Past AIST Committee Activities
Current Activities
The Ironmaking Technology Committee (IMTC) met on Feb. 4, 2010, before the Eastern States Blast Furnace and Coke Oven Association’s 90th Annual Winter Meeting. The Producer Only Subcommittee met first and opened with the committee chair, Art Cheng, welcoming everyone. Tom Kuhl of ArcelorMittal Dofasco volunteered to take the meeting minutes. Each mill representative provided a brief update of current safety and environmental issues at their mill. Fred Rorick of Magneco Metrel provided an update on the data exchange. Joe Poveromo of Raw Materials and Ironmaking gave a brief summary of ICSTI 2009, which was held in Shanghai. Mr. Kuhl presented the project overview of ArcelorMittal’s new pulverized coal injection facility and explained some of the things encountered during the start-up. Frank Huang of ArcelorMittal gave an update regarding the AISI Flame Temperature Calculation to enable a more uniform approach considering different coal types. Bob Jason of ArcelorMittal Cleveland presented “Idling a Blast Furnace for Long Periods,” using his experience of idling and then bringing both of the Cleveland blast furnaces back on-line.
After a short break, the entire IMTC joined the meeting. Mr. Cheng again reviewed the AIST Anti-Trust Guidelines and asked everyone to introduce themselves and their companies. The previous meeting minutes were reviewed and accepted as written. Bob Steiger of Paul Wurth reviewed the AISTech 2010 sessions and session chair assignments. The 2010 Josef S. Kapitan Award winners are Dr. Walter Hartig, Dr. Djamschid Amirzadeh-Asl and Dr. Dieter Funders for the best paper presented during the AISTech 2009 IMTC session. The Kapitan Award will be presented to the winners during the next IMTC meeting. The 2010 Thomas L. Joseph Award winner is John Davidson. Mr. Steiger stated that only 56% of the committee members have given an affirmative response to the ballot for Technical Report No. 33 — Inspection, Maintenance, and Repair of Hot Metal Cars. The ballot must have a two-thirds affirmative response before the report can continue in the approval process. The committee leadership nominations were discussed, with Mr. Kuhl being nominated as chair, Mr. Steiger as vice chair and Kyle Shoop of Tenova Core as papers chair. The election will take place at the next IMTC meeting, which will be held May 3 in Pittsburgh at AISTech 2010.
The Ironmaking Technology Committee (IMTC) met Nov. 19, 2009, at AIST headquarters in Warrendale, Pa. The committee vice chair, Tom Kuhl of ArcelorMittal Dofasco Inc., welcomed everyone to the meeting and thanked them for their attendance. The AIST Anti-Trust Guidelines were read and agreed to. Bob Bean of Danieli Corus agreed to take the meeting minutes. The Sept. 17 IMTC meeting minutes were reviewed and approved as written. The committee revised and finalized the AISTech 2010 IMTC sessions. The committee discussed the proposed additions to promoting the Technology Division awards at AISTech. The proposal consists of having the AIST president, during the President’s Award Breakfast, direct the audience’s attention to the program, where the Technology Division and Member Chapter awards are included, as well as announce that signs located in the registration area and the session area have the award recipients displayed. The award recipients would also be added to the PowerPoint presentation that runs during the breakfast. Bob Steiger of Paul Wurth gave an overview of the Leadership Development Conference and its value. There was a round table discussion on safety. The next IMTC meeting will be held Feb. 4, 2010, in conjunction with the Eastern States Blast Furnace and Coke Oven Association conference.
The Ironmaking Technology Committee (IMTC) met Sept. 17–18 at AIST headquarters in Warrendale, Pa. Art Cheng of Severstal Dearborn is the committee chair. After introductions and a review of the AIST Anti-Trust Guidelines, the new committee members were identified as: Tom Annarella of Middough Inc., Keith Kahl of Sun Coal, Mike Lanyi of Air Products and Chemicals Inc. and Fred McCarty of U. S. Steel – Great Lakes Works. The IMTC has 59 members. Mr. Cheng presented summaries of two recent surveys, “Shutdown Procedures” and “Blast Furnace Yield.” Craig Steigauf of Severstal Sparrows Point presented an overview of the mini-reline at Sparrows Point between 2008 and 2009. Frank Huang of ArcelorMittal presented and discussed the AISI Flame Temperature Calculation with different coals. The types of coal affect real temperatures versus the calculated temperatures. The 2009 steel industry fatalities to date were then discussed. Three presentations about taphole design and monitoring were given by Peter Martin of Siemens VAI, Floris van Laar of Allied Minerals, and Al Dzermejko of Magneco/Metrel Inc. This was followed by three more presentations about copper staves by Mr. Martin, Mr. Dzermejko, and Angelo Petruccelli of Allied Minerals. The AISTech 2010 IMTC sessions were then reviewed. Bob Steiger, IMTC papers chair, presented the session layouts as of Sept. 17 for discussion. Various papers were moved to different sessions. A panel discussion on hearth design and maintenance was added for Wednesday afternoon, and a raw materials session was added for Monday morning. The IMTC would like to thank U. S. Steel and Mark Logoyda of the Edgar Thomson Plant for hosting a very informative tour of blast furnaces No. 1 and No. 3. The next IMTC meeting was held Nov. 19, again at AIST headquarters.
