Abrasive
A substance capable of removing material from another substance in machining, abrasion or polishing.

Abrasive Wear
The removal or displacement of materials from a surface when hard particles slide or roll across the surface under pressure. The particles may be loose or may be part of another surface in contact with the surface being worn.

Abrasion
The process of grinding or wearing away through the use of abrasives, a roughening or scratching of a surface due to abrasive wear.

Abrasion Rate
The rate which material is removed from the surface during abrasion. It is usually expressed in terms of thickness removed per unit of time or distance traversed.

Accelerated Cooling
Employed to improve resistance to impact (toughness) and refine the grain size of certain grades and thickness of plates. Such cooling is accomplished by fans to provide circulation of air during cooling, or by a water spray or dip.

Acid Bottom
Furnace bottom (hearth) of a melting furnace made of acid refractory such as silica bricks.

Acid Brittleness
Brittleness induced in sheet and strip pickled in acid solution to remove scale or during electroplating. This is commonly attributed to absorption of hydrogen.

Acid Fluxes
Used to remove unwanted basic impurities to form a fusible slag. Silica (SiO2), available as sand, gravel, and quartz in large quantities and in a sufficiently pure state, is the only substance that is used as a strictly acid flux.

Acid Process
A steel making process in which steel is refined under an acid slag in an acid refractory lined furnace or converter.

Acid Refractory
A refractory material, acidic in chemical composition and containing high proportion of silica, that is, silica sand and ganister.

Acid Steel
Steel made by acid process.

Adhesive Wear
The removal or displacement of materials from a surface by the welding together and subsequent shearing of minute areas of two surfaces that slide across the surface under pressure. In advance stages, may lead to galling.

Adjustable Mould Width
In order to minimize both the time required to change a mould as well as the mould inventory during slab casting, adjustable mould were first developed which could be adjusted without the mould being removed from the casting machine. More recently, as an alternative to slab slitting, the slab width can be changed during the actual operation. In one design, the mould taper can be adjusted by using different gear ratios for moving the top and bottom of the narrow mould faces.

A. G. C. System
(Automatic Gauge Control) Hydraulic or electric system th at supplies the force to the A.G.C. roll force cylinders.

Age Hardening
A process of aging at atmospheric temperature that increases hardness and strength and ordinarily decreases ductility gradually. Age hardening usually follows rapid cooling or cold working. Takes effect on all cold rolled sheets in storage except fully aluminum killed.

Aging
A change in the properties of certain metal and alloys (such as steel) that occurs gradually with time at atmospheric temperatures (natural aging) or more rapidly at moderately elevated temperatures (artificial or accelerated aging) after a hot working heat treatment or cold working operation. Artificial aging refers to : quench aging (aging following quenching) and strain aging (aging induced by cold-working). Typical properties impacted are: hardness, yield strength, tensile strength, ductility, impact value, formability, magnetic properties, etc. See also Non-aging and artificial aging.

Agglomerating Processes
Fine particles of limestone (flux) and iron ore are difficult to handle and transport because of dusting and decomposition, so the powdery material usually is processed into larger pieces. The raw material’s properties determine the technique that is used by mills.
Sinter Baked particles that stick together in roughly one-inch chunks. Normally used for iron ore dust collected from the blast furnaces.
Pellets Iron ore or limestone particles are rolled into little balls in a balling drum and hardened by heat.
Briquettes Small lumps are formed by pressing material together. Hot Iron Briquetting (HBI) is a concentrated iron ore substitute for scrap for use in electric furnaces.
Nodules Fine iron bearing materials moving through a rotary kiln are formed into nodules or lumps by the rolling of the charge heated to incipient fusion temperatures.

Air Hardening
Hardening by cooling in air or gas at ambient temperature from a temperature above the transformation range.

Air Heater Tubes
Tubes used for heating air by means of hot gases, the air passing either inside or outside the tubes.

AISI (American Iron and Steel Institute)
An association of North American companies that mine iron ore and produce steel products. There are 50 member companies and more than 100 associate members, which include customers that distribute, process, or consume steel. The AISI has reorganized into a North American steel trade association, representing the interests of Canada, Mexico, and the United States.

Alkaline Cleaner
Uses an alkaline solution, usually sodium hydroxide, to clean residual oils and iron fines left on the strip from the cold reduction process.

Alkyd
A type of resin made from a polyhydroxy alcohol combined chemically with the acids of various oils. They are particularly adapted for use where hardness and high gloss are required. Used largely for outside decoration.

Alligatoring
The longitudinal splitting of flat slabs in a plane parallel to the rolled surface. Also known as fishmouthing.

Alloy
A substance having metallic properties consisting of two or more elements in which the major constituent is metal, or of metallic and non-metallic elements which are miscible with each other when molten, and have not separated into distinct layers when solid.

Alloying Element
An element (metal or non-metal) added during the making of steel for the purpose of increasing corrosion resistance, hardness, or strength. The metals used most commonly as alloying elements in stainless steel include chromium, nickel, and molybdenum.

Alloy Steel
An iron-based mixture is considered to be an alloy steel when manganese is greater than 1.65%, silicon over 0.5%, copper above 0.6%, or other minimum quantities of alloying elements such as chromium, nickel, molybdenum, vanadium, lead, niobium or tungsten are present. An enormous variety of distinct properties can be created for the steel by substituting these elements in the recipe.

Alloy Tool Steels
The principle functions of the alloying elements in tool steels are to increase hardenability ; to form hard, wear-resistant alloy carbides; and to increase resistance to softening on tempering. The alloy tool steels may be roughly classified according to the extent of their utilization of these three functions :

1. Relatively Low-alloy Tools Steels : These are of higher hardenability that the plain carbon tool steels in order that they may be hardened in heavier sections or with less drastic quenches and thereby less distortion.

2. Intermediate Alloy Tool Steels : These steels usually contain elements such as tungsten, molybdenum or vanadium, which form hard, were-resistant carbides.

3. High-speed Tool Steels : These contain large amounts of the carbide-forming elements which serve not only to furnish wear-resisting carbides but also to promote secondary hardening and thereby to increase resistance to softening at elevated temperature.

Alloy Surcharge
The addition to the producer’s selling price included in order to offset raw material cost increases caused by higher alloy prices.

Alumina
Aluminium oxide (Al2O3), a common constituent of many refractory materials used in steel making.

Aluminum Killed Steel (Special Killed)
Steel deoxidized with aluminum in order to reduce the oxygen content to a minimum so that no reaction occurs between carbon and oxygen during solidification.

Anneal
A process, consisting of heating to and holding at a suitable temperature followed by cooling at a suitable rate, used primarily to soften metallic materials, such as steel. This process also simultaneously produces desired changes in microstructure, as in other properties, such as improvement of mechanical or electrical properties, removing stresses, increase in stability in dimensions, facilitation of cold work, improving machinability, etc. Also see Continuous Anneal and Batch Anneal.

Annealing
What A heat or thermal treatment process by which a previously cold-rolled steel coil is made more suitable for forming and bending. The steel sheet is heated to a designated temperature for a sufficient amount of time and then cooled.
Why The bonds between the grains of the metal are stretched when a coil is cold rolled, leaving the steel brittle and breakable. Annealing re-crystallizes the grain structure of steel by allowing for new bonds to be formed at the high temperature. Annealing may be done to induce softness, improving machinability, improving cold-working properties, obtaining a desired structure, reducing stresses and to facilitate diffusion process.
How There are two ways to anneal cold-rolled steel coils : batch and continuous.
(1) Batch (Box). Three to four coils are stacked on top of each other, and a cover is placed on top. For up to three days, the steel is heated in a non-oxygen atmosphere (so it will not rust) and slowly cooled.
(2) Continuous. Normally part of a coating line, the steel is uncoiled and run through a series of vertical loops within a heater: The temperature and cooling rates are controlled to obtain the desired mechanical properties for the steel.
The various annealing processes are : full annealing, sub-critical (or process) annealing, isothermal annealing and spheroidization annealing.

Anneal to Temper
A final partial anneal that softens a cold worked non-ferrous alloy to a specified level of hardness or tensile strength.

Anodes
Tin bars that are put in the plater cells and are important to the plating process in the Tin Mill.

API
American Petroleum Institute.

Arc Heating
A method of heating steel by electric current in which the current is passed through an ionized gaseous medium and the heat radiated by the arc generated is utilized. This practice can be applied through two methods : (a) arcs pass between electrodes supported in the furnace above the metal. In this method, known as indirect-arc heating, the metal is heated solely by radiation from the arcs. Or, (b) arcs pass from the electrodes to the metal. In this method, known as direct-arc heating, the current flows through the metal charge so that the heat developed by the electrical resistance of the metal, though relatively small in amount, is added to that radiated from the arcs.

Argon-Oxygen Decarburization (AOD)
What A process for further refinement of stainless steel through reduction of carbon content.
Why The amount of carbon in stainless steel must be lower than that in carbon steel or lower alloy steel (i.e., steel with alloying element content below 5%). While electric arc furnaces (EAF) are the conventional means of melting and refining stainless steel, AOD is an economical supplement, as operating time is shorter and temperatures are lower than in EAF steel making. Additionally, using AOD for refining stainless steel increases the availability of the EAF for melting purposes.
How Molten, unrefined steel is transferred from the EAF into a separate vessel. A mixture of argon and oxygen is blown from the bottom of the vessel through the melted steel. Cleaning agents are added to the vessel along with these gases to eliminate impurities, while the oxygen combines with carbon in the unrefined steel to reduce the carbon level. The presence of argon enhances the affinity of carbon for oxygen and thus facilitates the removal of carbon.

Argon Rinse
To homogenise the melt temperature and composition and also to assist the flotation of deoxidation products during ladle refining of steel, the argon is blown through the melt at a rate of 0.08-0.13 nm3/min for 3 to 5 minutes.

Argon Trim
To facilitate the dissolution of ladle additions during refining of steel, the argon is blown through the melt at a rate of 0.30-0.45 nm3/min.

Argon Stir
To achieve slag-metal mixing in ladle desulphurization of steel during refining, the argon is blown through the melt at a rate of 0.3-0.5 nm3/min.

Artificial Aging
Aging above room temperature.

ASTM
American Society for Testing and Materials. A non-profit organization that provides a forum for producers, users, ultimate consumers, and those having a general interest (representatives of government and academia) to meet on common ground and write standards for materials, products, systems, and services.

ASTM Standards
A series of documents, approved and published by ASTM, that include specifications or requirements, practices, guides, test methods, etc., covering various materials, products, systems or services. In the steel industry, the steel related ASTM standards are used by both the producers and users to ensure that a steel product or service meets all intended requirements. See American Society for Testing and Materials.

Atmosphere Valve
A valve that is located in the exhaust line of a turbine and is designed to open up and get a positive pressure in the exhaust line.

Atomic Hydrogen Welded Tube
Tube made by forming strip, usually of stainless or heat-resisting steel, into tubular form and welding the joint by the atomic hydrogen process.

Atomizing Steam
Low pressure steam which is introduced to the oil gun to help atomize the oil, to assist the burning process, and to keep the oil gun from plugging.

Attemperator
Header connecting the primary and finishing superheaters into which feed water is sprayed to control the final temperature of the steam leaving the boiler.

Austempering
Cooling (quenching) an austenitised steel at a rate high enough to suppress formation of high temperature transformation products, then holding the steel at a temperature below that for pearlite formation and above that for martensite formation until transformation to an essentially bainitic structure is complete.

Austenite
Generally a solid solution of one or more alloying elements in a face centered cubic polymorph of iron (g iron). Specifically, in carbon steels , the interstitial solid solution of carbon g iron.

Austenitic
The largest category of stainless steel, generally non-magnetic, accounting for about 70% of all production. Refers to a particular grain structure of steel which in normal steel exists at high temperature. In stainless steel, this structure exists at room temperature and imparts certain characteristic properties. The austenitic class offers the most resistance to corrosion in the stainless group, owing to its substantial nickel content and higher levels of chromium. Austenitic stainless steels are hardened and strengthened through cold working (changing the structure and shape of steel by applying stress at low temperature) instead of by heat treatment. Ductility (ability to change shape without fracture) is exceptional for the austenitic stainless steels. Excellent weldability and superior performance in very low-temperature services are additional features of this class. Applications include cooking utensils, food processing equipment, exterior architecture, equipment for the chemical industry, truck trailers, and kitchen sinks. The two most common grades are type 304 (the most widely specified stainless steel, providing corrosion resistance in numerous standard services) and type 316 (similar to 304 with molybdenum added, to increase opposition to various forms of deterioration).

Austenitic Grain Size
The size attained by the grains in steel when heated to the autenitic region. This may be revealed by appropriate etching of cross sections after cooling to room temperature.

Automatic
Describes the status of the operation when the O2 pulpit has control and the boiler logic has control.

Automatic Gauge Control
Using hydraulic roll force systems, steel makers have the ability to control precisely their steel sheet’s gauge (thickness) while it is traveling at more than 50 miles per hour through the cold mill. Using feedback or feed-forward systems, a computer’s gap sensor adjusts the distance between the reduction rolls of the mill 50-60 times per second. These adjustments prevent the processing of any off-gauge steel sheet. The principal components of a computerised AGC are :
1. Mathematical models that adequately describe the process.
2. Instrumentation to measure the required variables of the system.
3. Control equipment, including a digital computer, to perform the required functions for control of the system.

Auto Stamping Plant
A facility that presses a steel blank into the desired form of a car door or hood, for example, with a powerful die (pattern). The steel used must be ductile (malleable) enough to bend into shape without breaking.

Auxiliary Hydraulic System
Hydraulic system that supplies the force to run the various hydraulic cylinders associated with the finishing mill which are not taken care of by the A.G.C. or C.V.C. Hydraulic systems.

Auxiliary Oil Pump
A steam or electric pump that maintains oil pressure on the controls and the bearings of a turbo blower when it is not up to maximum speed.

Auxiliary Pump
Pump on the auxiliary system which supplies the pressure for the system.

AW-100
The hydraulic oil used in all the hydraulic systems located in the finishing mill oil cellar and the furnace hydraulic system.

Back Drafting
Taking the blast furnace out of blast for short periods, often less than 2 hours, (instead of banking) to perform various maintenance functions such as replacing tuyeres or repairing skip cables. This is done usually by opening the chimney valve and the hot-blast valve to a stove that has already been prepared by heating it to temperature and then shutting off the gas valve. As the furnace gas is drawn back into the stove, air is admitted through the peep sights and stove burner, and the operator makes certain that the gas burns in the stove. During the operation, the bleeders at the top of the furnace also are opened to pull some of the furnace gas out through the top.

Baking
Heating after pickling /or pickling and coating to remove hydrogen.

Balanced Steel (Semi-Killed and Semi-Rimmed Steel)
Steel to which controlled amounts of deoxidizers have been added in the liquid stage during tapping and teeming, the object being to reduce the severity of piping. This steel is intermediate between killed and rimming types.

Band
Refers to metal strap signode band that is one half inch wide. This band is used to thread and pull the strip through the line.

Banding
Inhomogeneous distribution of alloying elements or phases aligned in filaments or plates parallel to the direction of working.

Banking
Shutting down the blast furnace for few days. The blast is taken off, the blowpipes are dropped and the tuyere openings are plugged with clay to prevent air from drafting through. Thus, hearth heat is preserved and the furnace can be returned to operation with a minimum effort.

