | (english) Equilibrium transformation temperatures in steel. |
| AFS Tests | (english) A number of standard tests determined by American Foundrymen's Society to evaluate molding and core sands. |
| Age Hardening | (english) Hardening by aging, usually after rapid cooling or cold working. The term as applied to soft, or low carbon steels, relates to a wide variety of commercially important, slow, gradual changes that take place in properties of steels after the final treatment. These changes, which bring about a condition of increased hardness, elastic limit, and tensile strength with a consequent loss in ductility, occur during the period in which the steel is at normal temperatures. |
| Agglomerating Processes | (english) "Fine particles of limestone (flux) and iron ore are difficult to handle and transport because of dusting and decomposition, so the powdery material usually is processed into larger pieces. The raw material's properties determine the technique that is used by mills. 1) SINTER Baked particles that stick together in roughly one-inch chunks. Normally used for iron ore dust collected from the blast furnaces. 2) PELLETS Iron ore or limestone particles are rolled into little balls in a balling drum and hardened by heat. 3) BRIQUETTES Small lumps are formed by pressing material together. Hot Iron Briquetting (HBI) is a concentrated iron ore substitute for scrap for use in electric furnaces. |
| Aging 1 | (english) A change in the properties of certain metal and alloys (such as steel) that occurs at ambient or moderately elevated temperatures after a hot working heat treatment or cold working operation. Typical properties impacted are hardness, yield strength, tensile strength, ductility, impact value, formability, magnetic properties, etc. See also Non-aging. |