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By Ferry Belisario Benique

A empresa Aceros Arequipa S.A. no seu complexo siderúrgico situado na cidade de Pisco, no Perú, está reutilizando os finos das pelotas de minério de ferro na fabricação de aglomerados (briquetes) para uso no processo de redução direta em forno rotativo na fabricação de ferro esponja (DRI). Dessa forma, testes no laboratório foram realizados com o objetivo de encontrar um ligante ou mistura de ligantes que proporcione um aglomerado com boa resistência à compressão a frio e boas propriedades mecânicas a quente que garantam sua integridade dentro do forno durante o processo de redução. No presente trabalho apresenta-se a metodologia desenvolvida e os resultados obtidos na fabricação dos briquetes em laboratório e na planta piloto de briquetagem de finos. Adicionalmente, resultados dos briquetes após redução no forno rotativo a escala industrial também são apresentados.

Aug 1, 2018

By Welington Bermudes Merelles

A ArcelorMittal Tubarão, unidade de produção integrada de aços Planos, faz parte do Grupo ArcelorMittal, maior produtora de aço do mundo. A empresa localizada na Região metropolitana de Vitória (ES), tem como principais produtos bobinas a quente e placas de aço. Como resposta ao cenário econômico do País, que atualmente se posiciona com baixa atividade econômica e em busca de manter a perenidade de seus negócios, lançou um Programa para identificar e eliminar “desperdícios”, baseado na metodologia Lean Thinking/ Manufacturing. Uma das iniciativas, apontadas como oportunidade de aumento de produtividade foi a etiquetagem das Placas de aço em substituição ao processo tradicional de Marcação e Pintura das placas. Esta mudança no processo de identificação de placas, proporciona maior produtividade na área de Condicionamento de Placas e a possibilidade de aumentar a produção com menos recursos e custo operacional.

Oct 30, 2017

By Breno Carvalho de Oliveira

Neste trabalho é apresentado uma ferramenta de otimização multiobjetivo para planejamento da manutenção de ativos ferroviários. A aplicação foi modelada com base no problema do Caixeiro Viajante Multiobjetivo, considerando como objetivos a minimização da postergação da manutenção dos equipamentos e do deslocamento da equipe de manutenção. Foi utilizada uma instância real de 17 cidades que são atendidas por uma única equipe de manutenção. A ferramenta de otimização consiste na combinação do algoritmo SPEA2 (Strength Pareto Evolutionary Algorithm), da methaheurística GRASP (Greedy Randomized Adaptive e Search Procedure) e de uma heurística de busca local em vizinhança, cada uma com seu papel específico dentro da otimização. O algoritmo foi capaz de mapear soluções melhores que a atualmente adotada pela empresa, proporcionando uma economia significativa no valor total a ser gasto em um ciclo de manutenção dos ativos ferroviários.

Oct 30, 2017

By Delio Amorim

Industry 4.0 concepts is the new biggest challenge on the industry nowadays and every company in every industry in every part of the globe is looking to implement this somehow on their factories and machines. To do that on the newest long rolling mills, that brings already onboard state-of-the-art technologies, is for sure a challenge of machinery builder industry, but how to become the long rolling mills built on 70’s, 80’s or 90’s part of this innovation process and connected to the new trends? This is the main mission here, to show some examples of applications that goes in this direction.

Oct 1, 2019

By Giulio Rodrigues Altoé

The environmental concern is creating pressure for the substitution of high energy consumption materials for natural and sustainable ones. Compared to synthetic fibers, natural fibers have shown advantages in technical aspects such as flexibility and toughness. So there is a growing worldwide interest in the use of these fibers. PALF extracted from pineapple leaves, presents some significant characteristic, but until now only few studies on PALF were performed. This work aims to make the analysis of the tensile strength of polyester composites reinforced with PALF. The fibers were incorporated into the polyester matrix with volume fraction from 0 to 30%. After fracture the specimens were analyzed by a SEM (scanning electron microscope).

