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By Washington Martins da Silva Júnior

In stamping process, sliding between metal sheet and forming tool leads to wear of tool surface. Maintenance of stamping tools involves polishing the tool edge, or, in case of severe damage, replacement of the tool. Hard coatings have been applied on the stamping tool surfaces in order to reduce the maintenance cost causing a great economic impact in metal work industry. In this work, CrAlSiN coatings were applied by PVD onto SRV2W tool steel. The coating toughness was avaliated by the critical load in scratch tests. The following coating parameters were analyzed: 1- substrate surface finishing process; 2- coating architecture (multilayer or gradient); 3- chemical composition of the coating. AlSi concentration varied from the substrate/coating interface to the surface. Coatings were 3 µm thick. Scratch tests were carried out using a Vickers indenter. The applied normal load was varied from 0 to 13 N for a scratch length of 5 mm. In order to study the effect in the toughness, the substrate roughness was controlled by the finishing process before PVD coating. Samples subjected to polishing presented highest critical loads. Gradient coatings presented higher critical loads than those with a multilayer architecture. Coatings with higher concentration of AlSi near the surface supported higher loads before failure.

Jul 31, 2018

By Michael Windhager

UltimaTM rolls have been designed for intermediate and finishing stands of rod and bar and small and medium section mills. The rolls and rings are spun cast, with a highly alloyed working layer and a tough nodular iron core. Microstructure and hardness level can be adjusted over a wide range, which allows us to adapt the rolls to differing rolling conditions. After introducing the UltimaTM concept, this paper will describe the results of UltimaTM rolls achieved in various mill applications, like finish rolling of rebar, and slitting. Special emphasis is given to performance gains when using UltimaTM rolls, compared to standard rolls. This paper also examines the impact of UltimaTM rolls on mill and roll shop productivity.

Jul 30, 2018

By Wen Xuan

Oolitic iron ores have significant economical importance because of their extensive resources in the world. However, their utilisation is often quite limited due to the high content of phosphorus inside. The phosphorus is often finely disseminated in the oolite structure and generally not liberated in the form of free particles. The iron ore used in this work is a typical oolitic goethitic iron ore with high phosphorus. The process of phosphorus removal from this ore is difficult because the phosphorus is not present as distinct minerals. As a result, no physical beneficiation process is able to separate the phosphorus from the iron bearing phases. The current concentrate contains low iron grade (Fe ~49%) and high phosphorus content (P 0.7~0.8%). The acid leaching is a potential way to dissolve phosphorus. Previous studies have shown that the thermal treatment makes the phosphorus more accessible for the acids and enables more efficient phosphorus dissolution. Some chemical additives are reported to enhance this phenomenon. A series of tests have been carried out using roasting - grinding - magnetic separation - leaching technologies to remove the phosphorus from this current concentrate. In the first stage, several tests were performed at pilot scale under the same conditions as described in some publications. The achieved results were similar to those from previous tests at laboratory scale. In the second stage, new test conditions were investigated in laboratory scale in order to achieve better result and to reduce the operational cost.

Aug 1, 2018

By Charles Sóstenes Assunção

A mathematical model of heat transfer and solidification for a continuous casting of round billets was developed. The water flux density of the secondary cooling zone was experimentally measured, using an apparatus in industrial scale with two types of nozzles, flat jet and full cone jet. The profiles of water distribution were applied on the mathematical model. The results showed that the water distribution is not uniform in both longitudinal and angular directions owing to the unevenness of the spray and to the curvature effect of the round billet. This non-uniformity causes important variation of the heat transfer coefficients and superficial temperature of the billet, especially in the first cooling zones, where the temperature is higher. The mathematical model was used to simulate a change of nozzle type in the first cooling zone. The results showed that the heat flux and superficial temperature variations were reduced with a full cone jet nozzle in comparison with the flat jet nozzles.

