Steel is a universal material and has reached a high level of sophistication in applications and recycling potential. Rules are indicated for maintaining the sustainability of recycling (DfR concept). Consumer goods should be designed so as to maximize metal utilization, which is the only economical solution to meet ambitious recycling levels. The present level reached by recycling in France is compared to those targets in order to identify how much more progress has to be made.

After presentation of the history of oxygen steelmaking, with special emphasis on the LD process, the numerous further developments and variants of the converter process are discussed. Finally, a tentative synthesis between electric and converter steelmaking is proposed. The article ends with considerations on the future of oxygen converter technology.

The Business Intelligence (BI) aims at providing the operational, tacticand strategic levels with information in order to support managersand specialists through the practice of analysis and decisionmaking. The results of the project pertaining to the steel makingplant are reported.

Life Cycle Assessment is a powerful method to compare thefull environmental burden assignable to products, services orprocesses. In the framework of ULCOS project, this methodwas chosen to assess the environmental burden of futureiron and steel making processes. We propose here a novelmethodology which consists in replacing the traditional datacollection by a rigorous physico-chemical calculation. Suchan approach allows precise environmental assessment ofexisting or future processes.

The high temperature oxidation behaviour of cast superalloys strengthened by carbides has been studied as a function of their grain fineness and their dendritic orientation near the surface. These microstructural features have both a significant influence on the oxidation kinetics. The effect depends on the nature of the base metal of the superalloy, on the overall chemical composition or on the types of carbides.

Homogeneity methods are very helpful in the interpretation of X-ray line shift and broadening. The use of self-consistent models becomes general, but the information given by these models, which is shown to be strongly linked with diffraction measurements, can not yet be completely exploited. It is in particular shown that the intra-phase heterogeneity of strains should in certain cases be reflected by the line broadening behaviour.

Les aciers inoxydables ferritiques connaissent un développement régulier depuis de nombreuses années, en partie grâce aux variations importantes du coût des éléments d’alliage et notamment du nickel qui impactent fortement le prix des nuances austénitiques classiques. Toutefois, il ne faut pas négliger les avantages techniques que présentent les nuances ferritiques. Cet article présente une série d’exemples illustrant les performances des aciers inoxydables ferritiques dans des domaines d’applications variés et souligne la large gamme de propriétés qui peuvent être obtenues.

A technique, which allows characterizing the local strain field over a domain representative of the microstructure of a heterogeneous material, is described. It is based on scanning electron microscopy, microelectrolithography, image analysis and in situ mechanical tests. On one hand, in relation with a microstructure analysis, it allows characterizing the different mechanisms responsible for the plasticity or the damage of materials. On the other hand, a quantitative analysis allows comparing and validating from a local to a global scale, the different models used for the prediction of materials constitutive laws. Finally, the knowledge of the experimental displacement improves seriously the results of finite element computations, by a better determination of the boundary conditions.

Led by increasing stainless steel demands worldwide, Avesta Polarit Tornio, now Outokumpu Stainless Tornio, decided to extend its slab production capacity from 650,000 to 1.65 million tons per year of cast products. To supply 1.0 million tons of additional slabs, a complete new steel plant was successfully started up in September 2002. The process route includes a 140 MVA electric arc furnace, a 150 tons AOD, a twin ladle furnace and the world most advanced continuous casting machine. Technological highlights together with operational results are presented.

At the design stage of engineering structures, the fatigue behaviour is generally not included in the analysis. Shoulder reinforcements may be machined with too small blending radii. Even if fatigue is taken into account, the influence of the environment is almost always ignored. This paper shows that corrosion-fatigue is not an uncommon cause of failure in industry and that it may result in significant damages. The survey of such failures and the observation of the fracture surfaces allow to identify the typical features of this phenomenon.

The determination of residual stresses in coatings generally goes with the simultaneous determination of their elasticity constants. The main experimental methods used for that purpose are briefly reviewed and their advantages and limitations discussed: mechanical tests on self-bearing layers or on coated substrates, indirect physical methods.