Aug 16, 2017

By Vinícius Cardoso da Rocha

Frente ao cenário industrial competitivo, o emprego de fluxantes em lingotamento contínuo de aços permitiu o aumento da produtividade e a redução das perdas metálicas por defeitos superficiais. Neste estudo, avaliou-se a aplicabilidade de dois tipos de fluxantes para produção do aço SAE 1046 Mod. Os fluxantes foram testados quanto ao desgaste da válvula submersa, frenagem (atrito) na interface metal/molde e rejeição dos produtos de lingotamento devido à presença de defeitos superficiais. O fluxante teste apresentou taxa de desgaste de válvula submersa de 2,2 mm/corrida, frente ao fluxante padrão com 0,8 mm/corrida. Entretanto, o fluxante teste demonstrou bons resultados quanto à lubrificação do molde, reduzindo a frenagem (atrito) entre o metal e molde e, consequentemente, melhorando a qualidade superficial do produto de lingotamento. A rejeição dos produtos por defeitos superficiais reduziu 47% com o fluxante teste.

Aug 16, 2017

By Suzane de Sant’ana Oliveira

A exigência atual de novos materiais com alta resistência mecânica levou a um aumento da pesquisa abordando os aços de alta dureza e baixa liga. Estes aços possuem características que os qualificam para uma elevada gama de aplicações, dentre as quais destaca-se o uso em blindagem balística. O estudo das falhas decorrentes à altas taxas de deformação apontam como principal causa o surgimento das bandas de cisalhamento adiabático. Este trabalho visa caracterizar a microestrutura de um aço de alta dureza e baixa liga, após a realização de um ensaio balístico com um projétil 7.62x51 mm perfurante (Pf). A análise superficial do material foi realizada por meio de microscopia eletrônica de varredura (MEV), onde pode-se observar a ocorrência de uma fratura após a formação da banda de cisalhamento adiabático (adiabatic shear band).

Aug 16, 2017

By Charles de Abreu Martins

Os efeitos da temperatura de austenitização, taxa de resfriamento e adições de Cr ou Mo nas transformações de fases de um aço 0,12C-1,70Mn-0,2V, utilizando dilatometria, foi investigado. Os diagramas em resfriamento contínuo de sete aços foram elaborados e as microestruturas foram identificadas utilizando microscopias ótica e eletrônica de varredura. Em temperaturas de austenitização mais elevadas, taxas de resfriamento mais altas e maiores adições de elementos de liga (Cr ou Mo), houve uma elevação significativa da temperabilidade e queda na temperatura Ar3. Uma comparação entre os efeitos do Cr e o Mo também foi realizada, mostrando um efeito mais efetivo do Mo. Foi observada redução na temperatura Ms com o decréscimo da taxa de resfriamento. Não foi observada variação significativa de Ms com o aumento da temperatura de austenitização ou adição de elementos de liga.

Aug 8, 2018

By Frederico Ibrahim Horta

As estradas de mineração influenciam diretamente nos custos de operação de mina e manutenção de equipamentos. A equipe de planejamento de lavra em conjunto com a equipe de operação de mina buscando a melhoria de seus indicadores de custos e produtividade realizaram várias melhorias no perfil de transporte da Mina Oeste. Para realização deste trabalho foram mapeados e projetados novos trechos da mina que poderiam ser melhorados em termos de inclinação de rampa, subidas, descidas e curvas. A realização destas melhorias, em conjunto com correções de drenagem e forragem das pistas, possibilitou a alteração do limite de velocidade dos caminhões fora-de-estrada em alguns trajetos de 40 para 50 km/h. Como resultado destas alterações, obteve-se um ganho de 18% na produtividade da frota de transporte e uma redução de 13% nos custos de operação.

Oct 30, 2017

By Li Shanqing, Xu Jianghua, Li Hongmei, Huang Peijie

Cold rolled high strength steel are playing a very important role in reducing automobile weight for energy saving and environment protection. In recent year, more and more high strength steel were manufacturing in steel company. But there are some problems in the cold rolling process for high strength steel products. Periodic thickness deviation especially in strip head or tail is an important one in these problems. In this paper, the reason of periodic thickness deviation was analysed and a new AGC algorithm called Property FFC for high strength steel in tandem cold rolling was developed. The application of this new algorithm shows that it can reduce the thickness deviation.