The Ironmaking Technology Committee (IMTC) met May 4 at AISTech 2009 in St. Louis, Mo. The meeting was attended by 38 committee members and guests. Mark Rosi of ATSI Engineering Services brought the meeting to order and thanked all the attendees for their participation. Mr. Rosi also commented on the success of the morning IMTC AISTech technical sessions. Kyle Shoop of Tenova Core volunteered to take meeting minutes. The current membership was briefly discussed and will be the focus of an upcoming meeting. This will include a review of the current membership policy. Al Dzermejko of Magneco/Metrel Inc. agreed to chair the Membership Subcommittee. The minutes from the Feb. 5, 2009, meeting were reviewed and approved as written. The election of IMTC officers took place, with the following outcome: Art Cheng of Severstal Dearborn as chair, Tom Kuhl of ArcelorMittal Dofasco as vice chair, Bob Steiger of Paul Wurth Inc. and Mr. Shoop as papers co-chairs, and Mr. Dzermejko as membership chair. The benchmarking database was briefly discussed, and this issue is still unresolved. Barry Felton of ArcelorMittal volunteered to look into this further. The chair thanked everyone who has worked so hard on Technical Report 33 — Inspection, Maintenance, and Repair of Hot Metal Cars. The report goes out for approval of a ballot draft of the entire committee before being approved by the AIST board and finally published. As part of the lunch meeting, several awards were presented. The J.E. Johnson Jr. Award 2009 recipient was Diana L. Vanmarrum from Essar Steel Algoma, Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., Canada. The 2009 Josef S. Kapitan Award for Best Ironmaking Paper was awarded to Daniel Maldonado, Peter Austin and Paul Zulli of BlueScope Steel Research Laboratories, and Baoyu Guo, School of Materials Science and Engineering, University of New South Wales, for their paper entitled, “Modeling Coal Combustion Behavior in an Ironmaking Blast Furnace Raceway.” Art Cheng presented Mark Rosi with a plaque for his dedication and commitment as IMTC chair. Mr. Rosi served for two years, and his service has been greatly appreciated. Art Cheng thanked everyone for attending and encouraged everyone to promote new membership. The next meeting location was not set, but a tentative date of Sept. 17–18, 2009, was discussed. The goal is to include a visit to a steel plant.
The Ironmaking Technology Committee (IMTC) met on Feb. 5, prior to the Eastern States Blast Furnace and Cokemaking Conference in Coraopolis, Pa. After introductions and a review of the AIST Antitrust Guidelines, a discussion on committee membership took place . In reviewing the committee roster, it was determined that some members were listed who had not attended a recent meeting. The committee will elect a membership chair to contact inactive members, as well as potential new members, to increase participation in the committee. The AISTech 2009 IMTC sessions were then reviewed. The IMTC will sponsor nine sessions at AISTech 2009, with approximately 40 technical presentations and one panel discussion. The paper order and session chairs were reviewed and adjusted as needed. Session chairs were encouraged to contact the authors within their sessions and discuss with them their responsibilities and upcoming deadlines for participation. The IMTC also planned to present their technology awards during their next meeting, which will take place May 4 during AISTech 2009. The final item of business was the status of the Blast Furnace Benchmarking database. A conference call will be arranged with the producer members of the IMTC to discuss how to continue this important activity.