Bar
Finished product of solid section generally supplied in straight length, which are rolled from billets and may be rectangular, square, flats, channels, round, half round or polygonal. The bars may be supplied in coil form also. The dimensions generally conform to the following :
a. Rounds and Half-Rounds : Minimum diameter 5mm.
b. Squares and Polygonal : Minimum 6mm side.
c. Flat Bar (Flat) : A finished product, generally of cross section, with edges of controlled contour and thickness 3mm and over, width 400mm and below and supplied in straight lengths. The product shall have rolled edges only (square or slightly rounded). This group also includes flat bars with bulb that has swelling on one or two faces of the same edge and a width of less than 400mm.

Bar Hold
The end of a bar or forging so reduced as to accommodate a porter bar or tongs for manipulation during forging.

Bare Spot
A location on the strip where coating did not adhere.

Barrel
The part of a forging of major cross section, the length of which usually exceeds the diameter.

Basal Crack
A crack in the ingot base caused by restriction to free contraction during solidification.

Base Box
Unit of area of 112 sheets of Tin Mil products (tin plate, tin free steel or black plate) 14 by 20 inches, or 31,360 square inches. Tin plate is sold, and carried in finished inventory, on a weight per unit area rather than on a thickness basis.

Base Metal Contamination
Dirt or other impurities in the steel strip.

Base Size
The intermediate size in which wire is annealed before drawing; in case of drawn galvanised or drawn tinned wire, the size in which it is galvanised or tinned.

Base Type
Type of base used for cooling; i.e., water or fan.

Base Weight
Tin Mill term; Thickness divided by .00011. Also weight in pounds of one Base Box of tin plate. In finished inventory, base weight is specified instead of decimal thickness.

Basic Flux
Used to remove unwanted acidic impurities to form a fusible slag. The chief natural basic fluxes are limestone, composed primarily of calcium carbonate (CaCO3), and dolomite, composed primarily of calcium-magnesium carbonate (Ca, Mg)CO3.

Basic Oxygen Furnace (BOF)
What A pear-shaped furnace, lined with refractory bricks, that refines molten iron from the blast furnace and scrap into steel. Up to 30% of the charge into the BOF can be scrap, with hot metal accounting for the rest.
Why BOFs, which can refine a heat (batch) of steel in less than 45 minutes, replaced open-hearth furnaces in the 1950s; the latter required five to six hours to process the metal. The BOF’s rapid operation, lower cost and ease of control give it a distinct advantage over previous methods.
How Scrap is dumped into the furnace vessel, followed by the hot metal from the blast furnace. A lance is lowered from above, through which blows a high-pressure stream of oxygen to cause chemical reactions that separate impurities as fumes or slag. Once refined, the liquid steel and slag are poured into separate containers.

Basic Oxygen Process (BOP)
A process in which molten steel is produced in a basic lined furnace by blowing oxygen into molten iron, scrap and flux materials. The furnace is known as Basic Oxygen Furnace (BOF).

Basic Process
A steel making process in which steel is refined under a basic slag in a basic refractory lined furnace or convertor.

Basic Refractory
A refractory material basic in chemical composition and containing high amounts of such oxides as lime and magnesia, for example, calcined dolomite or magnetite.

Basic Steel
Steel made by basic process.

Basis Weight
See Base Weight.

Batch Anneal
The process by which a large, stationary stack of steel coils (4 coils high) is subjected to a long heat-treating cycle. This process enables the cold-rolled sheet to fully recrystallize into the softest possible product conforming to customer specifications. Controlling the recrystallization process makes a fine-grained microstructure easy to obtain, and minimizes the tendencies for retention of directional properties of the rolled steel which could produce undesirable shapes in the stamping of a cylindrical part such as a can. Also see Anneal and Continuous Anneal.

Batch Pickling
Pickling of steel sheets and other light-gauge sheared lengths performed with specialized equipment in which a batch of sheets are processed together. Agitation of acid bath is employed as a means to increase the pickling rate.

Bath Sample (Spoon Sample)
A sample taken from molten steel in the furnace, for estimation and analysis of constituents.

Bead Test
Commonly used for testing coating adherence, especially on light-gauge material. A bead is used to deform the steel such that the sample contains a continuous ridge.

Becking
Forging the wall of a steel ring between a top becking tool and a becking bar to increase the internal diameter with or without an increase in the external diameter.

Belly Band
The band (strapping) that goes around the outside diameter of a coil.

Bench Drawn
Bars bright drawn in straight lengths on a draw bench.

Bender
Device used in drop forging hammer dies to bring the several sections of the stock or prepared blank into alignment.

Bend Tests
Various tests used to assess the ductility of steel when subjected to bending. Tests may include determination of the minimum radius or diameter required to make a satisfactory bend and the number of repeated bends that the material can withstand without failure when it is bent through a given angle and over a definite radius.

Bessemer Process
A steel making process in which pig iron is refined in an acid refractory lined convertor by blowing air or a mixture of air, carbon dioxide and oxygen or steam through the molten metal. The basic process is known as Thomas process.

Best Patented Steel Wire
Rope wire drawn to tensile strength of 128 to 147 kgf/mm2.

Best Plough Steel Wire
Patented rope wire drawn to a tensile strength of 155 to 170 kgf/mm2.

Bevelling
Refers to pipe; the end preparation for field welding of the joint.

Bi-Coil
Also BY-COIL. Tin Mill term. Customers buy “by coil” or “bi-coil” rather than cut sheets.

Billet
A semi-finished steel form that is input material for manufacturing long products: bars, channels or other structural shapes. A billet is different from a slab because of its outer dimensions; billets are usually square and not exceeding 125×125 mm in cross section with rounded corners, while slabs are 750-1000 mm wide and 50-250 mm thick. Both shapes are generally forged or continually cast or rolled in billet mill / slabbing mill from ingots, but they may differ greatly in their chemistry.

Binders
Soft wire used for tying bundles or coil of wire.

Binders
Binders are used to impart strength to the refractory during manufacture or in service. These are of 4 types :
d. Temporary Binder : Their function is to improve handling strength during manufacture. Temporary binders include paper byproducts, sugar, or certain clays.
e. Chemical Binder : They impart strength during manufacture, after manufacture, or on installation as a monolithic material. Chemical binders include resins, starches, synthetic clays, waxes etc.
f. Chemical Binders : Chemical binders set hydraulically when mixed with water. The primary binders of this type used in refractories are the calcium-aluminate cements which set rapidly and are able to retain some of their bonding strength to intermediate temperatures.
g. Organic Binders : Organic binders include tars, pitches, or resins for use in reducing atmospheres where the carbon residuals impart bonding strength or act to inhibit alteration.

Biological Oxidation
The most commonly applied technology for final treatment of coke plant waste waters which have significant levels of phenol, cyanide, and ammonia, plus lesser concentrations of other organic compounds, primarily as a result of condensation from coke oven gases. The process consists of two stages : in an aeration basin, a mass of microorganisms in the form of suspended solids called an ‘activated sludge’ is supplied with oxygen, which enables it to destroy the biologically degradable contaminants in the wastewater. The treated water overflows to a clarifier, where the activated sludge is settled out to be recycled back to the aeration basin. The overflow water from the clarifier is discharged.

Bitumen Coating (Asphalt Coating)
An internal and / or external coating obtained either by dipping in a bath of molten asphaltic bitumen or by painting or dipping in a suitable asphaltic bitumen solution.

Bitumen Lining (Asphalt Lining)
An internal protection consisting of suitable bitumen, usually reinforced with inert mineral filler, applied hot by centrifugal means.

Bitumen Sheathing (Asphalt Sheathing)
An external protection consisting of bitumen reinforced with inert mineral filler which may be of a fibrous nature. The sheathing is applied hot.

Bituminous Solution
A paint made from bituminous materials dissolved in appropriate hydrocarbon solution.

Black Annealing
Annealing without any protective covering or using a controlled atmosphere. It is also termed as open annealing. Box annealing of ferrous alloy sheet, strip or wire.

Black Edges
The black colouration at the edges of annealed sheets and strips caused by oxidation or due to soot deposit.

Black Patches
Patches of scale left on sheet and strip surface due to unsatisfactory pickling.

Black Plate
1. Any steel that has not been coated – usually has gone through Tandem Mill (cold-rolled). Also defines a product, uncoated material in tin plate gauges. 2. 128 lb. (.0141 in) and lighter tin mill product which has not received any additional metallic coating during production. 3. A low carbon cold reduced steel intended for use in the uncoated state or for coating with tin and chromium.

Black Iron
Uncoated steel product.

Black Sheet or Strip
Hot-rolled sheet or strip that is not descaled.

Black Softened
Hot- or cold-rolled sheet and strip softened by black annealing, but not yet descaled (and usually refers to stainless variety).

Blank Holder
The device used to hold the blank to prevent wrinkling of the edges during pressing or drawing.

Blanking
An early step in preparing flat-rolled steel for use by an end user. A blank is a section of sheet that has the same outer dimensions as a specified part (such as a car door or hood) but that has not yet been stamped. Steel processors may offer blanking for their customers to reduce their labor and transportation costs; excess steel can be trimmed prior to shipment.

Blast Furnace
A tall shaft-type furnace, with a vertical stack superimposed over a crucible-like hearth, lined with heat-resistant (refractory) bricks and used by integrated steel mills to smelt iron by reducing iron oxides present in ores and sinter into liquid hot metal by using coke as fuel and reducing agent. Its name comes from the blast of preheated air and gases blown from the bottom through water-cooled copper tuyeres and forced up through the iron ore, sinter, coke, and fluxes (limestone and dolomite) that load the furnace. Hot metal and slag are periodically tapped from bottom and gasses rising from the top are cleaned and used as fuel in the steel plant. Blast furnaces are rarely stopped but they can be slowed down or idled.

Blast Furnace Coke
The sized coke obtained from screening in the range of 25 mm to 80 mm which is suitable for charging in the blast furnaces.

Blast Furnace Gas
A by-product of the iron blast furnace. 2.5 to 3.5 ton of BF gas is generated per ton of the pig iron produced.

Blasting
A process of cleaning or preparing surfaces by high speed impact of abrasive particles, such as sand, chilled iron shot, or angular steel grit (generally called sand blasting, shot blasting or grit blasting).

Bleeding
1. Escape of liquid steel through the bursting of the shell of a partly solidified ingot due to build up of pressure inside the solidifying mass, or escape of liquid from the core of an ingot, withdrawn from the mould before it has solidified sufficiently. 2. A coating defect consisting of the migration of an ingredient to the surface of a coating, or a migration, which stains in an adjacent area. The term blooming is also a form of bleeding – usually associated with lubricants rather than pigments.

Blister
1. Coating defect consisting of the formation of bubbles in a coating, which appear as hemispherical elevations. The blisters are hollow, and are usually caused by entrapped air or solvent. 2. A raised spot on the surface on the surface of metal due to expansion of gas which causes a subsurface metal separation such as inclusions and small laminations.

Block Drawn
Wire drawn in coil on a block.

Block Off
1. Wooden separators which are used at both the bottom of a lift and between IPM’s (bundles) of a lift. 2. The act of placing 4x4s between the lifts in the piler’s box.

Blocking
A coating defect consisting of the adhesion of two adjoining coatings or materials. Usually this term refers to the coating on one side of coated plate being tacky or sticky and adhering to the adjacent sheet.

Bloom (1)
A semi-finished forged, rolled or continuously cast steel form whose cross-section is square or rectangular (excluding slab) and is generally more than 125 x 125mm (or equivalent cross-sectional area). This large cast steel shape is broken down in the mill to produce the familiar I-beams, H-beams and sheet piling. Reduction of a bloom to a much smaller cross-section results in formation of billets. Blooms are also part of the high quality bar manufacturing process: reduction of a bloom to a much smaller cross-section can improve the quality of the metal.
Bloom (2)
A coating defect consisting of the migration of an ingredient, in the coating, to the surface of the cured film. Usually blooming refers to waxes or lubricants, which rise to the surface and cause a hazy appearance.

Blow Back
A coating defect consisting of a lower coating film weight on the bottom of the coated sheet caused by high velocity air in the oven. Blow back usually occurs with high solids coatings which have little solvent to evaporate and “set” the film.

Blow Hole (Gas Cavities)
Cavities in solid steel formed by entrapped gas bubbles during solidification.

Blowing Out
When a furnace has reached the end of its campaign (lining worn out), it is usually blown out except under most unusual circumstances. Or, if business conditions deteriorate to the extent production is no longer required, the decision may be made to blow out the furnace.

Blown Ingot
An ingot with pronounced blow holes.

Blown Metal
Liquid pig iron which has been subjected to blowing in the converter, as a result of which the iron is refined to the degree depending on requirement. Blown metal is made into steel by addition of elements as required.

Blue Annealing
Heating hot rolled ferrous sheet in an open furnace to a temperature within the transformation range then cooling in air to soften the metal. A bluish oxide surface layer is formed.

Blue Annealed Wire
Wire with scale free surface, but oxidised to a blue temper colour during annealing.

Blue Billy (Purple Ore)
The iron oxide residue from the manufacture of sulphuric acid from iron pyrites containing approximately 50% iron. It is used for fettling the puddling furnace.

Blued Edges
Blue or bluish-black oxidation colouration at the edges of sheets and strips arising during heat treatment in the absence of any protective medium.

Blush
A coating defect consisting of the whitening of a cured film which results in a translucent or opaque appearance with accompanying loss of gloss. Blushing usually occurs during the pasteurization or steam processing of films which are undercured or water sensitive.

Boiler Tubes (Smoke Tubes)
Tubes which form part of the heating surface of a boiler, as distinct from superheater tubes. The tubes may contain water and be surrounded by the furnace gases as in a water tube boiler, or they may act as flues and be surrounded by water as in smoke tube boiler.

Bolster
A dovetailed block of steel which rests on the base block of the hammer into which the bottom die is keyed.

Bonderizing
Treating cold rolled or galvanized steel surfaces with phosphate to improve paint-adherence.

Bonderized Coating
A thin film of phosphate pretreatment applied to a steel surface (bare or zinc coated) to enhance paintability.

Boss
A projection on the surface of a forging.

Bottling
Reducing the diameter at the end of a hollow forging to form a neck.

Bottom Blowing
Injection of oxygen, singularly, with additives (such as pulverized lime) or in addition to hydrocarbon fuels (such as natural gas, pulverized coke or fuel oil), all routed in the same manner to initiate reactions in the bath during oxygen steelmaking.

Bottom Casting (Trumpet Casting, Uphill Casting)
Simultaneous casting of a number of ingots by pouring the metal into a central refractory-lined tube or trumpet, whence it flows through refractory runners into the bottom of the moulds.

Bottom Fash (Bottom Flash, Bottom Fin)
A layer of metal in the space between the base of the mould and the bottom plate which is attached to the ingot. Similarly, a layer of metal may be formed at the top, in the space between the mould and the refractory lined hot top, the layer of metal formed being called top flash.

Bottom Plate (Bottom Stool)
A cast iron plate of suitable size, on which the bottom of the mould (which is open at both ends) sits. This plate may be recessed or refractory lined.

Bottom Splash (Bottom Shell)
The splash of metal solidifying on the bottom portion of a mould, and later engulfed in the rising column of liquid steel, and arises from the impact of the liquid steel on the bottom plate in initial stages of teeming.

