With technologies changing rapidly, it becomes a challenge for most industries to stay competitive in the global market. How has the global market shifted? What trends in your industry are you seeing? Preparing for challenges is imperative for success.
Trends in global metallurgy
Metallurgy takes cues from other industries and is far from conservative. It anticipates global trends and doesn’t lag behind.
Steelmaking is moving towards greener methods. These new ways enable the steel industry to withstand environmental challenges and regulatory pressures.
High demand for steel grades is something that will require planning in both new and modernized plants. What is important to take note of are the advancements in equipment, which are needed with the current demand.
To put it in layman terms, the future of metal production is sustainable, carbon-free, safe, intelligent and modernized. It’s also likely to lead to new materials with surprising properties. But before we get there…
Hydrogen versus carbon
Even if there are no scientific proofs that “green steel production” really works, this fact does not change the undeniable need to switch to it. The process is designed to be more earth-friendly and who wouldn’t be happy about that? There are many ways to reduce carbon emissions. The most popular one involves replacing the carbon containing products with hydrogen containing products.
A hydrogen-based direct reduction solution that allows direct use of any iron ore can virtually eliminate the carbon footprint of iron production. Carbon emissions will be close to zero. The company will be recycling all of it’s by-products, while also making sure to use the most energy efficient processes available.
Direct iron reduction
The second “green” direction in metallurgy is blast-free production of intermediate products that can then be used to derive steel by direct reduction of iron from high-iron raw materials. The output is the so-called metallized raw material – hot briquetted iron, metallized pellets DRI (Direct Reduced Iron), spongy iron. It is an iron-rich metal with up to 97% iron that can be used in the steelmaking process to produce steel. Today, direct reduced iron is the main component for electric steel production, with scrap being secondary. This is because it saves time and labor to use direct reduced iron in the place of scrap or other ingredients. For over 30 years, AI technology has been developing, and it has come a long way. To one degree or another, the technology has been proven to be effective; it can work with either high-purdy iron ore – an iron ore with a high iron content and low- impurities – or large amounts of energy.
That’s why these lines are located in areas like Brazil, Australia (the mining area), and the Middle East. These places all offer very good ore–which is useful for making steel–as well as cheap gas, which can be used to make iron.
Reduction technology has advanced a lot over the years, and direct reduction exceeds that of other processes. It is widely used because it is one of the best ways to make steel sheets.
BOF and electric arc furnace processes
If we’re talking about modern steelmaking technologies, the key ones are the oxygen-converter and electric steelmaking processes. The use of open-hearth steelmaking in the world is declining. This can also be related to the “green economy”. As you know, open-hearth smelting lasts 9 hours, and converter & electric arc furnace smelting – 50 minutes. The converter and electric furnace require additional equipment/ the open-hearth furnace is more costly in terms of energy and environmental resources. The use of natural gas should be cut down to reduce harmful emissions into the atmosphere. Nearly 70% of steel is already being smelted in converters today. 29% is made with electric furnaces and a small number of people still make it with old-fashioned open-hearth furnaces.
Combined processes of metal smelting and rolling
Regarding metal smelting, it is worth mentioning that combined processes are becoming increasingly widespread.
In one shop, there is a melting unit installed which converts steel into liquid form. From this continuous casting machine comes cold slabs, blooms & billets. That’s a bit confusing. Could you explain what those are?
The presence of a high production culture and qualified personnel is a feature of this technology, which is why there’s less chance of getting errors in the final product. Otherwise, it will not be possible to stop the defect at any particular stage (e.g., after an outline or after any other stage). All the different production units must agree with each other and strive to be as good as possible. That way, we can avoid any mistakes that would affect the final product.
Now there are modules that can combine not just melting, casting and hot rolling, but also cold rolling of coils or long products, wire drawing etc. These adding higher value added products.
In the steel industry, the best example is America’s Nucor plant, where a unique structure can be made by using a process that cannot be achieved by any other method. The use of these components in the automotive and aerospace industries is widespread.
Hardened steel grades
Today, two of the most popular steel grades for manufacturing are high-strength and ordinary steel. It is especially common in the automotive industry as there are ever-increasing safety and fuel economy standards which force manufacturers to develop lighter, greener and more reliable cars. There has been a change in the past decade of cars using metal instead of soft materials such as plastic. The use of HSS and AHSS steels is on the rise and their more traditional counterparts, HS or AS steel, has declined in recent years.
Digital technologies in metal production
Digitalization is an important trend in modern metal-working. It automates all installations and prevents the need for dangerous work, while also enabling a huge increase in workplace safety. Condition monitoring systems and augmented reality can be used to help you look at equipment remotely. This way, you don’t need to take a trip out there and interrupt your work or production schedule. AI will automate processes to make your life easier. Products with minor defects will become the norm.
Renovation as well as innovation
With all of this new technology, it can be easy to forget about the good old ways. While there are some innovations, the traditional tools are being improved & modernized too. The end goal is improving the quality of what you produce while also ensuring that teams are efficient enough to get everything done in a timely manner.
If we’re talking about reconstruction, it’s happening all the time in one form or another. The company is investing in cleaning systems for its furnace. It’s installing an aspirating system to clean up at the sinter plant, and they are upgrading existing rolling mills. Construction of new units at existing enterprises helps to reduce the company’s costs and improve the quality of finished products.
The desire of leading metallurgical companies to satisfy the needs of both the market as a whole and individual customers, the development of new products, the digitalization of processes, the improvement of existing technologies and the implementation of new “green” projects are the driving forces in the development of both domestic and global metallurgy today.