Glossary
Electrical steel is specialty steel tailored to produce certain magnetic properties, such as high permeability. The material is usually manufactured in the form of cold-rolled strips less than 2 mm thick. These strips are called laminations when stacked together to form a core.
A heat-treatment furnace that uses electric current to control the temperature of a metal. Heat is supplied from electricity that arcs from the graphite electrodes to the metal bath. Furnaces may be either an alternating current (AC) or direct current (DC).
Pipe made from strips of hot-rolled steel which are passed through forming rolls and welded.
Electropolishing is an electrochemical removal process used on stainless steel fittings that selectively removes a thin layer of metal, including surface flaws and imbedded impurities, in order to smooth, brighten and clean the interior surface of the metal. Electropolishing is a required surface treatment process for all ultra high-purity components used in the gas distribution systems of semiconductor manufacturers worldwide and many sterile water distribution systems of pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies.
The energy optimising furnace (EOF) burns coal, enhanced by oxygen injection, to generate the thermal energy needed to preheat and then melt a mixture of scrap and pig iron, or other steelmaking raw materials, in an enclosed hearth. It is a vertical process with the hearth at the base, and chambers above in which scrap etc is preheated by off-gases before descending into the melting zone and steel is tapped off at the bottom of the vessel. The EOF is recognised as a way of producing good quality steel with relatively low investment and operating costs.
Extrusion is the method of producing lengths of steel to a particular shape by forcing the metal through a die cut to the cross-sectional shape required. The method is used to produce a wide range of shapes, from rounds, squares, “L” shapes, “T” shapes and tube, through to complex sections that can be difficult to make by any other method. The method is also widely used for non-ferrous metals, particularly aluminium, as well as plastics.
Truly global, user-friendly coverage of the steel and related markets and industry that delivers the essential information quickly while delivering on most occasions just the right amount of between-the-lines comment and interpretation for a near real time news service of this kind.
Anonymous
Very good overview of the weekly steel market.
Anonymous