Bottom Stirring
Injection of essentially inert gases into the bottom of the BOF vessel, penetrating the bottom shell and the bottom refractory lining, under the molten bath, to agitate the molten masses for such purposes as homogeneity of the melt after introducing additions in the furnace and improving the interaction between the steel bath and the slag. There is usually no direct chemical reaction associated with bottom stirring. The gas injection is either by means of refractory material porous plugs embedded in the bottom lining, or by means of tuyeres, penetrating the bottom lining.

Box Annealing (Close Annealing)
A process of annealing a ferrous alloy in a suitable closed metal container, with or without packing material, in order to minimize oxidation. The charge is usually heated slowly to a temperature below the transformation range, but sometimes above or within it, and is then cooled slowly.

Bow
The greatest deviation from a straight line along a longitudinal edge in a sheet or strip.

Box Annealing
Annealing of a metal or alloy in a sealed container under condition that minimise oxidation. See black annealing also.

Brake Press Bending
An operation which produces various degree bends when fabricating parts from steel.

Breakage
Cracks or separation of the steel.

Breaker
Uncoiler rolls through which the strip passes; composed of a mandrel and leveling rolls which unwind the strip prior to processing through the Pickler. Breaker rolls assist in breaking up the Hot Mill surface scale.

Breakout
An accident caused by the failure of the walls of the hearth of the Blast Furnace, resulting in liquid iron or slag (or both) flowing uncontrolled out of the Blast Furnace and cause considerable damage to the furnace and surrounding auxiliaries. The term is also used in continuous casting when the solidified outer shell breaks-out resulting in liquid steel flowing-out and spreading over the casting machine, jeopardising the entire casting operation.

Breeze Coke
Smallest fraction of coke, less than 10 mm in size.

Bridging
See Slips.

Bridle Unit
A three-roll cluster used to control line tension at strategic locations on the line.

Bright Annealing
Annealing in a protective medium to prevent discoloration of the bright surface.

Bright Annealed Wire
Wire which has been annealed in a controlled atmosphere to prevent surface oxidation.

Bright Bar or Wire
Bar or wire with a bright finish obtained by cold drawing, machining, grinding etc.

Bright Ground
Bar or wire ground between abrasive wheels which give a bright finish to the material.

Bright Machined
Material which has been turned, ground, shaped or milled to size and finished with a smooth bright surface.

Bright Turned Rounds
a. Round hot rolled material which has been reduced in size by centreless turning and finished with a smooth bright surface
b. Round hot rolled material which has been turned between centres and finally finished. Turned material is generally cold rolled to remove tool marks.

Brinell Hardness Test
A test for determining the hardness of a material by forcing a hard steel or carbide ball of specified diameter into it under a specified load. The result is expressed as the Brinell hardness number.

Briquette Blending
Using non-coking or poorly coking coals by partially briquetting them with coking coals (and binder i.e. tar or pitch) to produce high-strength coke.

Brite
1. Regular galvanize coating (not minimized spangle or JP). 2. Rolls that have no grit; smooth finish on surface of steel.

Brittle Fracture
Separation of a solid accompanied by little or no macroscopic plastic deformation. Typically, brittle fracture occurs by rapid crack propagation with less expenditure of energy than for ductile fracture.

Brittle Inter-metallic Layer
An iron-zinc alloy layer formed between the steel substrate and the free zinc of galvanized coatings.

Brittleness
Tendency to fracture without any visible sign of appreciable deformation.

Broken Backs
A band of traverse cracks along a drawn wire.

Bruise
A mark transferred to the strip surface from a defective process roll. Similar to dent or punchmark.

BSO
See Butyl Stearate.

Buckling
A compression phenomenon that occurs when, after some critical level of load, a bulge, bend, bow, kink, or other wavy condition is produced in a beam, column, plate, bar, or sheet product form.

Build Up Coil
A coil made by putting together two or more coils to make one max coil or one shippable coil.

Bundle
Specific number of sheets which equals 1 unit of production. Number is determined by multiplying sheets/Packages/Bundle. For example, an order calls for 112 sheets/package according to the maximum height allowed for a lift. Therefore, multiplying 15 packages X 112 sheets = 1680 sheets/bundle.

Burdening
The regulation of the proportion of ore, pellets, sinter, flux, coke and miscellaneous materials charged into the blast furnace. Essential to keep the operation of the furnace at maximum efficiency and to control the hot metal composition.

Burden Ratio
In blast furnace, the ratio of iron-bearing materials per charge to the weight of coke.

Burned Steel
A defect on the surface of the ingots, usually on their corners, as a result of flame infringement as they are heated in the soaking pits.

Burning
(1) During austenitising, permanent damage of a metal or alloy by heating to cause incipient melting or intergranular oxidation.
(2) During subcritical annealing, particularly in continuous annealing, production of a severely decarburised and grain coarsened surface layer that results to excessively high temperature.
(3) In grinding, sufficient heating of the workpiece to cause discoloration or to change the microstructure by tempering or hardening.

Burnt Edges
Broken edges occurring during hot-rolling and caused by overheating or burning.

Burnt Rubber
Small or large black spots that generally show up on surface and are generally caused by pickling steel too hot.

Burr (Fash, Flash)
The very subtle ridge on the edge of strip steel left by cutting operations such as slitting, trimming, shearing, sawing or blanking. For example, as a steel processor trims the sides of the sheet steel parallel or cuts a sheet of steel into strips, its edges will bend with the direction of the cut (see Edge Rolling).

Burr Mashers
Devices used to remove build up on edge of strip after the slitting process.

Burst Edges
Edges of sheet or strip ruptured due to excessive cold rolling.

Bushelling
1. Steel scrap consisting of sheet clips and stampings from metal production. This term arose from the practice of collecting the material in bushel baskets through World War II.
2. Compacting wrought iron turnings, borings and scrap into a bloom or slab by heating to a welding temperature and forging.

Butterfly
Rotating disc-type valve which moves 90o from the closed position to the fully open position. Normally used to stop or control the flow through a line, the butterfly regulates steam on the plant service line.

Butt Weld
Weld made to join two strip ends set against each other.

Butt Welding
Joining two edges or ends by placing one against the other and welding them.

Butt-Weld Pipe
The standard pipe used in plumbing. Heated skelp is passed continuously through welding rolls, which form the tube and squeeze the hot edges together to make a solid weld.

Butyl Stearate (BSO)
A lubricant applied on electrolytic chromium coated steel.

By Coil
Selling term which refers to product sold in the form of a coil vs. cut plate. “Bi Coil” is also used in production to refer to coils vs. cut plate.

By-Product Process of Coke Making
In this process, air is excluded from the coking chambers, and the necessary heat for distillation of coal is supplied from external combustion of some of the gas recovered from the coking process (or, in some instances, cleaned blast furnace gas or a mixture of coke oven and blast furnace gas).

Camber
1. Camber is the deviation of a side edge from a straight edge. Measurement is taken by placing a straight edge on the concave side of a sheet and measuring the distance between the sheet edge and the straight edge in the center of the arc. Camber is caused by one side being elongated more than the other due to improper heating, differential expansion or contraction, improper alignment on the hot beds or faulty setting of the rolls. 2. The hook or dogleg near the ends of a coil.

Camber Tolerances
Camber is the deviation from edge straightness. Maximum allowable tolerance of this deviation of a side edge from a straight line are defined in ASTM Standards.

Can Dimensions
Can measurements are expressed in inches and sixteenths of inches in a kind of shorthand. The standard 12 ounce beverage can, for example, is described as 211 by 413, which translates to a 2 11/16 inches in diameter by 4 13/16 inched in height. When a two piece can is described as 211/209/413, this means 2 11/16 inches in diameter, necked in at the top to a 2 9/16 inches by a 4 13/16 inches in height.

Capacity
Normal ability to produce steel in a given time period. This rating should include maintenance requirements, but because such service is scheduled to match the needs of the machinery (not those of the calendar), a mill might run at more than 100% of capacity one month and then fall well below rated capacity as maintenance is performed.
Engineered Capacity The theoretical volume of a mill, given its constraints of raw material supply and normal working speed.
True Capacity Volume at full utilization, allowing for the maintenance of equipment and reflecting current material constraints. (Bottlenecks of supply and distribution can change over time–capacity will expand or reduce.)

Capped Steel
It is a rimming steel in which the depth of the rim is controlled by arresting the rimming action, at the appropriate time. The rimming action can be arrested mechanically by putting a heavy steel plate on the top of the surface of the ingot (mechanical capping), or can be stopped by killing by the addition of decoxidizers on the ingot top (chemical capping). The rimming action can also be stopped by spraying water on the top of the ingot.

Capping (of Abrasive Particle)
A mechanism of deterioration of abrasive points in which the point become covered by caps of adherent abrasion debris.

Carbon Electrodes
Made from calcined petroleum coke or calcined low-ash anthracite coke, carbon electrodes are widely used in submerged-arc furnaces for the manufacture of ferroalloys, silicon metal, aluminum, calcium carbide, phosphorus, and so on because of their infusibility, chemical inertness, electrical conductivity, mechanical strength, and resistance to thermal shock.

Carbon Steel
An unalloyed steel. Steel that has properties made up mostly of the element carbon and which relies on the carbon content for structure. Most of the steel produced in the world is carbon steel. The plain carbon steels may also be classified on the basis of carbon content as hypoeutectoid (carbon content below the eutectoid value of 0.80%) or hypereutectoid (carbon content above this value)

Carbonitriding
A case hardening process in which a suitable ferrous material is heated above the lower transformation temperature in a gaseous atmosphere having a composition that results in simultaneous absorption of carbon and nitrogen by the surface and by diffusion, creates a concentration gradient. The process is completed by cooling at a rate that produces the desired properties in the workpiece.

Carburising
A process of introducing carbon into the surface of a solid piece of steel by heating and holding above the transformation temperature in contact with a suitable source of carbon which may be a solid, liquid or gas. On quenching after carburizing, the high-carbon ‘case’ becomes very hard, while the low-carbon core remains comparatively soft.

Cardboard Drum
Cardboard insert placed on the reel around which the coil is wound. The drum is used to eliminate damage in the center of the coil.

Case
That portion of a ferrous alloy, extending inward from surface whose composition has been altered during case hardening. Typically considered to be the portion of an alloy (a) whose composition has been measurably altered from original composition, (b) that appeared dark when etched, (c) that has a higher hardness value than the core.

Cased Tube
A close-joint tube of steel over which a close-joint or seamless or welded tube of another metal is drawn.

Case Hardening
The surface hardening processes which involve a change in chemical composition of the surface portion. They include carburizing, in which the carbon content of the surface portions is locally increased; nitriding, in which the nitrogen content of the surface portions is increased; and carbonitriding, in which both the carbon and nitrogen contents are increased.

Casing (Oil Well Casing)
Tubes used for lining bore holes to prevent caving in of the surrounding strata and the undesired entry of water.

Casing
Casing is the structural retainer for the walls of oil and gas wells. Casing is used to prevent contamination of both the surrounding water table and the well itself. Casing lasts the life of a well and is not usually removed when a well is closed.

Cast (Heat or Melt)
Usually the product of a single furnace charge. Sometimes the furnace contents are tapped into two or more ladles when the product of each ladle may be called a separate cast. In the Bessemer process, a cast is also known as a blow.

Castables
Refractory concretes made with calcium aluminate (CA) cements and various refractory aggregates uses in various locations like coke oven battery, tundish covers and in soaking pit construction.

Cast Iron
An alloy essentially of iron and carbon containing more than 2 percent carbon (usually between 2.5 and 4 percent). It also contains silicon, manganese, sulphur and phosphorus in varying amounts. The character of cast iron is controlled by the manner in which carbon is present, and the fractured surface of cast iron exhibits characteristic colour, namely white, mottle, or grey, depending on whether carbon is present wholly in combined state (as carbide) or partly in combined state or wholly in the form of graphite.

Casting
Pouring or teeming molten metal into moulds. This also refers to metal objects so procured.

Casting Ladle
A refractory lined receptacle in which liquid steel is received from the furnace for teeming purpose.

Cast Structure
The metallographic structure of a casting evidenced by shape and orientation of grains as well as segregation of impurities.

Casting Shrinkage
Contraction of a casting during solidification and subsequent cooling to ambient temperature.

Cast Steel
The term is used for steel castings.

Catastrophic Wear
Rapidly occurring or accelerating surface damage, deterioration, or change of shape caused by wear to such a degree that the service life of a part is appreciably shortened or its function is destroyed.

Catch Weight Coil
A coil of non-standard weight

Cathodic Sodium Dichromate
A common treatment applied to passivate the surface of electrolytic tin plate against the formation of tin oxides.

Cauliflower Top
Ingot top, characterized by numerous bulges (like a cauliflower) found in semi-killed / rimming steel ingots. This is caused by the bleeding of metals, when it has reached a mushy stage.

Caustic Cracking
A form of stress corrosion cracking most frequently encountered in carbon steels or iron-chromium-nickel alloys that are exposed to concentrated hydroxide solutions at temperatures of 200 to 250oC. Also known as caustic embrittlement.

Cavitation Damage
Erosion of a solid surface through the formation and collapse of cavities in an adjacent liquid. Also known as cavitation erosion.

Cementite
A very hard and brittle compound of iron and carbon (Fe3C). It is characterised by orthorhombic crystal structure. Its occurrence as a phase in the steel alters chemical composition by presence of manganese and other carbide forming elements.

Center Buckle
A condition in the band of steel where the center (in the direction of rolling) is longer than the edges and has a wave or buckle.

Chafing Fatigue
Fatigue initiated in a surface damaged by rubbing against another body.

Chamfering
The removal of sharp edges (the term is practically synonymous with ‘bevelling’ but has a less restricted application.

Channeling
When the percentage of fines in the blast furnace burden material increases significantly, too much of the burden will be deposited directly below the rim of the bell and very little will reach the walls. As a result, the ratio of burden to coke will be very low near the walls and, since the permeability there will increase because of the increased percentage of coke, the flow of hot gas along the walls will significantly increase. This is termed as channelling and causes excessive heating of the walls. Channelling is no longer a major problem because of changes in furnace top design, charging sequence, and raw material preparation.

Charge
Materials charged in a furnace for producing steel. For example, iron ore, coke and limestone are charged into a Blast Furnace; a Basic Oxygen Furnace is charged with scrap and hot metal. Also, the act of loading material into a vessel.

Charging Box (Charging Basket)
Cast or fabricated steel or cast iron box used for charging material in steel making furnace. Charging basket is fabricated with a false bottom steel container for charging scrap in electric furnace.

Charging Machine (Charger)
A ground or overhead travelling machine used for charging scrap in the steel making furnace such as open hearth.

Charging on the Main
To prevent escape of gases from the coke ovens during charging of coke, a steam-jet aspirator is used to draw gases from the space above the charged coal into the collector main. This practice is called ‘charging on the main’.

Chattering
A coating defect consisting of the washboard appearance of the cured film with variations of color or opacity. “Gear marks” is another synonym when the defect is caused by the gear lash of the coating machine. Chattering occurs when the coating machine permits the uneven application of the coating.

Checked Edges
Cracked edges in sheet bars and strips occurring during hot-rolling.