Oct 1, 2019

By Carolina Gomes Dias Ribeiro

The modern composite materials, especially those reinforced with synthetic fibers such as glass and carbon, have been used since last century to attend the demands required by most technological fields, from home appliances to aerospace. Natural fibers composites with biodegradable polymer matrices are considered environmentally friendly materials and currently accepted as possible substitutes for synthetic composites. These green composites can be safely discarded or composted at the end of their life without harm to the environment. Another alternative for synthetic composites is to apply natural lignocellulosic fibers as reinforcement of conventional polymer matrices and already used in the automobile industry. In addition to the environmental and societal advantages of the green composites, the lignocellulosic fiber reinforced conventional polymer composite also has economical and technical advantages. In the case of a fiber collected as a waste, the price of the composite can be considerably lower than “fiberglass”. Furthermore, with high strength lignocellulosic fibers such as sisal, ramie and malva the specific strength of a composite may approach that of “fiberglass”. Therefore the objective of the present work is to investigate the mechanical behavior of polymer matrix composites reinforced with high volumes of natural malva fibers subjected to tensile stresses.

Aug 16, 2017

By Matteo Tomba

Today’s steel market is characterised by high competitiveness and tight profit margins; therefore, the operational costs of rolling mills must be as low as possible, while ensuring a final product of the highest quality standards. PERT SRL is an engineering company with a long-term experience in the international steel market, specialised in the design and supply of highly innovative and bespoke solutions for siderurgical and environmental plants. Because of its strong commitment to deliver excellent products and services, and its ability to innovate and adapt to the fastchanging market requirements, PERT has studied a new generation of BI-SUPPORT rolling stands, designed to be used in rolling mill plants for the production of rebars, rounds and sections in special quality bars (SBQ) steel grade, wire rod, light and medium section, suitable also for special steel plants. This paper will provide a deep insight into the key technical and economic features that have revolutionised the rolling technology for long products, such as the absence of spindles and piping on board, the considerably reduced number of spare parts required, a ring gap regulation system, and the compact dimensions, which lead to significant savings in investments and production costs; at the same time, the BI-SUPPORT stands guarantee excellent standards to the final product, an increase in plant productivity and a general improvement in the plant management.

Aug 16, 2017

By Nelson SOUTO, Nicolas LEGRAND, Sami ABDELKHALEK, Zafer KOONT

A work roll thermal crown model has been developed for a wide range of hot and cold rolling mill applications. The model is extremely fast, robust and accurate to determine the evolution of thermal crown all along the rolling campaigns. It has also ability to consider work roll shifting, multiple segmented cooling zones along the length and circumference of the roll as well as composite rolls properties (e.g. different thermal properties between mandrel and core of the roll). Moreover, the model includes simultaneously fast and slow temperature evolution calculations, respectively near roll surface (skin area) and at a certain distance below the roll surface (bulk area). This gives to thermal crown predictions a higher accuracy than conventional thermal crown models from literature that consider only the slow temperature evolution regime. An optimization procedure together with roll surface temperature and roll thermal profile measurements have been used to tune the model. The tuned model applied to hot rolling conditions has shown a significant influence of roll shifting and composite rolls properties on the prediction of roll temperature distribution and thermal crown during rolling. The tuned model applied to cold rolling conditions highlights the importance of mill operators practices to modify cooling distribution across roll barrel length with the segmented cooling zones to adjust the thermal crown and to get better strip shape control.

Oct 1, 2019

By José Adilson de Castro

In this paper a new technology for a compact iron ore sintering machine is analyzed. The compact sintering process is based on the massive injection of gaseous fuels and the solid fuel is only agglomerated fine charcoal obtained by biomass. The solid fuel used in this study is obtained by agglomeration of fine charcoal produced from elephant glass which has very short period for production and CO2 capture(less than 6 months in tropical climate). To overcome the lower heat supply into the combustion front of the sintering process the simultaneous injection of oxygen and gaseous fuel is proposed. The proposed methodology is to combine the solid fuel (agglomerated fines charcoal) and steelworks gases in a compact machine to enhance heat and mass transfer with high productivity (about 5 times the conventional large machine). A multiphase mathematical model based on transport equations of momentum, energy and chemical species coupled with chemical reaction rates and phase transformations is used to analyze the inner process parameters. A base case representing a possible actual industrial operation of the sintering machine is used in order to compare different scenarios of practicable operations which represents advanced operations techniques. The model was used to predict six cases of combined operation with biomass and fuel gas utilization with oxygen support.

