Chapter five

Iron and steel making

5.1 Iron
The material that produce from the mine is consists of the following
1- Raw material: The raw material consists of the following:

The raw materials are crushed

a) Iron Ore to fine particles such as pellrts
b) Taconite or balls of 25 mm in diameter.
c) Hematite (Iron - Oxide) The impurities are removed
using magnatic seperation.
d) Limonite (Iron - Oxide
contain water) After this treatment, the iron
ore consists of 65% of pure iron.

2- Limestone (Calcium Carbonite)

-Used to remove impurities from the melting iron by reaction with it. The results of this
reaction is the Slag (the slag is light weight so that it float over the melting iron)
-The Slag is used in making cement, rockwell insulation, road blast, glass and fertilizer.
3- Coal
a) The coal is heated in oven at temperature equal to 1150oC then cold in water
quenched to produce coke
b) The advantages of the coke are
1- generate high temperature
2- Reduce iron oxide to iron
3- The gas during convert operation (coal to coke) is used as a fuel in the plant
operation
5.2 Iron making process
1- The iron can be produced using Blast furnace see figure (1)
2- The furnace has the name (Blast) because of the blowing hot air
3- The furnace is large steel cylinder ( ten story building height)
4- The lining is made from brick (heat resistance)
5- the charge materials melt at temperature equal to 1650oC
6- The basic reaction in the furnace
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 O2 + 2C = 2CO
2CO + 2FeO (Iron Oxide) = 2Fe (Iron) + 2CO2
7- The furnace produce 160 ton of molten iron called Pig Iron which is consists of 4% C,
1.5% Mn, 0.04 % S, 0.4% P and the rest is pure iron
8- The Pig iron is used for making Steel.

5.3 Steel Making

1- Steel is refining the Pig iron by reducing the percentage of manganese, Silicon, and
controlling the composition by adding other element and up to 2% of carbon.
2- The melting iron from the blast furnace is transport to one of the following furnaces to
produce steel
a) Electric furnace: It has three different types of furnace
1- Direct arc electric furnace: The Carbon or graphite electrodes are lowered to the metal
after it dropped into the furnace at T= 1925oC as describe in figure (2a). Then the power
supply is turn on. After that the oxidization stage between the electrodes and the

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impurities in the pig iron occur to form slag. At the end of the oxidization stage, the slag
is removed and the rest of the iron is steel. The furnace produce 90 ton per day of steel
with good quality.
2- Indirect arc Electric furnace: Two horizontal carbon or graphite electrodes are located
above the melting metal. In this furnace the electrodes not dropped in the melting metal.
Heating is via radiation from the arc to the charge as shown in figure (2b). The furnace is
mounted on rollers and the rollers can be driven to rock the furnace.
3- Induction furnace: copper helical coil is used to heat the charge metal by inducing
currents that loaded to the crucible as shown in figure (3c). The furnace is cylindrical and
used for small quantities.

b) Basic Oxygen furnace:

1- The faster furnace in making steel (250 ton/ 50 minutes)
2- Pure Oxygen is blow into the furnace for 20 minutes and pressure of 1250 KPa.

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 3- The produced steel has low impurities, used for making plates, sheets and I-
beam sections.
4- Figure (3) illustrates charging, melting, and pouring of molten iron in a basic-
oxygen process

Process steps:
1- Charging step: the charging includes scrap, molten pig iron and burnt lime
2- Blowing step: Oxygen is blown through the lance causing rapid mixing and heat from
the oxidation of iron and impurities. This step required 15 minutes.
3- Pouring step: After the steel has been refined, the furnace is titled to pour the steel and
the slag.

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5.4 Casting of Ingot
Process:

reheat the
metal to
molten poured
solidified remove the uniform
metal into ingot
the mold ingot mold temperture
(Steel) mold
equal
1200oC

the shape if the ingot casting has

produce ingot casting
the shape of the mold cavity

- The concept of solidification is to reduce gases since the solubility limit of gases in
the metal is reduced as the temperature reduced.
- Rejected oxygen combines with carbon to form carbon monoxide to prevent causing
porosity in the ingot.
- The ingot casting depends on several factors including the quality of steel, superheat
at the time of pouring, method of pouring (whether direct or indirect) and the
dimensions and taper of the mould.
Types of ingot casting:
1- Killed Steel:- the steel is fully deoxidized (i.e no porosity and no blow holes are
found in the steel)
- The name killed because the steel lies quietly after the steel poured
into the mold cavity.
2- Semi- killed steel: - Partially deoxidized steel
- Contain some porosity and small amount of blowholes near
the rim of the ingot.
3- Rimmed steel: - contain low carbon, involves gases which produce blowholes near
the rim
- the steel is ductile and required good surface finishing.

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5.5 Continuous casting
1- Continuous casting transforms molten metal into solid on a continuous basis and
includes a variety of important commercial processes as shown in figure (4).
2- the continuous casting produce high quality steel at reduced cost.
3- Process:
- molten steel flows from a ladle, through a tundish into the mold. The tundish can
hold 3 tons of steel .
- Once in the mold, the molten steel freezes against the water-cooled walls of
bottomless copper mold to form a solid shell.
- The process is started by plugging the bottom of the mold with a dummy bar
so that the molten metal is solidify first in the dummy.
- Drive rolls lower in the machine continuously withdraw the shell from the mold
at a rate or casting speed that matches the flow of incoming metal, so the
process ideally runs in steady state.
4- Oxygen lane is used for cutting parts or shapes to produce steel plates, sheets and I-
beam sections.
5- More pinch rollers can be used to reduce the sheet or plate thickness.
6- Continuous casting produces carbon steel and stainless steel
a) Types of carbon steel:
- Low carbon steel (mild steel): consists of 0.3% carbon, used for bolts, nuts,
sheets, plates, tubes and machine dont required high strength.
- Medium-Carbon steel: consists of (0.3% to 0.6%) carbon, used for high strength
machine equipments as gears, axles, crank shaft)
- High carbon steel: consists more than 0.6% carbon. Used for parts required
strength, hardness and wear resistance as cutting tools, cable and music wire.
b) Stainless steel:
- Called stainless because of presence of adherent of chromium oxide that protect the
metal from corrosion.
- Has high strength, high ductility and high corrosion resistance
- Used for kitchen equipment, health care, food processing and petroleum industry.

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- Types of stainless steel:
1- Austenitic:- Excellent corrosion resistance
-Non magnetic, high ductile so that it easy to form
-Used for light weight transportation equipments, welded
construction equipments and furnace and heat exchangers.
2- Ferritic: - Good corrosion resistance, magnetic, low ductility than Austenitic
- Used in kitchen equipments and automotive trim
3- Martensitic: -dont contain nickel, magnetic, high strength, hardness, fatigue
resistance and good ductility.
- Used for surgical tools, instrumentation valves and springs.
4- Precipitation hardening (PH):
- Contain nickel, good corrosion resistance, ductile
- Used in aircraft and aerospace structural components.
5- Duplex Structure:
- mixture of austenite and ferrite
- used in water treatments plant, heat exchanger components.