Checking
A coating defect consisting of the cracking of the cured film into small segments, with hairline cracks separating the segments. The similar defects of mud cracking or alligatoring are the same as checking, but they are larger. Crazing is a synonymous term.

Cheese
A roughly cylindrical forging with convex sides formed by upending ingot or billet lengths between flat tools.

Chemical Treatment
A customer-specified rust inhibitor applied to the coated product. 2. A passivating chemical treatment normally applied to the steel surface to control oxide formation and growth.

Chemically Brightened
A chemical addition made to the plating bath that results in a coating with a bright appearance as opposed to the mechanically brightened surface appearance.

Chemistries
The chemical composition of steel indicating the amount of carbon, manganese, sulfur, phosphorous and a host of other elements.

Chill
An external zone of cementitic iron without appreciable graphite.

Chill Factor
The temperature change in degrees Celcius when one kilogram of addition agent is added to one metric ton of liquid steel and, in FPS units, the temperature change in degrees Fahrenheit caused by the addition of one pound of addition agent to one net ton of liquid steel.

Chill Cracks
Marks on a rolled surface resulting from cracks in the surface of a roll used for hot rolling. A particular form of roll mark. Surface cracks found on rolls are usually caused by alternate heating and cooling or by overheating of the rolls in service, in which case they are called fire cracks.

Chilled Spring Wire
Wire drawn from quenched and age hardened mild steel.

Chipping
Removing surface defects by manual or pneumatic chisel.

Chop
A defect caused by metal being scrapped from the side of forging and hammered into the surface.

Chromite
A neutral refractory which is a double oxide of chromium and iron. The term is also used for a mineral containing chromic oxide and iron oxide.

Chromium
An alloying element that is the essential stainless steel raw material for conferring corrosion resistance. A film of chromium oxide that naturally forms on the surface of stainless steel self-repairs in the presence of oxygen if the steel is damaged mechanically or chemically, and thus prevents corrosion from occurring.

Cinder
The molten by-products produced in furnace used for bushelling or reheating. The chemical composition varies but is essentially silicate of iron.

Cinder Notch
Another name for slag notch.

Cinder Patch
This defect is the result of pick-up of material from soaking-pit bottoms, and generally has the appearance of a very scrabby bottom.

Circored
What A gas-based process developed by Lurgi Metallurgie in Germany to produce DRI or HBI (see Direct Reduced Iron and Hot Briquetted Iron).
How The two-stage method yields fines with a 93% iron content. Iron ore fines pass first through a circulating fluidized-bed reactor, and subsequently through a bubbling fluidized-bed reactor.

Cladding
What Method of applying a stainless steel / copper / aluminum coating to carbon steel or lower-alloy steel (i.e., steel with alloying element content below 5%).
Why To increase corrosion resistance at lower initial cost than exclusive use of stainless steel etc.
How By (1) welding stainless steel onto carbon steel, (2) pouring melted stainless steel around a solid carbon steel slab in a mould, (3) placing a slab of carbon steel between two plates of stainless steel and bonding them by rolling at high temperature on a plate mill, (4) mounting the steel core in a covered mould and heating it out of contact with air to a temperature slightly above the melting point of copper, which then is cast about it, (5) dipping the solid steel core into a bath of molten copper, (6) depositing the copper on steel core electrolytically, (7) rolling flat steel almost to gauge, cleaning it thoroughly and either placing it between two sheets of aluminum and cold rolling or heating to between 315o and 400oC and rolling.

Class 1 Surface Quality
A class of cold rolled steel processed to meet requirements for controlled surface texture, flatness, and temper requirements. Produced for exposed applications.

Cleaning Tank
This section of the plater is used to remove dirt, oil, grease, oxides and other contaminates from the surface of material to be electroplated. A cleaning agent is used at a temperature of 180-190 degrees.

Cleanliness
For internal steel quality, a measure of the size and frequency of inclusions; for external steel surface quality, a measure of the amount of extraneous materials (such as dirt, iron particles, carbon, etc.) on the steel surface.

Clean Steel
Steel which is obtained after secondary steel making (also referred to as Ladle Metallurgy’) and satisfies stringent requirements of surface, internal and micro-cleanliness quality and of mechanical properties.

Cleavage Fracture
A fracture, usually of a polycrystalline metal, in which most of the grains have failed by cleavage, resulting in bright reflecting facets. It is one type of crystalline fracture and is associated with low-energy brittle fracture..

Clink
A rupture (internal or external) in ingot, bloom, billet, slabs, etc., caused by thermal stresses.

Clipping
Removing the fash.

Closing
Reducing the diameter of a tube, ring or hollow forging by pressing or hammering on a mandrel.

Coal Preheating
A method of coal preparation :the coal is dried and preheated before charging it into coke ovens. The major advantages are : improvement in strength and hardness of coke, usage of poorer quality coals, increase in oven throughput because of reduction in coking time, reduction in overall fuel requirements, more uniform heating of the batteries, and less thermal shock to the refractory brickwork.

Coating
The process of covering steel with another material (tin, chrome, zinc etc.), primarily for corrosion resistance. They can be classified as anodic, cathodic, inert or inhibitive.

Coating Weight
1. In the Sheet Mill, the amount of Zinc on a galvanized sheet measured in ounces per square foot. 2. Specified in pounds (or parts thereof) of tin coating per base box. This term is often misunderstood because in most cases the decimal point is omitted when written or printed.

Coating Weight Test
A test of the weight of the coating measured 2 inches from each side of the strip and at the center.

Cogging (Roughing)
The action of reducing, by hot working, an ingot into a bloom or slab for subsequent rolling or forging.

Coils
Steel sheet that has been wound. A slab, once rolled in a hot-strip mill, is more than one-quarter mile long; coils are the most efficient way to store and transport sheet steel.

Coiling
The process of laying or winding the product in the form of coils

Coiled Bar
A long length of hot rolled bar produced in a continuous rolling mill and coiled in a manner similar to wire rod.

Coil Breaks
1. A physical condition produced in the cooling tower or quench tank area of the line due to improper temperature control during cooling. 2. Creases or ridges which appear as parallel lines, transverse to the direction of rolling, and which generally extend across the width of the sheet. 3. A discontinuous curvature in the strip in the direction in which the material was rolled or uncoiled. Generally found in uncoiled hot rolled strip.

Coil End
ID of a coil that is left because of a defect. Ranging from 500 – 10,000 pounds. Anything 10,000 pounds and over get an IPM. A coil with a weight less than 5000 lbs. that does not meet customer specifications is called a salvage coil. These coils do not get an IPM number

Coil Line Markings
A light white-gray mark (square, circle, line, diamond, etc.) which has been placed on the strip by the platers. This mark serves as an indication to the feeder that the placement of the coil on the entry reel must be placed correctly to meet customer specifications (external customers request this mark to distinguish coating on the strip). The Feeder must refer to the scheduling book to determine how to place the coil on the entry reel for over or under wind.

Coil Number
Produced IPM Number assigned to a coil. IPM (In Process Material) Number.

Coil Set
A curvature of the strip in the lengthwise sense, parallel to the direction in which the strip was rolled or uncoiled.

Coining
Sizing a forging to close tolerances under a suitable press or hammer.

Coke
What The basic fuel consumed in blast furnaces in the smelting of iron. It is a hard porous substance that is principally pure carbon. Coke is a processed form of coal, made in oven by driving off volatile elements. In blast furnaces, coke helps generate the 3000o F temperatures and reducing gases needs to smelt iron ore. About 1,000 pounds of coke are needed to process a ton of pig iron, an amount which represents more than 50% of an integrated steel mill’s total energy use.
Why Metallurgical coal burns sporadically and reduces into a sticky mass. Processed coke, however, burns steadily inside and out, and is not crushed by the weight of the iron ore in the blast furnace.
How Inside the narrow confines of the coke oven, coal is heated without oxygen for 18 hours to drive off gases and impurities.
Types There are three principal kinds of coke, classified according to the methods by which they are manufactured : Low, medium and high-temperature coke, Coke used for metallurgical purposes must be carbonized in the higher ranges of temperature (between 900o and 1095o) if the product is to have satisfactory physical properties. Even with good coking coal, the product obtained by low-temperature carbonization between 450o and 760o is unacceptable for good blast furnace operation.

Coke Oven Battery
A set of ovens that process coal into coke. Coke ovens are constructed in batteries of 10-100 ovens that maybe 20 feet tall, 40 feet long, and less than two feet wide. Coke batteries, because of the exhaust fumes emitted when coke is pushed from the ovens, often are the dirtiest area of a steel mill complex.

Coke Oven Gas
A by-product of coke manufacture, it is produced during the carbonization or destructive distillation of bituminous coal in the absence of air in the coke ovens. Approximately 310 cbm CO gas is produced per MT of coal coked in conventional high-temperature coking processes.

Cold Drawing
Reducing the cross-sectional area of a tube, when cold, by drawing through a die. The tubes are occasionally pushed through the die.

Cold Reduction
What Finishing mills roll cold coils of pickled hot-rolled sheet to make the steel thinner, smoother, and stronger, by applying pressure, rather than heat.
How Stands of rolls in a cold-reduction mill are set very close together and press a sheet of steel from one-quarter inch thick into less than an eighth of an inch, while more than doubling its length.

Cold Reduction Mill
Sheet and strip are cold reduced to the desired thickness for the following reasons: 1) To obtain the desired surface. 2) To impart desired mechanical properties. 3) To make gauges lighter than the hot strip mill can produce economically. 4) To produce sheet and strip of more uniform thickness.

Cold Roll Base
Coils that are cold worked or reduced to gauge on the tandem mill.

Cold-Rolled Strip (Sheet)
A product manufactured from hot rolled descaled (pickled) coils by cold reducing to the desired thickness, generally followed by annealing and temper rolling. Strip has a final product width of approximately 12 inches, while sheet may be more than 80 inches wide. Cold-rolled sheet is considerably thinner and stronger than hot-rolled sheet, so it will sell for a premium (see Sheet Steel). If the sheet is not annealed after cold reduction it is known as full hard. (See Full Hard Cold Rolled).

Cold Rolling (Cold Reduction)
Rolling steel (generally sheet or strip) below its recrystallization temperature with the degree of reduction being usually above 5%.

Cold Rolling Mill
A mill that reduces the cross sectional area of the metal by rolling at approximately room temperature.

Cold Shut (Teeming Arrest)
An ingot or casting defect resulting from interrupted flow of metal during pouring, causing a discontinuity in the skin.

Cold Sinking
Reducing the cross-sectional area and diameter of a tube by drawing when cold through a die.

Cold Strip Mill
A mill that rolls strip without first reheating.

Cold Work
Plastic deformation at such temperatures and rates that substantial increases occur in the strength and hardness of the metal visible structural changes include changes in grain shape and, in some instances, mechanical twinning or banding. The forces are relatively insensitive to the rate of application of loads and to temperature variations, but the basic strength of the worked metal is permanently increased.

Cold Working (Rolling)
What Substantial mechanical working (usually above 5%), for example, drawing, rolling, forging, etc. of a metal or alloy below its normal recrystallization temperature.
Why To create a permanent increase in the hardness and strength of the steel.
How The application of forces to the steel causes changes in the composition that enhance certain properties. In order for these improvements to be sustained, the temperature must be below a certain range, because the structural changes are eliminated by higher temperatures.

Collar
Part of a forging having a diameter greater than the adjacent portions but of a length less than its diameter.

Columnar Structure
A coarse structure of parallel elongated grains formed by unidirectional growth that is most often observed in castings. This results from diffusional growth accompanied by a solid state transformation.

Combined Blowing
Also called top and bottom blowing or mixed blowing, this process is characterized by both a top blowing lance and a method of achieving stirring from the bottom. The configurational differences in mixed blowing lie principally in the bottom tuyeres or elements. These range from fully cooled tuyeres, to uncooled tuyeres, to permeable elements.

Combined Carbon
That part of the total carbon in steel or cast iron present as other than free carbon.

Commercial Quality
Material of normally good quality for which limits of chemical composition and mechanical properties are more relaxed.

Commercial Tolerance
A range by which a product’s specifications can deviate from those ordered and still meet the industry accepted ranges (defined in ASTM Standards, etc.)

Condenser Tubes
Tubes used in the conversion of a vapour into a liquid by cooling.

Consumption
Measures the physical use of steel by end users. Steel consumption estimates, unlike steel demand figures, account for changes in inventories.

Contact Rolls
Metal rolls that are used in the chemical treatment area. Electricity goes through these rolls.

Continuous Anneal
A process by which the steel is rapidly heated, soaked and cooled at a confirmed rate by passing the coil at a relatively high speed through a furnace consisting of numerous sections.

Continuous Casting
What A method of pouring steel directly from the furnace into a semi-finished product such as billet, bloom, or slab directly from its molten form. It bypasses the traditional process of pouring (teeming) molten steel into ingots, reheating those ingots, and then rolling them into semi-finished steel shapes.
Why Continuous casting avoids the need for large, expensive mills for rolling ingots into slabs. Continuous cast slabs also solidify in a few minutes versus several hours for an ingot. Because of this, the chemical composition and mechanical properties are more uniform. This process has steadily displaced ingot casting due to its advantages of higher yield and improved productivity.
How Steel from the BOF or electric furnace is poured into a tundish (a shallow vessel that looks like a bathtub) atop the continuous caster. As steel carefully flows from the tundish down into the water-cooled copper mould of the caster, it solidifies into a ribbon of red-hot steel. At the bottom of the caster, torches cut the continuously flowing steel to form slabs or blooms.

Continuous Sheet Galvanizing
A continuous process used to produce a zinc coating on steel sheet by immersion in a bath of molten zinc. Controlled wiping of the coating after galvanizing produces thin uniform coatings of zinc (with no alloy layers), usually 15 to 20 um (0.6 – 0.8 mils) thick. The coating is sufficiently ductile to withstand deep drawing or bending.

Continuous Variable Crown
Hydraulic system that supplies the force to all the cylinders associated with work-roll balance and bending and back-up roll balance (also supplies force for work roll shifting).

Continuous Weld Process (Fretz-Moon Process)
A process for making welded steel tubes in which a continuous strip is passed (by joining the ends of the coils) through a tunnel furnace, from which it emerges at welding temperature to enter a series of rolls which form it into a tube and weld the abutting edges together. The resulting continuous tube is cut to the desired length.

Contraction Cavity
A cavity formed in an ingot as a result of contraction during solidification. Also referred to as shrinkage cavity or pipe usually located in the hot-top region of killed steel.

Controlled Rolling
A hot rolling process in which the temperature of steel is closely controlled, particularly during the final rolling passes to produce a fine grain microstructure.

Conversion Cost
Resources spent to process material in a single stage, from one type to another. The costs of converting iron ore to hot metal or pickling hot-rolled coil can be isolated for analysis.

Converter/Processor
Demand from steel customers such as rerollers and tube makers, which process steel into a more finished state, such as pipe, tubing and cold-rolled strip, before selling it to end users. Such steel generally is not sold on contract, making the converter segment of the mills’ revenues more price sensitive than their supply contracts to the auto manufacturers.

Convertor
The pear shaped refractory lined (acid or basic) vessel in which the pneumatic steel making processes are carried-out. The vessel is mounted suitably for tilting for introducing the liquid material and taking out the blown material. The air, oxygen, carbon dioxide, steam or a mixture of these, is blown through a detachable bottom, side or top.

