Steel

Courtesy of Met Soc

• First you input raw coal into a coke oven, which is later put into a blast furnace with the coal, iron ore, and limestone. (This produces molten metal from iron ore)
• After that, you put the newly manufactured molten iron ore into the basic oxygen furnace to produce the molten steel.
• Next the molten steel is put into a steel refining facility which ships it to the continuous casting system to produce steel slabs.
• These steel slabs are then transported to rolling mills to be rolled out for selling.
• An alternative way through the KOBM stream is to put recycled steel into the basic oxygen furnace and continue as above.

Courtesy of Industrial Galvanizers Corporation

• The first step in the process is called a caustic cleaning, which removes oils, greases, and some mill scale also known as fine steel particles.
• In the next step, the steel goes through an acid pickling bath to remove surface rust and inner rust.
• In the third step, the steel is dipped in a flux solution, also known as “fluxing”, which applies a preserving surface to arrest any oxidation of the steel.
• Lastly, the steel is then immersed in molten zinc; zinc is chosen for its renowned rust-resistance qualities.
• In addition to the four main steps, the steel goes through a thorough rinsing after the caustic cleansing and the acid bath to reduce contamination and halt the previous process. After the “fluxing”, the steel is set to dry before entering the molten zinc. After this, the newly galvanized steel is then cooled and inspected before selling.