Aug 16, 2017

By Andrelio Marcos Ribeiro, Lucio Ribeiro Camisao, Antonio Carlos Ataíde, Alan de Sousa Pereira, Renato Siqueira Campos

The annealing and pickling line n. 1, responsible for the production of stainless steel 3xx, 4xx and 430a in thicknesses from 4 to 0.4 mm, has two vertical strip accumulators. These are intended not to let the material exceed the determined time in the furnace and in the pickling, and consequently do not cause defects like burning and excessive pickling. Strip accumulator n. 1 avoids the line from stopping during welding execution of the coils in the welding machine. In sequence, the strip accumulator n. 2 avoids the line from stopping at the end cutting of the tips, and in the coils removal from the pickling. The strip accumulators have a roller table that during the strip accumulation moves vertically downwards while its counterweight moves vertically upwards, and do the inverse movement when the material is released. On December 12th 2018, the failure occurred in the strip accumulator n. 1, where it was verified that the shaft of one of the pulleys had been fractured by high-cycle mechanical fatigue, which was characterized by alternating bending. With the fracture of the shaft, occurred the unevenness of the counterweight that damaged the guides. Failure analysis of this occurrence was based on the PDCA methodology, when was verified a weld between the shaft and the pulley. The analysis of the microstructure transformation in the molten zone, in the heat affected zone and in the base metal was carried out in an optical microscope, and no abnormality was observed. It was also carried out the end test by penetrating liquid, finding an inadequate weld in its geometry, as well as longitudinal trunks along the center of the weld bead. However, after a huge investigation of the causes, it was found that the failure was triggered by an inadequate design of the pulley shaft. It was also verified that the shaft had an open measure, inadequate for the operational context. After the analysis, action plans were drawn up based on the FMEA methodology to inhibit the failure recurrence.

Oct 7, 2019

By Daniel Eduardo Parodi

Para acompañar el plan de aumento de producción de slabs de Siderar, fue necesario proyectar una nueva unidad separadora de aire para incrementar la generación de oxígeno, nitrógeno y argón. La premisa que direccionó este proyecto fue la integración y sinergia de la nueva unidad con el sistema de la Central Termoeléctrica y Altos Hornos, con el objetivo de salvar condicionamientos, obtener beneficios energéticos y aumentar la confiabilidad operativa. Como resultados de esta línea de trabajo se espera: Optimizar el aprovechamiento de gases de proceso, mejorando así el balance energético y la ecuación económica en la producción de los gases industriales; Mejorar el aspecto ambiental disminuyendo el quemado de gases en antorcha, reduciendo el consumo de combustibles fósiles y la compra de energía eléctrica; y aumentar la confiabilidad en el suministro de gases y del sistema de aire soplado a Altos Hornos.

Sep 25, 2017

By Álvaro Lúcio

This paper outlines the DPC process as na economic and environment friendly option for the use of cultivated forest as a source of raw material for metallurgical charcoal.The DPC process was specially developed to bring logistic, environmental, technical, economic and global energy efficiency when compared to termal1 the existing biomass carbonization process. The DPC process utilizes the volatile materials (condensable and non condensable) as a source of the energy required by the carbonization process guarantying its complete combustion. As result the DPC process avoids the burning of termal1 the loaded wood, obtaining a higher charcoal to biomass yield, and avoids the emission to the atmosphere of polluting gases. Gases emitted by the carbonizing wood have na energy termal1e enough to dry the wood soon after its harvesting. By avoiding the storage in the field during na average of 150 days, the resulting economy is quite significant. As a termal1e1 the higher charcoal to biomass yield na termal1e1e economy is obtained through the reduction of the cultivated forest term. This paper emphasizes the economic advantages of the DPC process.

Aug 16, 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 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 HaiWen Luo, Bin Hu

A ultra-high strength medium Mn steel with good ductility was designed and manufactured via the combination of warm rolling and V alloying, which produced not only the extensive precipitation of fine VC particles in both ferrite and austenite but also the bimodal size distribution of retained austenite (RA) grains. A substantial increase of yield strength up to 650 MPa was achieved due to the addition of V without deteriorating ductility. The coarse RA grains firstly transformed to martensite during yielding at the much higher stress threshold, followed by a significant work hardening due to dislocations multiplication, twinning-induced-plasticity (TWIP) and transformation-induced-plasticity (TRIP) in the ultrafine RA grains. The best combination of strength and ductility included 1.5 GPa ultimate tensile strength and 28% total elongation. This was achieved due to the sustainable TRIP and TWIP effects in the later straining stage resulting from the ultrafine austenite grains, the latter were reversely transformed from the recrystallized ferrite grains.