Coppered Wire
A wire produced by wet drawing with a copper sulphate or copper tin sulphate solutions for improving drawability. The colour depends upon the chemical used and the drawing operation imparts a luster to the wire resulting into improved appearance and limited corrosion resistance.

Core
Inside diameter of a coil.
Also
(1) In a ferrous alloy that has undergone case hardening, that portion of the alloy structure not part of case (see case). Typically considered to be the portion that (a) appears light when etched, (b) has an unaltered chemical composition or (c) has a hardness value lower than that of the case
(2) A specifically formed material inserted in a mould to shape the interior or other part of a casting that can not be shaped as easily by the pattern.

Core Loss
The quantity, expressed in watts per kilogram in SI and watts per pound in FPS system, can be defined as the electrical energy that is expended in the core steel without contributing to the work of the device. The two components of core loss are eddy current loss and hysteresis loss.

COREX�
What COREX is a smelting reduction process in which coal is directly used in a melter gasifier as an energy carrier and reducing agent thereby eliminating the need for a blast furnace, sinter plant and coke ovens. It yields hot metal or pig iron that can be used by integrated mills or EAF mills.
How The process gasifies non-coking coal in a smelting reactor, which also produces liquid iron. The gasified coal is fed into a shaft furnace, where it removes oxygen from iron ore lumps, pellets or sinter; the reduced iron is then fed to the smelting reactor.

Corrective Leveling
Capability of a leveling machine to remove or reduce shape defects across the strip, coil, or sheet, in addition to flattening lengthwise curvatures. Generally employs 17 to 23 small diameter rolls with adjustable back ups for varying nest across face of machine.

Corrosion
The gradual degradation or alteration of steel caused by chemical or electrochemical attack due to atmosphere, moisture, or other agents.

Corrosion Fatigue
Cracking produced by the combined action of repeated or fluctuating stress and a corrosive environment at lower stress levels or fewer cycles than would be required in the absence of a corrosive environment.

Corrosion Resistance
The intrinsic ability of a material to resist degradation by corrosion. This ability can be enhanced by application of special coatings on the surface of the material or by imparting certain structural changes in the material by addition of alloying elements.

Corrosive Wear
Wear in which chemical or electrochemical reaction with the environment is significant.

Coupling Tubes (Coupler Tubes)
Tubes of suitable dimensions for the production of couplings.

Cracked Edges (Broken Corners)
Discontinuity or cracked condition on the edge (at right angles to the direction of rolling) of rolled products. The term ‘broken corners’ is used in connection with large sections, such as blooms, billets and slabs.

Cracking
A coating defect consisting of a break in the cured film which exposes the bare substrate. Cracking usually occurs during fabrication of the coated plate when the coating is too brittle or the adhesion is too low.

Cratering
A coating defect consisting of small, apparently uncoated, spots of coated plate consisting of a very thin film of coating which was contaminated by oil, silicone, or foreign matter. Eyeholing is similar to cratering, but with metal exposure in the crater.

Crawling
A coating defect consisting of a lack of adhesion to, or dewetting of, the substrate while the coating or ink is wet. The cause is due to a difference in surface tension of the coating and substrate. Crawling is also known as cissing and dewetting.

Crazing (Surface Crazing)
Markings on ingot or ingot mould surface in the form of a network, in a mosaic pattern giving the appearance of crocodile skin.

Creep
Time-dependent strain, occurring under stress. The creep strain occurring at a diminishing rate is called primary or transient creep; that occurring at a minimum and almost constant rate, secondary or steady-rate creep; that occurring at an accelerating rate, tertiary creep. It is more marked at elevated temperatures and is, therefore, important in connection with metal and alloys for service at high temperature.

Creep Recovery
The time-dependent decrease in strain in a solid, following the removal of force. Recovery is usually determined at constant temperature.

Crimped Edge
A damaged edge due to the strip wandering side-to-side into obstructions as it moves down the line.

Critical Cooling Rate
Minimum rate of continuous cooling for preventing undesirable transformations. For steel, unless specified, it is the slowest rate at which austenite can be cooled from above critical temperature to prevent its transformation above the martensite start temperature.

Cropped Head / Tail
Squaring of the strips by use of mechanical shear.

Cropping
Shearing off discard from the ends of an ingot or bloom or forged products prior to further working. End discard shearing of semi-finished or finished products is also called cropping.

Crossbow
A curvature across the width of the strip at a 90o angle to the direction in which the strip has been rolled or uncoiled.

Cross Breaks
1. Creases which appear as parallel lines transverse to the direction of rolling. 2. Quality defect on the edge of plate coming to the line (broken steel but not open breaks). 3. Hard spots caused by abrupt deformation of the strip after hot rolling and due to stressing beyond the elastic limit of the metal.

Cross Rolling
Rolling in the direction transverse to the longitudinal axis of the ingot or slab, as in the production of plate or sheet.

Crown
1. The difference in thickness between the edge and center of the strip. 2. Thickened center of a strip of steel; can also have a crown on the work roll; two-point crown on a roll means a crown of 0.002 inches. 3. The crown, or center, refers to the tendency of a sheet to be heavier in gauge in the center than on the edges. It may be caused by the use of hollow, or worn back-up rolls, work rolls improperly ground, or excessive work in the last finishing stand.

Crucible Process
A steel making process in which the charge, generally small (roughly 20 to 25 kg), is melted in a crucible for the production of very high quality steel out of contact with fuel. The product, known as crucible steel, is used for making tool steels.

Crucible Steel
Steel made by the crucible process.

Cryogenic Steel
Steels, such as 9% nickel steel and the austenitic stainless steels, are capable of retaining toughness in applications involving the storing and handling of liquefied methane, oxygen, nitrogen, argon, hydrogen and helium to –273o.

Culvert Pipe
Heavy gauge, galvanized steel that is spiral-formed or riveted into corrugated pipe, which is used for highway drainage applications.

Cupping
An internal transverse crack in the wire which may result in fracture of the cup and cone type. It may be caused by excessive cold work or by segregation where the harder section is less ductile than the surface.

Cure Time
Full polymerization is a function of time and temperature.

Curing
The process by which synthetic materials form continuous films by various combinations of oxidation, solvent evaporation and heat of polymerization according to their basic resin structures.

Cut Edge
The normal edge that results from the shearing, slitting or trimming of a mill edge.

Cutoffs
A pair of blades either machined in the corner of dies or inserted in the dies, used to cut away forging from the bar.

Cut-to-Length
Process to uncoil sections of flat-rolled steel and cut them into a desired length. Product that is cut to length is normally shipped flat-stacked.

Cycle Annealing
An annealing process that uses a predetermined and closely controlled time temperature cycle to produce specific properties or microstructure.

Camber
1. Camber is the deviation of a side edge from a straight edge. Measurement is taken by placing a straight edge on the concave side of a sheet and measuring the distance between the sheet edge and the straight edge in the center of the arc. Camber is caused by one side being elongated more than the other due to improper heating, differential expansion or contraction, improper alignment on the hot beds or faulty setting of the rolls. 2. The hook or dogleg near the ends of a coil.

Camber Tolerances
Camber is the deviation from edge straightness. Maximum allowable tolerance of this deviation of a side edge from a straight line are defined in ASTM Standards.

Can Dimensions
Can measurements are expressed in inches and sixteenths of inches in a kind of shorthand. The standard 12 ounce beverage can, for example, is described as 211 by 413, which translates to a 2 11/16 inches in diameter by 4 13/16 inched in height. When a two piece can is described as 211/209/413, this means 2 11/16 inches in diameter, necked in at the top to a 2 9/16 inches by a 4 13/16 inches in height.

Capacity
Normal ability to produce steel in a given time period. This rating should include maintenance requirements, but because such service is scheduled to match the needs of the machinery (not those of the calendar), a mill might run at more than 100% of capacity one month and then fall well below rated capacity as maintenance is performed.
Engineered Capacity The theoretical volume of a mill, given its constraints of raw material supply and normal working speed.
True Capacity Volume at full utilization, allowing for the maintenance of equipment and reflecting current material constraints. (Bottlenecks of supply and distribution can change over time–capacity will expand or reduce.)

Capped Steel
It is a rimming steel in which the depth of the rim is controlled by arresting the rimming action, at the appropriate time. The rimming action can be arrested mechanically by putting a heavy steel plate on the top of the surface of the ingot (mechanical capping), or can be stopped by killing by the addition of decoxidizers on the ingot top (chemical capping). The rimming action can also be stopped by spraying water on the top of the ingot.

Capping (of Abrasive Particle)
A mechanism of deterioration of abrasive points in which the point become covered by caps of adherent abrasion debris.

Carbon Electrodes
Made from calcined petroleum coke or calcined low-ash anthracite coke, carbon electrodes are widely used in submerged-arc furnaces for the manufacture of ferroalloys, silicon metal, aluminum, calcium carbide, phosphorus, and so on because of their infusibility, chemical inertness, electrical conductivity, mechanical strength, and resistance to thermal shock.

Carbon Steel
An unalloyed steel. Steel that has properties made up mostly of the element carbon and which relies on the carbon content for structure. Most of the steel produced in the world is carbon steel. The plain carbon steels may also be classified on the basis of carbon content as hypoeutectoid (carbon content below the eutectoid value of 0.80%) or hypereutectoid (carbon content above this value)

Carbonitriding
A case hardening process in which a suitable ferrous material is heated above the lower transformation temperature in a gaseous atmosphere having a composition that results in simultaneous absorption of carbon and nitrogen by the surface and by diffusion, creates a concentration gradient. The process is completed by cooling at a rate that produces the desired properties in the workpiece.

Carburising
A process of introducing carbon into the surface of a solid piece of steel by heating and holding above the transformation temperature in contact with a suitable source of carbon which may be a solid, liquid or gas. On quenching after carburizing, the high-carbon ‘case’ becomes very hard, while the low-carbon core remains comparatively soft.

Cardboard Drum
Cardboard insert placed on the reel around which the coil is wound. The drum is used to eliminate damage in the center of the coil.

Case
That portion of a ferrous alloy, extending inward from surface whose composition has been altered during case hardening. Typically considered to be the portion of an alloy (a) whose composition has been measurably altered from original composition, (b) that appeared dark when etched, (c) that has a higher hardness value than the core.

Cased Tube
A close-joint tube of steel over which a close-joint or seamless or welded tube of another metal is drawn.

Case Hardening
The surface hardening processes which involve a change in chemical composition of the surface portion. They include carburizing, in which the carbon content of the surface portions is locally increased; nitriding, in which the nitrogen content of the surface portions is increased; and carbonitriding, in which both the carbon and nitrogen contents are increased.

Casing (Oil Well Casing)
Tubes used for lining bore holes to prevent caving in of the surrounding strata and the undesired entry of water.

Casing
Casing is the structural retainer for the walls of oil and gas wells. Casing is used to prevent contamination of both the surrounding water table and the well itself. Casing lasts the life of a well and is not usually removed when a well is closed.

Cast (Heat or Melt)
Usually the product of a single furnace charge. Sometimes the furnace contents are tapped into two or more ladles when the product of each ladle may be called a separate cast. In the Bessemer process, a cast is also known as a blow.

Castables
Refractory concretes made with calcium aluminate (CA) cements and various refractory aggregates uses in various locations like coke oven battery, tundish covers and in soaking pit construction.

Cast Iron
An alloy essentially of iron and carbon containing more than 2 percent carbon (usually between 2.5 and 4 percent). It also contains silicon, manganese, sulphur and phosphorus in varying amounts. The character of cast iron is controlled by the manner in which carbon is present, and the fractured surface of cast iron exhibits characteristic colour, namely white, mottle, or grey, depending on whether carbon is present wholly in combined state (as carbide) or partly in combined state or wholly in the form of graphite.

Casting
Pouring or teeming molten metal into moulds. This also refers to metal objects so procured.

Casting Ladle
A refractory lined receptacle in which liquid steel is received from the furnace for teeming purpose.

Cast Structure
The metallographic structure of a casting evidenced by shape and orientation of grains as well as segregation of impurities.

Casting Shrinkage
Contraction of a casting during solidification and subsequent cooling to ambient temperature.

Cast Steel
The term is used for steel castings.

Catastrophic Wear
Rapidly occurring or accelerating surface damage, deterioration, or change of shape caused by wear to such a degree that the service life of a part is appreciably shortened or its function is destroyed.

Catch Weight Coil
A coil of non-standard weight

Cathodic Sodium Dichromate
A common treatment applied to passivate the surface of electrolytic tin plate against the formation of tin oxides.

Cauliflower Top
Ingot top, characterized by numerous bulges (like a cauliflower) found in semi-killed / rimming steel ingots. This is caused by the bleeding of metals, when it has reached a mushy stage.

Caustic Cracking
A form of stress corrosion cracking most frequently encountered in carbon steels or iron-chromium-nickel alloys that are exposed to concentrated hydroxide solutions at temperatures of 200 to 250oC. Also known as caustic embrittlement.

Cavitation Damage
Erosion of a solid surface through the formation and collapse of cavities in an adjacent liquid. Also known as cavitation erosion.

Cementite
A very hard and brittle compound of iron and carbon (Fe3C). It is characterised by orthorhombic crystal structure. Its occurrence as a phase in the steel alters chemical composition by presence of manganese and other carbide forming elements.

Center Buckle
A condition in the band of steel where the center (in the direction of rolling) is longer than the edges and has a wave or buckle.

Chafing Fatigue
Fatigue initiated in a surface damaged by rubbing against another body.

Chamfering
The removal of sharp edges (the term is practically synonymous with ‘bevelling’ but has a less restricted application.

Channeling
When the percentage of fines in the blast furnace burden material increases significantly, too much of the burden will be deposited directly below the rim of the bell and very little will reach the walls. As a result, the ratio of burden to coke will be very low near the walls and, since the permeability there will increase because of the increased percentage of coke, the flow of hot gas along the walls will significantly increase. This is termed as channelling and causes excessive heating of the walls. Channelling is no longer a major problem because of changes in furnace top design, charging sequence, and raw material preparation.

Charge
Materials charged in a furnace for producing steel. For example, iron ore, coke and limestone are charged into a Blast Furnace; a Basic Oxygen Furnace is charged with scrap and hot metal. Also, the act of loading material into a vessel.

Charging Box (Charging Basket)
Cast or fabricated steel or cast iron box used for charging material in steel making furnace. Charging basket is fabricated with a false bottom steel container for charging scrap in electric furnace.

Charging Machine (Charger)
A ground or overhead travelling machine used for charging scrap in the steel making furnace such as open hearth.

Charging on the Main
To prevent escape of gases from the coke ovens during charging of coke, a steam-jet aspirator is used to draw gases from the space above the charged coal into the collector main. This practice is called ‘charging on the main’.

Chattering
A coating defect consisting of the washboard appearance of the cured film with variations of color or opacity. “Gear marks” is another synonym when the defect is caused by the gear lash of the coating machine. Chattering occurs when the coating machine permits the uneven application of the coating.

Checked Edges
Cracked edges in sheet bars and strips occurring during hot-rolling.

Checking
A coating defect consisting of the cracking of the cured film into small segments, with hairline cracks separating the segments. The similar defects of mud cracking or alligatoring are the same as checking, but they are larger. Crazing is a synonymous term.

Cheese
A roughly cylindrical forging with convex sides formed by upending ingot or billet lengths between flat tools.