Aug 2, 2018

By Lorenzo Bacchetti

Automatic yards with ad-hoc WMS (Warehouse management software), are the key for a modern and efficient warehousing which can face today logistic challenges. WMS boosts the traceability of material while optimizing the storage space. The operations in the yard are safer and logically organized according to algorithms that are specifically adjusted case by case. WMS can easily handle multi-cranes yard avoiding conflicts and increasing accuracy of positioning with decreased number of movements. The synergy of automatic cranes and WMS reduces bottlenecks and speeds up the preparation of deliveries with an overall improvement of warehousing and shipping scheduling.

Oct 1, 2019

By Piotr Kula

Vacuum carburising with pre-nitriding (PreNitLPC® technology) involves feeding ammonia during the charge heating stage before carburising. The purpose is to restrict the growth of grain in the surface layer of the carburised steel. The article presents the influence of nitrogen on restricting austenite grain growth during vacuum carburising and on mechanical properties (fatigue strength, impact resistance) of layers that underwent such treatment in comparison with traditional carburising methods.

Aug 16, 2017

By D. A. Aranda-Regino, C. Gómez-de-la-Garza, J. Ramírez-Cuellar, L. A. Leduc-Lezama

The Pickling Line Tandem Cold Mill (PLTCM) at Ternium’s Pesqueria plant with a 5 stands, 6 high configuration started in 2013. At the time of the start up the work roll specification and grinding practices were stablished following a low risk policy to be able to sustain any start-up associated accident. Once a stable operation has been achieved both these policies are being modified to improve productivity and reduce costs. The specified hardness of the rolls has been increased and efforts are being made to optimize the grinding according to the rolling campaign length and materials. The fatigue damage in work rolls, after rolling and its removal by grinding was followed by hardness measurements made at the end of the rolling campaign and after grinding. Softening of the rolls after rolling was found mainly in final stands to be related to the averaged stress experienced during the campaign, the original roll hardness was recovered after grinding. Hardness evolution was also followed after each grinding step finding that the total amount of grinding could be reduced. The grinding practice was modified accordingly for the first stands and the yield of work rolls in them has improved.

Oct 1, 2019

By Foluke Salgado de Assis

Natural fibers are attracting the interest of engineering sectors owing to specific advantages such as lightweight and lower cost as well as for their inherent condition of being renewable, biodegradable, recyclable and environmental correct material with respect to CO2 emission. The banana fiber is nowadays recognized by its mechanical properties. It is known that with the increase of fibers volume fraction the composite significant increases its tensile strength. This was obtained with amounts up to 30% in volume of banana fiber. However no higher volume of fibers was able to be molded in a composite plate until now. Thus the present work aims to study higher volumes of fiber in terms of the influence on the tensile strength of specimens prepared under 5 tons of pressure. The fibers were previously washed and dried in an oven at 60ºC, after that poured together with the epoxy resin and catalyst mixture in the metal molds bone-shaped, and pressured to ensure specimens quality. The tensile strength increased significantly with higher amounts of banana fiber incorporated in the epoxy matrix. This better performance can be directly related to the fracture obstacle imposed by the fibers as well as the type of cracks resulting from the fiber/matrix interaction.

Aug 16, 2017

By Nathanael Wagner Sales Morais

Os aços maraging tem grande importância tecnológica devido sua aplicação nas industrias aeroespacial e nuclear. Uma das aplicações para esse material é a fabricação de cilindros de alta resistência pelo processo de estampagem profunda, logo o conhecimento da textura cristalográfica torna-se fundamental. Este trabalho investigou o efeito da laminação à frio seguida por um recozimento sobre a microestrutura, textura e anisotropia plástica no aço maraging 350. A anisotropia foi medida pelo cálculo dos coeficientes de Lankford e dos coeficientes de anisotropia normal (Rm) e planar (?R). Os resultados mostraram o aumento na deformação a frio gera um aumento na intensidade da fibra acompanhada de um aumento no valor de Rm. As análises metalográficas mostram que maiores reduções induzem à um precipitação intermetálica após o recozimento.

Aug 8, 2018

By J. N. Stevens, M. Tulwin, P. J. Lawlor

All metals producers are on an unending search for a competitive advantage. They need to produce in the most cost effective way. Sometimes a new mill might be considered but in this paper we present examples of how this might not always be necessary. A detailed investigation by an equipment vendor who can consider the mill and or plant as a complete entity: mechanics, automation and process control can often find solutions that are both lower cost and can be implemented in shorter time frames.

Oct 1, 2019