Glossary
The process by which iron ore is crushed, ground into a powder, rolled into balls and fired in a furnace to produce strong, marble-sized pellets that contain 60% to 65% iron. Raw iron ore pellets are generally manufactured within certain size categories and with mechanical properties high enough to maintain usefulness during the stresses of transference, transport, and use.
Pickling is a metal surface treatment used to remove impurities, such as stains, inorganic contaminants, rust or scale from ferrous metals, copper, and aluminium alloys. Through a continuous process,steel is uncoiled and sent through a series of hydrochloric acid baths that remove oxides such as rust. The steel sheet is then rinsed and dried.
A key intermediate material in the integrated (converter-based) steelmaking process, pig iron is the product of smelting iron ore, coke and limestone in a blast furnace. Pig iron has a very high carbon content, which makes it very brittle and not useful directly as a material except for limited applications.
Plate is thick, flat-rolled steel produced from slab or ingot, and is mostly sold as discrete pieces but also coiled. It is available in carbon, alloy and stainless grades. It has a width of more than eight inches, with a thickness ranging from one quarter of an inch to more than one foot.
These are metals that have been converted into fine powders for subsequent processing into finished parts. The powder is most typically produced by atomisation, whereby a steam of molten metal is separated into very small particles by a high pressure jet of gas or liquid, with the particles solidifying before they are collected. Electrolytic, chemical and mechanical methods are also used.
This is a heat treatment technique which is used on certain forms of stainless steel, as well as certain non-ferrous metals like aluminium, nickel and titanium. The technique, often called age hardening, increases the strength and hardness of the metal. At the end of the heating period the metal is cooled using air, oil or water.
Pulverised coal injection is a process often used in blast furnaces which aims to reduce an integrated mill's reliance on coke. This is important as environmental problems occur due to its production.
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Anonymous
Very good overview of the weekly steel market.
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