Chemical Treatment
A customer-specified rust inhibitor applied to the coated product. 2. A passivating chemical treatment normally applied to the steel surface to control oxide formation and growth.

Chemically Brightened
A chemical addition made to the plating bath that results in a coating with a bright appearance as opposed to the mechanically brightened surface appearance.

Chemistries
The chemical composition of steel indicating the amount of carbon, manganese, sulfur, phosphorous and a host of other elements.

Chill
An external zone of cementitic iron without appreciable graphite.

Chill Factor
The temperature change in degrees Celcius when one kilogram of addition agent is added to one metric ton of liquid steel and, in FPS units, the temperature change in degrees Fahrenheit caused by the addition of one pound of addition agent to one net ton of liquid steel.

Chill Cracks
Marks on a rolled surface resulting from cracks in the surface of a roll used for hot rolling. A particular form of roll mark. Surface cracks found on rolls are usually caused by alternate heating and cooling or by overheating of the rolls in service, in which case they are called fire cracks.

Chilled Spring Wire
Wire drawn from quenched and age hardened mild steel.

Chipping
Removing surface defects by manual or pneumatic chisel.

Chop
A defect caused by metal being scrapped from the side of forging and hammered into the surface.

Chromite
A neutral refractory which is a double oxide of chromium and iron. The term is also used for a mineral containing chromic oxide and iron oxide.

Chromium
An alloying element that is the essential stainless steel raw material for conferring corrosion resistance. A film of chromium oxide that naturally forms on the surface of stainless steel self-repairs in the presence of oxygen if the steel is damaged mechanically or chemically, and thus prevents corrosion from occurring.

Cinder
The molten by-products produced in furnace used for bushelling or reheating. The chemical composition varies but is essentially silicate of iron.

Cinder Notch
Another name for slag notch.

Cinder Patch
This defect is the result of pick-up of material from soaking-pit bottoms, and generally has the appearance of a very scrabby bottom.

Circored
What A gas-based process developed by Lurgi Metallurgie in Germany to produce DRI or HBI (see Direct Reduced Iron and Hot Briquetted Iron).
How The two-stage method yields fines with a 93% iron content. Iron ore fines pass first through a circulating fluidized-bed reactor, and subsequently through a bubbling fluidized-bed reactor.

Cladding
What Method of applying a stainless steel / copper / aluminum coating to carbon steel or lower-alloy steel (i.e., steel with alloying element content below 5%).
Why To increase corrosion resistance at lower initial cost than exclusive use of stainless steel etc.
How By (1) welding stainless steel onto carbon steel, (2) pouring melted stainless steel around a solid carbon steel slab in a mould, (3) placing a slab of carbon steel between two plates of stainless steel and bonding them by rolling at high temperature on a plate mill, (4) mounting the steel core in a covered mould and heating it out of contact with air to a temperature slightly above the melting point of copper, which then is cast about it, (5) dipping the solid steel core into a bath of molten copper, (6) depositing the copper on steel core electrolytically, (7) rolling flat steel almost to gauge, cleaning it thoroughly and either placing it between two sheets of aluminum and cold rolling or heating to between 315o and 400oC and rolling.

Class 1 Surface Quality
A class of cold rolled steel processed to meet requirements for controlled surface texture, flatness, and temper requirements. Produced for exposed applications.

Cleaning Tank
This section of the plater is used to remove dirt, oil, grease, oxides and other contaminates from the surface of material to be electroplated. A cleaning agent is used at a temperature of 180-190 degrees.

Cleanliness
For internal steel quality, a measure of the size and frequency of inclusions; for external steel surface quality, a measure of the amount of extraneous materials (such as dirt, iron particles, carbon, etc.) on the steel surface.

Clean Steel
Steel which is obtained after secondary steel making (also referred to as Ladle Metallurgy’) and satisfies stringent requirements of surface, internal and micro-cleanliness quality and of mechanical properties.

Cleavage Fracture
A fracture, usually of a polycrystalline metal, in which most of the grains have failed by cleavage, resulting in bright reflecting facets. It is one type of crystalline fracture and is associated with low-energy brittle fracture..

Clink
A rupture (internal or external) in ingot, bloom, billet, slabs, etc., caused by thermal stresses.

Clipping
Removing the fash.

Closing
Reducing the diameter of a tube, ring or hollow forging by pressing or hammering on a mandrel.

Coal Preheating
A method of coal preparation :the coal is dried and preheated before charging it into coke ovens. The major advantages are : improvement in strength and hardness of coke, usage of poorer quality coals, increase in oven throughput because of reduction in coking time, reduction in overall fuel requirements, more uniform heating of the batteries, and less thermal shock to the refractory brickwork.

Coating
The process of covering steel with another material (tin, chrome, zinc etc.), primarily for corrosion resistance. They can be classified as anodic, cathodic, inert or inhibitive.

Coating Weight
1. In the Sheet Mill, the amount of Zinc on a galvanized sheet measured in ounces per square foot. 2. Specified in pounds (or parts thereof) of tin coating per base box. This term is often misunderstood because in most cases the decimal point is omitted when written or printed.

Coating Weight Test
A test of the weight of the coating measured 2 inches from each side of the strip and at the center.

Cogging (Roughing)
The action of reducing, by hot working, an ingot into a bloom or slab for subsequent rolling or forging.

Coils
Steel sheet that has been wound. A slab, once rolled in a hot-strip mill, is more than one-quarter mile long; coils are the most efficient way to store and transport sheet steel.

Coiling
The process of laying or winding the product in the form of coils

Coiled Bar
A long length of hot rolled bar produced in a continuous rolling mill and coiled in a manner similar to wire rod.

Coil Breaks
1. A physical condition produced in the cooling tower or quench tank area of the line due to improper temperature control during cooling. 2. Creases or ridges which appear as parallel lines, transverse to the direction of rolling, and which generally extend across the width of the sheet. 3. A discontinuous curvature in the strip in the direction in which the material was rolled or uncoiled. Generally found in uncoiled hot rolled strip.

Coil End
ID of a coil that is left because of a defect. Ranging from 500 – 10,000 pounds. Anything 10,000 pounds and over get an IPM. A coil with a weight less than 5000 lbs. that does not meet customer specifications is called a salvage coil. These coils do not get an IPM number

Coil Line Markings
A light white-gray mark (square, circle, line, diamond, etc.) which has been placed on the strip by the platers. This mark serves as an indication to the feeder that the placement of the coil on the entry reel must be placed correctly to meet customer specifications (external customers request this mark to distinguish coating on the strip). The Feeder must refer to the scheduling book to determine how to place the coil on the entry reel for over or under wind.

Coil Number
Produced IPM Number assigned to a coil. IPM (In Process Material) Number.

Coil Set
A curvature of the strip in the lengthwise sense, parallel to the direction in which the strip was rolled or uncoiled.

Coining
Sizing a forging to close tolerances under a suitable press or hammer.

Coke
What The basic fuel consumed in blast furnaces in the smelting of iron. It is a hard porous substance that is principally pure carbon. Coke is a processed form of coal, made in oven by driving off volatile elements. In blast furnaces, coke helps generate the 3000o F temperatures and reducing gases needs to smelt iron ore. About 1,000 pounds of coke are needed to process a ton of pig iron, an amount which represents more than 50% of an integrated steel mill’s total energy use.
Why Metallurgical coal burns sporadically and reduces into a sticky mass. Processed coke, however, burns steadily inside and out, and is not crushed by the weight of the iron ore in the blast furnace.
How Inside the narrow confines of the coke oven, coal is heated without oxygen for 18 hours to drive off gases and impurities.
Types There are three principal kinds of coke, classified according to the methods by which they are manufactured : Low, medium and high-temperature coke, Coke used for metallurgical purposes must be carbonized in the higher ranges of temperature (between 900o and 1095o) if the product is to have satisfactory physical properties. Even with good coking coal, the product obtained by low-temperature carbonization between 450o and 760o is unacceptable for good blast furnace operation.

Coke Oven Battery
A set of ovens that process coal into coke. Coke ovens are constructed in batteries of 10-100 ovens that maybe 20 feet tall, 40 feet long, and less than two feet wide. Coke batteries, because of the exhaust fumes emitted when coke is pushed from the ovens, often are the dirtiest area of a steel mill complex.

Coke Oven Gas
A by-product of coke manufacture, it is produced during the carbonization or destructive distillation of bituminous coal in the absence of air in the coke ovens. Approximately 310 cbm CO gas is produced per MT of coal coked in conventional high-temperature coking processes.

Cold Drawing
Reducing the cross-sectional area of a tube, when cold, by drawing through a die. The tubes are occasionally pushed through the die.

Cold Reduction
What Finishing mills roll cold coils of pickled hot-rolled sheet to make the steel thinner, smoother, and stronger, by applying pressure, rather than heat.
How Stands of rolls in a cold-reduction mill are set very close together and press a sheet of steel from one-quarter inch thick into less than an eighth of an inch, while more than doubling its length.

Cold Reduction Mill
Sheet and strip are cold reduced to the desired thickness for the following reasons: 1) To obtain the desired surface. 2) To impart desired mechanical properties. 3) To make gauges lighter than the hot strip mill can produce economically. 4) To produce sheet and strip of more uniform thickness.

Cold Roll Base
Coils that are cold worked or reduced to gauge on the tandem mill.

Cold-Rolled Strip (Sheet)
A product manufactured from hot rolled descaled (pickled) coils by cold reducing to the desired thickness, generally followed by annealing and temper rolling. Strip has a final product width of approximately 12 inches, while sheet may be more than 80 inches wide. Cold-rolled sheet is considerably thinner and stronger than hot-rolled sheet, so it will sell for a premium (see Sheet Steel). If the sheet is not annealed after cold reduction it is known as full hard. (See Full Hard Cold Rolled).

Cold Rolling (Cold Reduction)
Rolling steel (generally sheet or strip) below its recrystallization temperature with the degree of reduction being usually above 5%.

Cold Rolling Mill
A mill that reduces the cross sectional area of the metal by rolling at approximately room temperature.

Cold Shut (Teeming Arrest)
An ingot or casting defect resulting from interrupted flow of metal during pouring, causing a discontinuity in the skin.

Cold Sinking
Reducing the cross-sectional area and diameter of a tube by drawing when cold through a die.

Cold Strip Mill
A mill that rolls strip without first reheating.

Cold Work
Plastic deformation at such temperatures and rates that substantial increases occur in the strength and hardness of the metal visible structural changes include changes in grain shape and, in some instances, mechanical twinning or banding. The forces are relatively insensitive to the rate of application of loads and to temperature variations, but the basic strength of the worked metal is permanently increased.

Cold Working (Rolling)
What Substantial mechanical working (usually above 5%), for example, drawing, rolling, forging, etc. of a metal or alloy below its normal recrystallization temperature.
Why To create a permanent increase in the hardness and strength of the steel.
How The application of forces to the steel causes changes in the composition that enhance certain properties. In order for these improvements to be sustained, the temperature must be below a certain range, because the structural changes are eliminated by higher temperatures.

Collar
Part of a forging having a diameter greater than the adjacent portions but of a length less than its diameter.

Columnar Structure
A coarse structure of parallel elongated grains formed by unidirectional growth that is most often observed in castings. This results from diffusional growth accompanied by a solid state transformation.

Combined Blowing
Also called top and bottom blowing or mixed blowing, this process is characterized by both a top blowing lance and a method of achieving stirring from the bottom. The configurational differences in mixed blowing lie principally in the bottom tuyeres or elements. These range from fully cooled tuyeres, to uncooled tuyeres, to permeable elements.

Combined Carbon
That part of the total carbon in steel or cast iron present as other than free carbon.

Commercial Quality
Material of normally good quality for which limits of chemical composition and mechanical properties are more relaxed.

Commercial Tolerance
A range by which a product’s specifications can deviate from those ordered and still meet the industry accepted ranges (defined in ASTM Standards, etc.)

Condenser Tubes
Tubes used in the conversion of a vapour into a liquid by cooling.

Consumption
Measures the physical use of steel by end users. Steel consumption estimates, unlike steel demand figures, account for changes in inventories.

Contact Rolls
Metal rolls that are used in the chemical treatment area. Electricity goes through these rolls.

Continuous Anneal
A process by which the steel is rapidly heated, soaked and cooled at a confirmed rate by passing the coil at a relatively high speed through a furnace consisting of numerous sections.

Continuous Casting
What A method of pouring steel directly from the furnace into a semi-finished product such as billet, bloom, or slab directly from its molten form. It bypasses the traditional process of pouring (teeming) molten steel into ingots, reheating those ingots, and then rolling them into semi-finished steel shapes.
Why Continuous casting avoids the need for large, expensive mills for rolling ingots into slabs. Continuous cast slabs also solidify in a few minutes versus several hours for an ingot. Because of this, the chemical composition and mechanical properties are more uniform. This process has steadily displaced ingot casting due to its advantages of higher yield and improved productivity.
How Steel from the BOF or electric furnace is poured into a tundish (a shallow vessel that looks like a bathtub) atop the continuous caster. As steel carefully flows from the tundish down into the water-cooled copper mould of the caster, it solidifies into a ribbon of red-hot steel. At the bottom of the caster, torches cut the continuously flowing steel to form slabs or blooms.

Continuous Sheet Galvanizing
A continuous process used to produce a zinc coating on steel sheet by immersion in a bath of molten zinc. Controlled wiping of the coating after galvanizing produces thin uniform coatings of zinc (with no alloy layers), usually 15 to 20 um (0.6 – 0.8 mils) thick. The coating is sufficiently ductile to withstand deep drawing or bending.

Continuous Variable Crown
Hydraulic system that supplies the force to all the cylinders associated with work-roll balance and bending and back-up roll balance (also supplies force for work roll shifting).

Continuous Weld Process (Fretz-Moon Process)
A process for making welded steel tubes in which a continuous strip is passed (by joining the ends of the coils) through a tunnel furnace, from which it emerges at welding temperature to enter a series of rolls which form it into a tube and weld the abutting edges together. The resulting continuous tube is cut to the desired length.

Contraction Cavity
A cavity formed in an ingot as a result of contraction during solidification. Also referred to as shrinkage cavity or pipe usually located in the hot-top region of killed steel.

Controlled Rolling
A hot rolling process in which the temperature of steel is closely controlled, particularly during the final rolling passes to produce a fine grain microstructure.

Conversion Cost
Resources spent to process material in a single stage, from one type to another. The costs of converting iron ore to hot metal or pickling hot-rolled coil can be isolated for analysis.

Converter/Processor
Demand from steel customers such as rerollers and tube makers, which process steel into a more finished state, such as pipe, tubing and cold-rolled strip, before selling it to end users. Such steel generally is not sold on contract, making the converter segment of the mills’ revenues more price sensitive than their supply contracts to the auto manufacturers.

Convertor
The pear shaped refractory lined (acid or basic) vessel in which the pneumatic steel making processes are carried-out. The vessel is mounted suitably for tilting for introducing the liquid material and taking out the blown material. The air, oxygen, carbon dioxide, steam or a mixture of these, is blown through a detachable bottom, side or top.

Coppered Wire
A wire produced by wet drawing with a copper sulphate or copper tin sulphate solutions for improving drawability. The colour depends upon the chemical used and the drawing operation imparts a luster to the wire resulting into improved appearance and limited corrosion resistance.

