- Course Description
- Course Outline
- Course Schedule
The AIST International Steel Academy course MSTS 201: Steelmaking is intended as an introduction to the origin and sourcing of steelmaking raw materials and the fundamentals of melting, refining and solidification of steel. World-class manufacturing pursues excellence in quality, technology, efficiency, sustainability and innovation. An educated workforce knowledgable in the fundamentals of raw materials, equipment, technology and operations is critical to achieving world-class steel production. This course, developed from experiences in academia, operations and research, also presents the dynamic state of steelmaking technology and the significance of steel production for economic growth.
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| Today's steel industry is teeming with innovation and advanced technology. Many of the breakthroughs are the result of experienced personnel who have merged hard work with efficiency and opportunity. Young professionals, devoid of the industry experience beneficial to developing new technologies, must rely on the steelmaking curriculum from academic institutions which in recent years has waned. The MSTS 201: Steelmaking course merges practical industry experiences with advanced metallurgical concepts of smelting, refining and solidification. While many courses focus on steel as the material, the MSTS 201 curriculum broadens the scope to include the ancillary, supporting technologies critical to steelmaking, such as environmental aspects, equipment technology, production scheduling and control systems. The various subjects are presented in a manner that makes complex concepts understandable to non-experts. |
1. History and Fundamentals of Iron and Steelmaking |
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| 2. Sustainability in Steelmaking Safety and environmental considerations have taken prominent positions in sustainable steel production. Indicators will be presented to detail what it means for a steel company to be sustainable. These indicators focus on greenhouse gas emissions, energy and material efficiencies, environmental management systems, reduction in lost-time injuries, employee training, investment in new processes and technology and providing a defined value to society. |
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| 3. Raw Materials for Iron- and Steelmaking Steel production requires efficient sourcing and use of raw materials. Iron ore, coal, alloys, fuels, fluxes and recycled products will be described in terms of origin, preparation and efficient use for cost-effective production. |
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| 4. Burden Preparation Blast furnace iron is free of impurities such as copper, nickel, chrome and molybdenum, which makes it an important raw material for creating high-purity steels. To produce quality blast furnace iron, the raw materials must be properly prepared for the blast furnace. The coal preparation and cokemaking processes will be described. Iron mining, pelletizing, sintering and lump ore production will also be presented. |
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| 5. Blast Furnace Process Blast furnaces have been used for more than 100 years to produce iron suitable for steel production. Many factors contribute to efficient, sustainable iron production. The overall blast furnace design and process will be outlined. The metallurgy of iron ore reduction will also be presented, as will an overview of material and heat balances for the blast furnace. Maintenance considerations, plant utilities, recent advancements in instrumentation, modeling, automation and environmental aspects will also be described. The session will conclude with the challenges faced by blast furnace ironmaking. |
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| 6. Alternative Ironmaking Many new processes are being investigated to produce iron from raw materials that are not suitable for blast furnace production. Current, viable technologies such as Midrex, Corex and Finex will be presented, including the metallurgy and final product characteristics and process byproducts. |
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| 7. Hot Metal Pretreatment To utilize blast furnace iron, the iron must be transported from the blast furnace to the steelmaking facility and be conditioned prior to charging into the steelmaking furnace. Various transportation and storage methods will be described. The metallurgies of desulfurization, dephosphorization and desiliconization are also presented, detailing the methods used and the benefits of the processes to the final steel product. |
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| 8. BOF Steelmaking The basic oxygen furnace (BOF) steelmaking process (also called the LD process) began in the 1950s in Europe. Since that time, the BOF process is the primary process to produce large quantities of high-purity steel from blast furnace iron. The history and current state of the process will be presented. The metallurgy of the BOF — including raw material considerations, material and heat balances, oxygen blowing and tap procedures — will also be detailed. The course will include information on BOF maintenance, plant utilities and an overview of the current technology available for instrumentation, modeling and automation. A description of environmental systems for BOF steelmaking will be included, as will the challenges facing steel produced via a BOF. |
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| 9. EAF Steelmaking Electric arc furnace (EAF) technology, which converts raw materials to steel product, has been available for more than 100 years. In the last 20 years, the process has spread rapidly across the globe as a viable alternative to the BOF for producing many steel products. Similar to the BOF section of the course, this section will detail the metallurgy of the EAF, including raw material considerations, material and heat balances, oxygen blowing and tap procedures, and the many variations in EAF designs. This section will also highlight maintenance requirements, plant utilities required and an overview of the current technology available for instrumentation, modeling and automation. An overview of the environmental systems and the future challenges for EAF steelmaking will conclude the section. |
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| 10. Alternative Steelmaking Processes This section is comprised of a brief overview showcasing recent, viable alternative steelmaking technologies: energy optimized furnace (EOF) technology, induction furnace technology and the graphite electrode bar furnace. |
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| 11. Ladle Treatment Fundamentals and Steel Refining The chemical and temperature refinement of liquid steel is critical to the final cast product. The fundamentals of the metallurgical operations used to refine steel will be presented, including the various treatment stations for reheating, degassing and alloying liquid steel. The different stations are necessary to produce the broad range of chemistries required for today’s steel market. Interstitial-free steel grades are processed differently than sour gas service grades; likewise, a different process route is used to produce high-alloy steels for tools and roller bearings. The linking of these treatment stations to the overall process route will be presented, as well as the variety of process routes that can occur between the steel melting furnace and the final solidification process. |
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| 12. Continuous Casting The casting section will begin with a history and overview of ingot casting and the current benefits of casting steel via the ingot process. The history and evolution of continuous casting will then be described, focusing on the different cross-sectional shapes which can be cast and the markets served by each type. The casting operations will include slab, thin slab, strip casting, bloom, billet, beam and rounds casting. The metallurgical operations in the tundish and mold necessary for casting clean, inclusion-free steel will be described, as well as the solidification process. Various mold technologies, strand mechanics, the bending/unbending process, cooling processes and casting tensions are included. |
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| 13. Steel Market Applications Steel is one of the most widely used materials in the world. Steel grades can be classified into one of four categories: construction steel, ultralow-carbon steel, line pipe steel and engineering steel. Each category will be described in terms of its requirements in steel chemistry and applications. |
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| 14. Production Planning Production planning requires an understanding of raw material availability, current operating conditions, current orders, customer requirements and equipment availability, among many other considerations. Continuous production processes are merged with batch processes to produce an efficient production sequence. An overview of how an order becomes a product will be given for different production systems. |
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