Steel Industry
The steel industry is considered one of the main segments of metallurgy, an area dedicated to the production and treatment of steel and cast iron.
STAGES OF STEEL PRODUCTION
Steel production begins with the preparation of raw materials, which can be iron ore or steel scrap. Steelmaking, therefore, is essentially the transformation of this ore into steel, after passing through four key stages, as described below: Charge Preparation, Reduction, Refining, and Rolling.
In the charge preparation stage, we consider the integrated production of steel, which involves transforming coal into coke, while iron ore is sintered or pelletized before being fed into the blast furnace.
In the reduction phase, the ore is reduced in the blast furnace, and the iron melts, becoming known as pig iron or primary molten iron.
The next step in the process is refining. Here, the molten pig iron is transferred to the steel plant, where it is transformed into steel by burning off impurities and adding alloying elements. Steel refining is carried out in oxygen or electric furnaces to produce semi-finished products such as billets, bars, or slabs.
Finally, the last stage of steel production is rolling. During this phase, the solidifying steel is mechanically deformed and transformed into steel products used by the manufacturing industry, such as thick and thin plates, coils, rebars, wires, profiles, bars, and more.