Core
Inside diameter of a coil.
Also
(1) In a ferrous alloy that has undergone case hardening, that portion of the alloy structure not part of case (see case). Typically considered to be the portion that (a) appears light when etched, (b) has an unaltered chemical composition or (c) has a hardness value lower than that of the case
(2) A specifically formed material inserted in a mould to shape the interior or other part of a casting that can not be shaped as easily by the pattern.

Core Loss
The quantity, expressed in watts per kilogram in SI and watts per pound in FPS system, can be defined as the electrical energy that is expended in the core steel without contributing to the work of the device. The two components of core loss are eddy current loss and hysteresis loss.

COREX�
What COREX is a smelting reduction process in which coal is directly used in a melter gasifier as an energy carrier and reducing agent thereby eliminating the need for a blast furnace, sinter plant and coke ovens. It yields hot metal or pig iron that can be used by integrated mills or EAF mills.
How The process gasifies non-coking coal in a smelting reactor, which also produces liquid iron. The gasified coal is fed into a shaft furnace, where it removes oxygen from iron ore lumps, pellets or sinter; the reduced iron is then fed to the smelting reactor.

Corrective Leveling
Capability of a leveling machine to remove or reduce shape defects across the strip, coil, or sheet, in addition to flattening lengthwise curvatures. Generally employs 17 to 23 small diameter rolls with adjustable back ups for varying nest across face of machine.

Corrosion
The gradual degradation or alteration of steel caused by chemical or electrochemical attack due to atmosphere, moisture, or other agents.

Corrosion Fatigue
Cracking produced by the combined action of repeated or fluctuating stress and a corrosive environment at lower stress levels or fewer cycles than would be required in the absence of a corrosive environment.

Corrosion Resistance
The intrinsic ability of a material to resist degradation by corrosion. This ability can be enhanced by application of special coatings on the surface of the material or by imparting certain structural changes in the material by addition of alloying elements.

Corrosive Wear
Wear in which chemical or electrochemical reaction with the environment is significant.

Coupling Tubes (Coupler Tubes)
Tubes of suitable dimensions for the production of couplings.

Cracked Edges (Broken Corners)
Discontinuity or cracked condition on the edge (at right angles to the direction of rolling) of rolled products. The term ‘broken corners’ is used in connection with large sections, such as blooms, billets and slabs.

Cracking
A coating defect consisting of a break in the cured film which exposes the bare substrate. Cracking usually occurs during fabrication of the coated plate when the coating is too brittle or the adhesion is too low.

Cratering
A coating defect consisting of small, apparently uncoated, spots of coated plate consisting of a very thin film of coating which was contaminated by oil, silicone, or foreign matter. Eyeholing is similar to cratering, but with metal exposure in the crater.

Crawling
A coating defect consisting of a lack of adhesion to, or dewetting of, the substrate while the coating or ink is wet. The cause is due to a difference in surface tension of the coating and substrate. Crawling is also known as cissing and dewetting.

Crazing (Surface Crazing)
Markings on ingot or ingot mould surface in the form of a network, in a mosaic pattern giving the appearance of crocodile skin.

Creep
Time-dependent strain, occurring under stress. The creep strain occurring at a diminishing rate is called primary or transient creep; that occurring at a minimum and almost constant rate, secondary or steady-rate creep; that occurring at an accelerating rate, tertiary creep. It is more marked at elevated temperatures and is, therefore, important in connection with metal and alloys for service at high temperature.

Creep Recovery
The time-dependent decrease in strain in a solid, following the removal of force. Recovery is usually determined at constant temperature.

Crimped Edge
A damaged edge due to the strip wandering side-to-side into obstructions as it moves down the line.

Critical Cooling Rate
Minimum rate of continuous cooling for preventing undesirable transformations. For steel, unless specified, it is the slowest rate at which austenite can be cooled from above critical temperature to prevent its transformation above the martensite start temperature.

Cropped Head / Tail
Squaring of the strips by use of mechanical shear.

Cropping
Shearing off discard from the ends of an ingot or bloom or forged products prior to further working. End discard shearing of semi-finished or finished products is also called cropping.

Crossbow
A curvature across the width of the strip at a 90o angle to the direction in which the strip has been rolled or uncoiled.

Cross Breaks
1. Creases which appear as parallel lines transverse to the direction of rolling. 2. Quality defect on the edge of plate coming to the line (broken steel but not open breaks). 3. Hard spots caused by abrupt deformation of the strip after hot rolling and due to stressing beyond the elastic limit of the metal.

Cross Rolling
Rolling in the direction transverse to the longitudinal axis of the ingot or slab, as in the production of plate or sheet.

Crown
1. The difference in thickness between the edge and center of the strip. 2. Thickened center of a strip of steel; can also have a crown on the work roll; two-point crown on a roll means a crown of 0.002 inches. 3. The crown, or center, refers to the tendency of a sheet to be heavier in gauge in the center than on the edges. It may be caused by the use of hollow, or worn back-up rolls, work rolls improperly ground, or excessive work in the last finishing stand.

Crucible Process
A steel making process in which the charge, generally small (roughly 20 to 25 kg), is melted in a crucible for the production of very high quality steel out of contact with fuel. The product, known as crucible steel, is used for making tool steels.

Crucible Steel
Steel made by the crucible process.

Cryogenic Steel
Steels, such as 9% nickel steel and the austenitic stainless steels, are capable of retaining toughness in applications involving the storing and handling of liquefied methane, oxygen, nitrogen, argon, hydrogen and helium to –273o.

Culvert Pipe
Heavy gauge, galvanized steel that is spiral-formed or riveted into corrugated pipe, which is used for highway drainage applications.

Cupping
An internal transverse crack in the wire which may result in fracture of the cup and cone type. It may be caused by excessive cold work or by segregation where the harder section is less ductile than the surface.

Cure Time
Full polymerization is a function of time and temperature.

Curing
The process by which synthetic materials form continuous films by various combinations of oxidation, solvent evaporation and heat of polymerization according to their basic resin structures.

Cut Edge
The normal edge that results from the shearing, slitting or trimming of a mill edge.

Cutoffs
A pair of blades either machined in the corner of dies or inserted in the dies, used to cut away forging from the bar.

Cut-to-Length
Process to uncoil sections of flat-rolled steel and cut them into a desired length. Product that is cut to length is normally shipped flat-stacked.

Cycle Annealing
An annealing process that uses a predetermined and closely controlled time temperature cycle to produce specific properties or microstructure.

Ears
The wavy projections formed in deep-drawing which normally occur in geometric positions either at 45% or at 0% and 90% to the direction of rolling. These are caused by directional properties in the sheet.

Easy Open End
A convenience feature can end designed to be opened by utilizing an integral tab opener to tear the container lid along a tear line formed in the lid. The end is designed so that after the container is opened, safe edges remain on the removable panel portion torn off from the lid body and on the rim remaining on the container. This is accomplished by shielding the residual tear line metal with multi-layer metal folds.

Eccentricity
Lack of coincidence of the centre of the bore of a tube with that of the outside circumference, resulting in variation in wall thickness.

ECCS
See Electrolytic Chromium Coated Sheets.

Eddy Current Methods
Used to measure physical and mechanical parameters and for the detection of surface imperfections in steel products. Eddy currents are so named because their paths often resemble the circular eddies in water. The eddy current method measures the electromagnetic interaction between a transducer or test coil and the part being inspected. By this interaction such physical parameters as the hardness, steel grade, and case depth can be inferred. In addition, cladding thickness, foil thickness, and the presence of surface or subsurface imperfections may be indicated.

Edge Break
A condition caused by an uneven roll surface. It is seen on the edges of a coil, not across the full width of the coil.

Edge Buckle
Edge buckle is similar to center buckle except that the condition occurs in one, or both edges, of the strip and is generally confined to a narrow portion of the width.

Edge Buildup
Condition that results when burred or damaged plate causes the edge of the coil to be higher in coating than the center of the coil.

Edger
1. Or edging rolls, are used to give a universal or rolled edge to the product. 2. The part of die used to distribute the metal in the proposition necessary to fill the die impression.

Edge Rolling (Edge Conditioning)
Rolling a strip of steel to smooth the edges. By removing the burr off the coil, it is safer for customers to manipulate.

Edging
The application of rolls to the edges of a rectangular section, for example, slab, plate, strip and flat, with the object of controlling width and giving a smooth edge of desired contour during the rolling process. Rounding by forging an upended disc or cheese to form a blank.

Edge Wave
A condition in the band of steel where the edges (in the direction of rolling) are longer than the center.

Elastic Deformation
Stretching of the material below the point at which a permanent “set” takes place. That is, in the range where the metal acts spring-like or elastic.

Electric Arc Furnace (EAF)
Steel making furnace where scrap is generally 100% of the charge. Heat for melting and refining of steel is supplied from electricity that arcs between the electrodes (usually graphite) or between electrode and the metal bath. When the arc is between the electrodes, the process is termed as the indirect arc process and when it is between the metal and the electrode, it is termed as the direct arc process. Furnaces may be either an alternating current (AC) or direct current (DC). DC units consume less energy and fewer electrodes, but they are more expensive.

Electric Process
A process of steel making wherein the source of fuel is electrical energy, that is, heat from electric arc or induced eddy currents, and the process is termed accordingly as electric arc process or induction process.

Electrical Sheet Steel
A group of steels made by electric process (silicon or aluminium alloyed) and used for the construction of magnetic cores of electrical equipment, because of their low watt-loss properties. They are divided into two general classifications, (I) oriented steels, and (2) non-oriented steels. The oriented steels are given mill treatments designed to yield exceptionally good magnetic properties in the rolling, or lengthwise, direction of the steel. Non-oriented grades are made with a mill treatment that yields a grain structure, or texture, of a random nature and, therefore, the magnetic properties in the rolling direction of the steel are not significantly better than those in the transverse direction.

Electric Reduction Furnace
Used for smelting ores in the production of ferroalloys, such as ferro-manganese, ferro-silicon, and ferro-chromium. These furnaces differ from the steel-making furnaces in that production is continuous, as in a blast furnace; the charge is placed in the furnace at the top and the molten product tapped near the bottom. Electric furnaces are also used in the smelting of iron ore.

Electric Resistance Welded (ERW) Pipe
Pipe made from strips of hot-rolled steel which are is formed into tubular shape by passing through forming rolls and welded by passing a heavy current across the longitudinal joint. While seamless pipe is traditionally stronger and more expensive than comparable ERW pipe, ERW technology is improving and the technique now accounts for approximately 48% of OCTG shipments by tonnage. Generally used by oil or gas companies.

Electric Soaking Pits
Developed to meet special requirements, such as control of scaling and the maintenance of controlled atmospheres during the heating of stainless-steel and alloy-steel ingots.

Electro Discharge Texturing
Developed to meet special requirements, such as control of scaling and the maintenance of controlled atmospheres during the heating of stainless-steel and alloy-steel ingots.

Electro-galvanizing Process
A cold-coating electroplating process in which the furnaces, galvanizing pot, and the cooling tower of the hot-dip process are replaced by a series of electrolytic cells through which steel passes. This process, unlike the hot-dip process, does not influence the mechanical properties of the sheet steel and provides a more uniform coating.

Electrolytic extraction
Removal of phases by using an electrolytic cell containing an electrolyte that preferentially dissolves the metal matrix.

Electrolytic Galvanized
Cold Rolled or Black Plate to which a coating of zinc is applied by electro-deposition; used for applications in which corrosion resistance and paintability is a primary concern.

Electrolytic Polishing
An electromechanical polishing process in which the metal to be polished is made the anode in an electrolytic cell where preferential dissolution at high points in the surface topography produces a specularly reflective surface.

Electrolytic Tin Coated Sheets (ETCS)
Cold rolled sheet coated with tin by electro-deposition through an acid or alkaline process.

Electrolytic Tin Plate (ETP)
1. Light-gauge, low-carbon, cold reduced steel on which tin has been electro-deposited. 2. Black plate coated with Tin (Sn) electron deposition.

Electroplating
A batch process used to produce a zinc coating on manufactured articles. These may be functional (for corrosion protection) or decorative coatings. Electric current is used to force the deposition of negatively charged zinc ions from an acid solution onto the positively charged cathode, which is the article to be coated. Produces thin coatings generally less than 10 um (0.4 mils) thick.

Electro-galvanizing
A continuous process used to produce a zinc coating on steel sheet by electroplating. Both sulfuric or hydrochloric acid solutions are used. The most common method uses sulfuric acid with insoluble anodes. Produces thin coatings generally less than 10 um (0.4 mils) thick.

Electro-magnetic Stirring
This process, carried-out during solidification of liquid steel in a billet or bloom caster, imparts the following potential benefits to liquid steel :
1. Internal quality (reduced segregation, cracking and porosity) through a preferred solidification structure.
2. Sub-surface and internal cleanliness through a modified metal flow pattern.
3. Reduced criticality of casting parameters (temperature and casting speed)
4. Increased productivity through increased casting speeds.

Electroplating
This process is an old art, practised not only to protect the base metal from corrosion but also for decorative purposes and, more recently, to protect the base metal from wear by friction or abrasion. Metals used for coatings include cadmium, chromium, copper, gold, tin, lead, nickel, silver and zinc, and alloys such as brass, bronze and lead-tins as well as cobalt-tungsten, tungsten-nickel, nickel-zinc and cadmium-tin alloys

Electro-slag Remelting (ESR) Process
In this secondary steel making process, one or more steel electrodes of about the desired chemical composition are drip-melted through molten slag into a water-cooled copper mould at atmospheric pressure. The remelting rate for this process is somewhat greater than that for the Vacuum Arc Remelting (VAR) process, otherwise the two processes are similar. The ESR process cannot eliminate hydrogen as the VAR process is able to do, but it has the following capabilities :
1. Multiple electrodes can be melted into a single mould.
2. Spacing between mould wall and electrodes is not critical.
3. Ingot surface quality is excellent, requiring little or no conditioning.
4. Steel can be desulphurized to 0.002 per cent sulphur content.
5. Bound, square and rectangular shaped ingots can be produced.
6. Larger size and weight ingots can be produced.

Electro-stripping
A process by which the thickness of alloy deposited on a strip can be determined.

Electro-tinning
Tin coating by electro-deposition. This gives better uniformity and close control of tin-coating weight obtainable, resulting in saving of tin.

Elevator Furnaces
Car-bottom furnaces where the car is rolled under the furnace shell and then raised into the furnace by a motor-driven lifting mechanism.

Elongation
1. Total plastic strain before fracture, measured as a percent or axial strain during tensile testing. 2. This term is also used on orders specifying tensile test on which a minimum elongation between give points and distances has to be met. This elongation is expressed as percent of stretch over a given length, i. e. 25% elongation in 2 inches.

Embedded Abrasive
Fragments of abrasive particles forced into the surface of workpiece during grinding, abrasion or polishing.

Embossing
A coating defect consisting of the crawling or dewetting condition where the wet film recedes and forms a raised (in relief) impression.

Enamel
Organic material, which is applied in a film to protect or decorate aluminum, tinplate, black plate or paper.

Endurance
The capacity of a material to withstand repeated application of stress.

Epoxy Amino
Clear thermosetting coating with a combination epoxy resin and amino resin to give adhesion, flexibility and toughness. They offer good chemical and solvent resistance.

