| 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 2 | (english) A change in properties that occurs at ambient or moderately elevated temperatures after hot working or a heat treating operation (quench aging in ferrous alloys), or after a cold working operation (strain aging). The change in properties is often, but not always, due to a phase change (precipitation), but does not involve a change in chemical composition. In a metal or alloy, a change in properties that generally occurs slowly at room temperature and more rapidly at higher temperatures. |
| Bars | (english) A relatively long straight, rigid piece pf metal; long steel products rolled from billets into such shapes as squares,rectangles, rounds,angles,channels,hexagons,and tees. In steel, “merchant bars” include rounds,flats,angles,squares,and channels that are used by fabricators to manufacture a wide variety of products such as furniture,stair railings and farm equipment. Concrete reinforcing bar (rebar) is used to strengthen concrete in highways,bridges and buildings. |
| Base Box | (english) Unit of area of 112 sheets of tin mil products (tin plate, tin free steel or black plate) 14 by 20 inches, or 31,360 square inches. Tin Plate is sold, and carried in finished inventory, on a weight per unit area rather than on a thickness basis. |
| Basic Oxygen Furnace (BOF) | (english) "WHAT A pear-shaped furnace, lined with refractory bricks, that refines molten iron from the blast furnace and scrap into steel. Up to 30% of the charge into the BOF can be scrap, with hot metal accounting for the rest. WHY BOFs, which can refine a heat (batch) of steel in less than 45 minutes, replaced open-hearth furnaces in the 1950s; the latter required five to six hours to process the metal. The BOF's rapid operation, lower cost and ease of control give it a distinct advantage over previous methods. HOW Scrap is dumped into the furnace vessel, followed by the hot metal from the blast furnace. A lance is lowered from above, through which blows a high-pressure stream of oxygen to cause chemical reactions that separate impurities as fumes or slag. Once refined, the liquid steel and slag are poured into separate containers. " |
| Basic Oxygen Process 2 | (english) A steel making process wherein oxygen of the highest purity is blown onto the surface of a bath of molten iron contained in a basic lined and ladle shaped vessel. The melting cycle duration is extremely short with quality comparable to Open Hearth Steel. |
| Bath Annealing | (english) Is immersion is a liquid bath (such as molten lead or fused salts) held at an assigned temperature-when a lead bath is used, the process is known as lead annealing. |
| Belt Wrapper | (english) Line equipment used in the Tin Mill for starting coils on prime or reject reels. The belt wrapper ensures a proper start. |
| Bending | (english) A preliminary forging operation to give the piece approximately the correct shape for subsequent forming. |
| Bentonite | (english) A colloidal clay derived from volcanic ash and employed as a binder in connection with synthetic sands, or added to ordinary natural (clay-bonded) sands where extra strength is required. |