The Ironmaking Technology Committee (ITC) held a meeting at the AIST headquarters in Warrendale, Pa., on Nov. 13, 2008. Mark Rosi of ATSI and Bill Sherwood of Severstal Warren welcomed everyone to the meeting and thanked them for taking the time to meet. Bob Bean of Danieli Corus volunteered to take the meeting minutes. Mr. Rosi stressed the importance of committee members attending at least one meeting per year. The committee finalized their selection of abstracts and session chairs to make up 10 sessions for AISTech 2009, including sessions on alternative iron, blast furnace operations, blast furnace raw materials, refractory/rebuilds, blast furnace models, blast furnace injection/raceways, distribution, and blast furnace hearth. The session chair responsibilities were explained so that the sessions will run smoothly. The ITC agreed that a new papers chair will be elected. The former papers chair will move into the vice chair position, and the former vice chair will become chair. The committee also agreed to present their committee awards at 1:30 p.m. on May 4 during their meeting at AISTech 2009 in St. Louis, Mo. The next ITC meeting will be Feb. 5, 2009, in conjunction with the Eastern States Blast Furnace Conference in Pittsburgh, Pa.
The Ironmaking Technology Committee (IMTC) met at AIST headquarters on Oct. 1–2. The full committee meeting began on Oct. 1 with the committee co-chairs, Mark Rosi of ATSI Engineering Services and Bill Sherwood of Severstal Warren, welcoming everyone to the meeting and thanking them for attending. Dave Wakelin volunteered to take the meeting minutes. After everyone introduced themselves, Fred Rorick of Magneco/Metrel gave the committee a summary of the IMTC’s international activities. Mr. Rorick will continue to act as the North American liaison with the European Blast Furnace Committee (EBFC) until the summer of 2010, when it is anticipated that Craig Steigeloff will take over. The next meeting of the EBFC will be in IJmuiden, The Netherlands. The IMTC’s cooperation with the EBFC includes the collection and exchange of operating data between producers, and attendance at each other’s conferences, with periodic joint meetings and plant visits. There will likely be a joint meeting and visit from VDEh members in 2010. Mr. Rorick and Art Cheng are to prepare a paper for the ICSTI 2009 conference. The committee then chose abstracts and organized them into sessions for AISTech 2009. The topic for discussion at this meeting was “Methods to Shorten Reline/Rebuild Time,” with each mill representative explaining their best practices. The following day, Oct. 2, was a Producer Only Subcommittee meeting. The discussions started off with safety and environmental updates of each mill being represented by the attendees. The benchmarking database was discussed at length. The committee requested that the new system be available by mid-February 2009 so the participants could start entering their January 2009 data. The next committee meeting was scheduled for Nov. 13, 2008, at the AIST headquarters in Warrendale, Pa., at which they plan to finalize the sessions for AISTech 2009. The following IMTC meeting will be Feb. 5, 2009, in conjunction with the Eastern States Conference in Pittsburgh, Pa.
The Iron Producing Operating Committee (IPOC) met at AISTech 2008 on May 5. The committee chair, Mark Rosi of ATSI Engineering Services, welcomed everyone to the meeting and thanked them for attending. John Janssen of Middough Inc. volunteered to take the meeting minutes. The importance of meeting participation was discussed. Committee members were reminded that attendance at a minimum of one meeting per year is required. The IPOC has integrated with the AISI Ironmaking Manufacturing Committee to become the new AIST Ironmaking Technology Committee (IMTC). It was agreed that the chairs from both former committees will co-chair the new committee; therefore, Mark Rosi will co-chair the committee with Bill Sherwood of WCI. After some deliberation concerning the committee mission statement, the committee decided to table the discussion until the next meeting. The Technical Report No. 33 Subcommittee reported that the technical report on torpedo cars is nearly complete; only a few sketches need to be added for clarification. The subcommittee was instructed to submit the document for final approval when they felt it was ready. The committee presented Mr. Rosi with a plaque for his exceptional service and dedication as committee chair for 2007–2008. The next IMTC meeting is scheduled for Sept. 30–Oct. 2, 2008, at AIST headquarters in Warrendale, Pa., and will include a tour of U. S. Steel’s Edgar Thomson Works. The IPOC and Coke Producing Operating Committee conducted an award presentation on Wednesday, May 6, 2008. Ronald Molenaar of Corus Strip Products was awarded the 2008 Thomas L. Joseph Award for his contributions in the fundamental studies of blast furnace reactions. The 2008 Josef S. Kapitan Award – Iron was given to Christopher J. Rabold of United States Steel Corporation, Ernesto J. Serrano of United States Steel Research and Technology Center, and Octavio M. Fortini of Alcoa Technical Center for their paper entitled, “Experimental Probing of Temperatures in Blast Furnace Tuyeres.” The 2008 J.E. Johnson Jr. Award was presented to John D’Alessio of United States Steel Canada for his creative work in branches of metallurgy or manufacture of pig iron. Look for additional information online at www.aist.org.
