» Steel is made of hot metal produced in blast furnace from coke and iron ore.
» Ore pellets are sent to the sinter plant, where the sinter is obtained. In the meantime coal is sent to the coke oven, where it is made into coke. During the process all gas impurities are removed from coal, as a result of which it becomes appropriate fuel for the blast furnace.
» Sinter and coke mix is then sent to the blast furnace. At the temperature of approx. 2,000°C, coke combustion enables melting and reduction of iron.
» Thus obtained hot metal is then transported via so-called torpedo ladles from the blast furnace plant to the steel shop, where in basic oxygen converters steel is produced. With ladles workshop, we can fasten the process and lower the steel temperature decrease level and by doing this, limit the necessity of further heating up the steel. This results in lower energy consumption during the production process and much smaller impact on the natural environment.
» At this stage scrap and fluxes are added to the hot metal and the metal is blown with pure oxygen, so that particular steel grades can be obtained.
» In order to obtain required physical and chemical properties of steel, it is subjected to secondary metallurgy processes.
» At steel plants using electric arc furnaces, the converter process is not used, scrap is melted directly into steel.
» Steel is then subject to numerous tests, in order to check whether required composition has been obtained. Only then is it transported in tundishes to the casting department, where it is subject to continuous casting, as a result of which semi-products are produced: billets, blooms and slabs.
» Semi-products are made into the final product via hot and cold rolling. Additional processing methods of flat products include hot dip galvanizing and organic coating.