Oct 1, 2019

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 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 Marjorie Benegra

This study aims to compare the wear resistance assessed in rubber wheel abrasion test of nickel aluminide coatings deposited by for Plasma Transferred Arc (PTA) and High Velocity Oxigen Fuel (HVOF) manufacturing, using the same raw material. A nickel aluminide powder was atomized and deposited on 316L steel plate substrate. After deposition, some specimens were submitted to a heat treating (1200 °C for 24 h followed by 760°C for 24 h). The coatings deposited using PTA developed different microstructures due to the incorporation of substrate elements, its performance was better than the HVOF coatings, although their Vickers hardness was similar. After heat treating, a significant variation in hardness and wear resistance was observed. For PTA specimens, there were decrease in hardness of 35%, while for HVOF ones this drop was approximately 20%. Nonetheless, the effect of thermal exposure in wear resistance was quite different: an increase of 21% was observed for HVOF coatings, while a reduction of 20% occurred in PTA ones. Microstructures modifications in PTA coatings were significant for their wear resistance. On the other hand, the reduction of porosity and sintering were responsible for a better performance of heat-treated HVOF coatings.

Jul 31, 2018

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 Nigel Marx

In order to understand (and ultimately to predict) the friction reduction resulting from the use of polymer solutions, the rheological properties of model polymer solutions have been measured over a wide range of shear rates. Both temporary and permanent shear thinning have been observed. By using base fluids of different viscosities it has been shown that permanent shear thinning depends more closely on the shear stress experienced by the fluid than on the strain rate. Hydrodynamic measurements have been made on the polymer solutions using a compliant ball on flat lubricated contact that operates in isoviscous-elastic conditions. The measured friction values can only be predicted with reasonable accuracy if the measured shear thinning properties of the lubricant are taken into account in the hydrodynamic model.

Jul 31, 2018

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 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 Márcia Maria da Silva Monteiro Pereira

Durante o lingotamento contínuo de aço, partículas de ZrO2 adicionadas na escória de molde facilitam a nucleação heterogênea de cristais devido à sua limitada solubilidade. A adição de ZrO2 promove a cristalização da fase cuspidina, o que auxilia na redução da transferência horizontal de calor no molde, amenizando desta forma o problema das trincas longitudinais. Outro benefício da adição de ZrO2 em pós fluxantes é reduzir a taxa de desgaste da válvula submersa (SEN) na interface metal/escória; a erosão da SEN é um problema sério. Através de testes de laboratório e de testes industriais concluiu-se que a adição de ZrO2 em pós fluxantes reduz a taxa de transferência de calor horizontal no molde durante o lingotamento contínuo de aço, considerando os dois tipos de pós fluxantes que foram analisados no presente trabalho. Além disso, observou-se que a adição de ZrO2 reduz a taxa de desgaste da válvula submersa na interface metal/escória.

Aug 16, 2017

By Leonardo Camilo dos Reis, Edmilson Fernandes Dadomi, Claudio Silva de Paulo

In the hot strip mill production, one of the factors that may affect the productivity is the occurrence of failure due to the geometry of the strip at the exit of the rolling mill, because the tip of the strip can turn-down or turn-up. This study had the objective of evaluating the behavior of the strip when leaving the working rolls, through numerical simulation, aiming to know the influences of the main variables that govern the formation of the turn-down. The methodology consisted in performing the computational simulation of the strip mill and to vary the operational and geometric parameters that could influence the process. The results showed that the rolling of hot strips of HSLA material with final thickness varying between of 3 to 6 mm and a reduction of 6.6% to 11.0% in the last stand of a hot strip mill, tends to bend towards the roll with larger diameter, higher friction coefficient , higher temperature and lower limit of material flow. It was observed that the variation in diameter is the main factor that contributes to the formation of the curvature of the front-end of strip. Based on these results, several measures were implemented in the industrial line, with a significant reduction in the occurrence of turn-down.

Oct 2, 2019

By Moisés Paulo Teixeira

The use of tailings for the synthesis of new materials is a worldwide concern today. This paper approaches the utilization of tailings of soapstone (steatite) in order to produce ceramics. The results show that the addition of soapstone in a ratio over 20% in the ceramic mass has enhanced the bending resistance of the ceramic samples when they were fired at temperatures of 900°C or 1000°C.

Oct 30, 2017