As any other industrial process, galvanizing has its own history and this is the first time that an exhaustive report of it is presented. Protection of flat steel against corrosion by an other metal is indeed a very old process, that goes back to the Middle Ages. The first coated sheet was a tin coated sheet, known as tin-plate, preceding by several centuries the very galvanized sheet.

This paper describes innovative solutions developed by VOEST-ALPINE Industrieanlagenbau (VAI) for bar and wire-rod mills and concerning mechanical equipment as well as automation systems. Among them, the Precision Rolling System (PRS) was first implemented at Chaparral Steel (USA) and the Minimum Tension Control is applied at BMZ (Belarus). Benefits are: improved product quality, greater mill availability, increased flexibility and productivity.

Since 1953, under successive 5-year development plans, the structure and the production level of the Chinese steel industry has considerably changed. Although the share of flat products has increased, China remains a net importer of these products and other high value added products. In connection with the development of the consuming industries, the Chinese steel industry is undergoing important transformations, in structure, technology, capacity and efficiency.

The initial solidification in the continuous casting process can be controlled by imposing a pulsative AC electromagnetic field on the meniscus. The casting experiment of a steel billet has been conducted by using a commercial billet caster. The imposition of a pulsative AC electromagnetic field has greatly improved the surface qualities. This presentation provides the results of the electromagnetic casting project of JRCM which is supported financially by the Ministry of International Trade and Industry of Japan.

Sun Coke Company's heat recovery cokemaking technology has been developed over the past 40 years, and is now poised to become the dominant technology to meet future global cokemaking needs. An extensive data base regarding coal blends tested and resultant coke quality will be presented. On the environmental front, extensive air emission data has been collected and will be compared to by-product coke plant air emission data.

VOEST-ALPINE Industrieanlagenbau (VAI) has erected and started up an ultra-wide slab caster (up to 3.2 m) in Mobile (Alabama) for the North-American steel producer IPSCO Steel. This paper presents the specific technological features and the automation system of this installation, as well as the initial operational and metallurgical results.

Steam ejector vacuum pumps (SVPs) are mainly used on larger melt sizes up to 350 t inintegrated steel plants because of the availability of steam. The use of dry operatingmechanical vacuum pumps (MVPs) for steel degassing has made a tremendous step forward inthe past 10 years but is still confined to melts below 150 t while its progress towardslarger melt sizes is not completed. Besides the consideration of investment and operatingcosts there is no restriction in using any type of modern vacuum pump system for allvacuum processes and plant designs. Both systems fulfil all metallurgical requirements.Considering the significant savings in operating cost offered by MVP systems it is worthreconsidering the efforts for reducing air leaks, the use of protective gases and pressurelosses between the pump set and the metallurgical reaction vessel. Both systems have madeprogress in energy optimising but the MVPs have a striking energy advantage. Only theoverall costs should be considered, including those necessary to meet emission constraintsand safety standards, and only the pressure prevailing at the reaction vessel is to beconsidered when comparing vacuum pump systems. Also, the means and use of dust abatementsystems should be reconsidered since they offer cost savings by reducing the frequency ofcleaning, less wear, little sludge handling and the significantly lower design suctioncapacity of SVP systems. The SVP mass flow need is to be corrected by a specialcoefficient before being applied to the volume conveying MVPs. Depending on theoperational pressure required for the pump design, MVP systems can reach the sameperformance at the reaction vessel with much less mass flow capacity than that needed by aSVP system.

The studies developed at CST sinter plant in order to point out any factor that may have an effect on plume visibility are reported. Specific software and indexes have been developed. The approach included a retrospective analysis followed by further industrial tests at the sinter plant with different material input (fuels and raw materials). The results are discussed with reference to potential effects on the plume visibility. Further steps are considered to progress the stack plume project.

The impact of the ferritic rolling schedule on oxide scale formation and on pickling rate has been compared to its austenitic counterparts. The effect of thin hot strip development on pickling plant productivity and on pickling cost price was also analysed. Different potential improvements to increase pickling rates were investigated and economical solutions are proposed.