Epoxy Phenolic
Physical blends of epoxy and phenolic resins. Gold thermosetting coating with a combination of epoxy resin and amino resin to give adhesion, flexibility and toughness. They offer good chemical and solvent resistance.

Epsilon
Designation generally assigned to intermetallic, metal-metalloid and metal non-metallic compounds found in ferrous alloy systems.

Erosion
Progressive loss of original material from a solid surface due to mechanical interaction between that surface and a fluid, a multi-component fluid, or impinging liquid or solid particles.

Etching
In metallography, the process of revealing structural details by the preferential attack of reagents on a metal surface.

Etch Cracks
Shallow cracks in hardened steel containing high residual surface stresses, produced by etching in an embrittling acid.

ETCS
See Electrolytic Tin Coated Sheets.

ETP
See Electrolytic Tin Plate.

Exact Length
Material cut to specified length and agreed tolerance.

Exit End
The delivery end of the line.

Exit Reel (Delivery Reel or Prime Reel)
Reel used to wind the strip after the side trimming process.

Extra Deep Drawing Steel
A superior quality low carbon deep drawing steel.

Extrusion
Hot Extrusion : Consists of enclosing a piece of metal, heated to forging temperature, in a chamber called a ‘container’ and having a die at one end with an opening of the shape of the desired finished section, and applying pressure to the metal through the opposite end of the container. The metal is forced through the opening, the shape of which it assumes in cross-section as the metal flows plastically under the great used.
Cold Extrusion : It is carried out in a manner similar to the hot-extrusion process, with two main exceptions : (1) The steel is at room temperature, and (2) the surface of the piece is treated by some chemical process such as bonderizing to assist in reducing the friction between the steel and the container wall and die, in conjunction with special lubricants

Extrusion Billet
A short length of billet or hot-rolled bar, either solid or with a central hole.

Eye Bands
Metal bands wrapped through the center or “eye” of the coil to prevent it from uncoiling and to hold strip mults together.

Eyeholing
A coating defect, similar to cratering, but with exposed metal in the void.

Eye of Coil
The centre of the coil as wound.

Fabricator
A producer of intermediate products that does not also produce primary metal. For example, a rebar (see Reinforcing Bar) fabricator purchases rebar and processes the material to the specifications of a particular construction project.

Fading
A coating defect consisting of the condition in a colored coating where the color, either transparent or opaque, appears to get lighter or bleached out. Heat, light, or chemical exposure usually causes fading.

Fanning
Curtailing the operation of blast furnace by reducing the quantity of wind being blown (to less than 20-25% of normal). This is done when the full productive capacity of the furnace is not required for a period of time. This technique is used for emergency situations or short periods only (for a few hours at a stretch).

Fash (Top Fash, Top Flash, Burr Flash)
Sharp and ragged edges left after shearing or sawing.

Fastmet
A process to directly reduce iron ore to metallic iron pellets that can be fed into an electric arc furnace with an equal amount of scrap. This process is designed to bypass the coke oven-blast furnace route to produce hot metal from iron ore. It is also one of several methods that mini-mills might use to reduce their dependence on high-quality scrap inputs (see Direct Reduced Iron and Hot Briquetted Iron).

Fatigue
The phenomenon leading to fracture under repeated or fluctuating stresses having a maximum value less than the ultimate tensile strength of the material. Fatigue failure generally occurs at loads which applied statically produce little perceptible effect. Fatigue fractures are progressive, beginning as minute cracks that grow under the action of the fluctuating stess.

Fatigue Failure
Failure that occurs when a specimen undergoing fatigue completely fractures into two parts or has softened or been otherwise significantly reduced in stiffness by thermal heating or cracking.

Feather Edge
A sharp reduction in gauge on the edge of a band which is caused by grooves worn in rolls due to extensive rolling of the same width material. This is done for coating control on edge. The gauge variations on a feathered edge generally does not extend in from the edge more than one inch.

Feeder Head (Hot Top Sink Head)
A refractory lined receptacle, placed on the mould top or built into the ingot mould to reduce the shrinkage cavity (pipe) by keeping the metal in liquid state longer at the top. This arrangement confines the shrinkage cavity to the feeder head.

Feed Pipe
A pipe through which water is forced into a boiler.

Feedstock
Any raw material.

Ferrite
A solid solution of one or more elements in body centred cubic iron. In plane carbon steels, the interstitial solid solutions of carbon in a – iron

Ferritic
The second-largest class of stainless steel, constituting approximately 25% of stainless production. Ferritic stainless steels are plain chromium steels with no significant nickel content; the lack of nickel results in lower corrosion resistance than the austenitics (chromium-nickel stainless steels). Ferritics are best suited for general and high-temperature corrosion applications rather than services requiring high strength. They are used in automotive trim and exhaust systems, interior architectural trim, and hot water tanks. Two of the most common grades are type 430 (general-purpose grade for many applications, including decorative ones) and type 409 (low-cost grade well suited to withstanding high temperatures).

Ferrite Grain Size
The grain size of the ferritic matrix of a steel.

Ferritic Anneal
The process of producing a predominantly ferritic matrix in a ferrous alloy through an appropriate heat treatment.

Ferroalloy
A metal product commonly used as a raw material feed in steel making, usually containing iron and other metals, to aid various stages of the steel making process such as deoxidation, desulfurization, adding strength or for introducing such elements in steel. Examples: ferrochrome, ferromanganese, and ferrosilicon, silicon manganese etc.

Ferrochrome
An alloy of iron and chromium with up to 72% chromium. Ferrochrome is commonly used as a raw material in the making of stainless steel.

Ferrous
Metals that consist primarily of iron.

Ferrous Alloy
See Alloy Steel.

Fettling
Repairing the furnace banks and bottom immediately after a heat is tapped.

Fibrous Fracture
A gray and amorphous fracture that results when a metal is sufficiently ductile for the crystals to elongate before fracture occurs. When a fibrous fracture is obtained in an impact test, it may be regarded as definite evidence of toughness of the metal.

Fibrous structure
(1) In forgings, a structure revealed as laminations, not necessarily detremental on an etched section of or as a ropy appearance on a fracture
(2) In wrought iron, a structure consisting of slag fibers embedded in ferrite
(3) In rolled steel plate stocks, a uniform lamination free fine-grained structure on a fracture surface.

File Hardness
Hardness as determined by the use of a file of standardized hardness on the assumption that a material that cannot be cut with the file is as hard as, or harder than, the file. Files covering a range of hardness may be employed.

Fin (Overfill, Flash)
Solidified metallic strip projecting out at right angles from ingot surface and caused by seepage of liquid metal through a longitudinal crack in the mould, or in the mould joint in case of split mould. Or, a protruding rib of metal running longitudinally along a rolled product, as results from overfilling a pass.

Fin Crack (Longitudinal Crack)
Crack in the ingot associated with the formation of fin and the resulting obstruction during contraction while cooling.

Finish
The surface appearance of steel after final treatment.

Finishes
The texture of the steel surface which is determined by the grit on the rolls (See Shot Blast Roll Finish) or by the grind on the rolls in the case of bright finish (See Ground Roll Finish).

Finishing Facilities
The portion of the steel making complex that processes semi-finished steel (slabs or billets) into forms that can be used by others. Finishing operations can include rolling mills, pickle lines, tandem mills, annealing facilities, and temper mills.

Finishings
Finishing additions of ferro-alloys, deoxidizers and/or carburizers (for example, coke) which are made to liquid steel, usually in ladle, and at times, partly in the furnace, so as to bring the liquid steel to the desired specification.

Finishing Stand
The last stand in a rolling mill, which determines the surface finish and final gauge.

Finishing Temperature
The temperature at which hot mechanical working of metal is completed.

Fireclay
A refractory material, essentially hydrated aluminium silicate in composition, having a high fusion point used in the manufacture of refractory bricks or mortar.

Fire Cracks
An irregular pattern of lines on the surface of a sheet caused by rolling with a fire cracked roll. Fire cracks will develop when a roll is not properly cooled.

Fish Eyes
A coating defect consisting of the undissolved particles in the coating usually surrounded by a circular crater. The particles are usually resinous and are raised up from the cured surface with the appearance of the eye of a fish.

Fish Tail
The V-shaped cavity which may develop on the tail-end of the strip from the hot strip mill.

Flakes
Small, discontinuous, internal ruptures attributed to stresses produced by localized transformation and hydrogen-solubility effects during cooling after hot working that usually occur some distance away from the end of a piece and often midway from the surface to the center of a section. In fracture surfaces, flakes appear as bright, silvery areas with a coarse texture. In deep acid-etched transverse sections, they appear as discontinuities. It is generally considered that hydrogen dissolved in the molten steel makes it more susceptible to flakes and that proper retardation of cooling from forging or rolling temperatures effectively will prevent their formation. Also termed hairline cracks and shatter cracks.

Flash Burn
A defect made by contact rolls when an arc is passed through the strip. Generally on lighter baseweight. (DR coils)

Flashing
A coating defect consisting of the uneven, random distribution of a coating on coated substrate. A variation in the color of a coating which is due to variations of the film weight. A coating defect consisting of the flame weight fluctuation is caused by disproportionate amount of coating transferring from the application roll.

Flash Stain
A stain that occurs in the rinse tanks when the line has stopped. It appears blue, green, or black.

Flat Coil
Coil that has a collapsed center.

Flatness
The absence of any gap or clearance when a strip is placed, without applying any pressure, between two parallel-faced plates. Wherever a gap exists under this condition, the strip is “unflat”. There are two kinds of “unflatness” – thickness non-uniformity (such as frown, profile, etc.) and geometric non-uniformity called shape defects such as (wavy strip, bent strip, coil set, center buckle, etc.).

Flatting (Kinking)
The sudden yielding, with simultaneous appearance of stretcher strain markings, taking place in hot-rolled or annealed sheet or strips when deformed.

Flat Rolled Steel
Steel produced on rolling mills utilizing relatively smooth, cylindrical rolls. The width to thickness ratio of flat rolled products is usually fairly large. Examples of flat rolled steel are hot-rolled, cold-rolled, and coated sheets and coils, tin mill products, etc.

Flexibility
The quality or state of a material that alloys it to be flexed or bent repeatedly without undergoing fracture.

Float and Sink Test
The cleaning qualities of a particular coal are determined by this test, also commonly known as a washability test. This test effects a fractionation of coal by size and specific gravity. The test consists in crushing coal to proper size and floating individual sizes of it on liquids having densities of 1.30. 1.40. 1.50. 1.60 etc., to determine the weight and character of the material that floats and sinks n each liquid. The proportion of coal, and the ash and sulphur content of the different fractions, provides reasonably complete data on the washability characteristic of a tested coal. Extreme fines may be evaluated by froth flotation.

Flocculation
A coating defect consisting of the formation of clusters of particles separable by relatively weak mechanical forces, or by a change in the physical forces at the interface between the liquid and the dispersed particles.

Flourspar
Naturally occurring calcium flouride (CaF2) used as a flux in basic steel making.

Flow Lines
Texture showing the direction of metal flow during hot or cold working. Flow lines often can be revealed by etching the surface or a section of a metal part.

Flow Marks
A coating defect consisting of the poor flow out of the coating on the substrate causing a ribbed (ribbing) or ridged appearance.

Flush Slag
The slag which is deliberately taken-out or comes out due to controlled boil from any steel making furnace.

Fluting
1. Visible line markings that sometimes appear on the surface of flat rolled products during forming; associated with non-uniform yielding of the metal; occurs when the steel is formed into cylindrical or arc shaped parts. 2. The kinking, or breaking of a sheet generally caused by curing the sheet on two small a diameter. Fluting, or paneling as it is often called, can be avoided by working the steel before bending. Steel with a definite yield point (a visible break in the stress-strain curve) will generally tend to flute.

Flux
An iron cleaning agent. Materials such as limestone, lime, flourspar etc. react with impurities within the metallic pool to form a slag that floats to the top of the relatively heavier (and now more pure) liquid iron.

Footage of Coil
The length of the steel strip that makes up a coil.

Forge
The section of the works used to produce wrought iron blooms, slabs or bars for subsequent reheating and re-rolling.

Forgeability
Ability to undergo plastic deformation by forging.

Forging
An article produced by hot working the metal under a hammer or press. It may also refer to the process followed in producing the article.

Forge Pigs
Pig iron suitable for conversion to wrought iron in the puddling furnace.

Formability
The ease with which a metal can be shaped through plastic deformation. The evaluation of the formability of a metal involves measurement of strength and ductility, as well as the amount of deformation required to cause fracture. Workability is used interchangeably with formability; however, formability refers to the shaping of sheet metal, while workability refers to shaping materials by bulk deformation (i.e. forging or rolling).

Forming
Rough shaping the stock into use preparatory to the final forging operation.

Fraze
A rough edge along the flash line after clipping.

Fractional Distillation Process (of Air)
The air is first compressed to an elevated pressure, followed by progressively cooling it to saturation temperature in steps in a series of highly efficient heat exchangers. Condensation and freezing out of moisture, carbon dioxide and hydrocarbons take place as the temperature is lowered, after which hydrocarbons still remaining are removed in adsorbent traps. The cold, purified air is finally separated into its constituents in fractionating (distillation) columns. The requirements for heat removal by refrigeration at the low temperature level are met by expansion of a portion of the cold compressed air in an expansion turbine.

Free Carbon
The part of the total carbon content in steel or cast iron present in elemental form as graphite.

Front End
The inside lap of the produced coil, or the outside lap of the consumed coil.

Fuel Injection
Hydrocarbon fuels are injected into the blast furnace through the tuyeres to control the flame temperature, increase the reducing power of the bosh gas and at the same time, replace some of the coke. In the presence of large quantities of coke, the hydrocarbon fuels can burn only to carbon monoxide and hydrogen; consequently, they produce less heat than the coke they replace so that they control the flame temperature, but the reducing gas they produce is more effective than that produced by combustion of coke. Many different fuels have been used – natural gas, coke oven gas, oil, tar and pulverized coke, even slurries of coal in oil.

Fuller
That part of the die used to reduce a portion of the stock to the appropriate form of the forging

Full Annealing
This consists of heating the steel to a temperature above the transformation range, holding for one or two hours, and then cooling at a predetermined rate to obtain the desired microstructure. This process is used when it is desired to refine the grain structure and produce a lamellar pearlite.

Full Hard Cold Rolled
Hot rolled pickled steel that is cold reduced to a specified thickness and subject to no further processing (not annealed or temper rolled). The product is very stiff; it is intended for flat work where deformation is very minimal.

Full Hard Temper
Full Hard Cold Rolled steel produced to a Rockwell hardness of 84 and higher on the B scale.

Full Hard
Cold rolled coils coming from the Strip Steel that have not been annealed.

Full Strip
Strip in which the edges are shorter than the middle, thus causing distortion of the cross section.

Galling
A condition whereby excessive friction between high spots results in localized welding with subsequent spalling and a further roughening of the rubbing surfaces of one or both of two mating parts.

Galvalume�
Steel sheet with a unique coating of 55% aluminum and 45% zinc that resists corrosion. The coating is applied in a continuous hot-dipped process, which improves the steel’s weather resistance. Galvalume� is a trademark of BHP Steel, and the product is popular in the metal building market.

Galvanneal Coatings (A Coatings)
Coatings on hot-dipped galvanized steels processed to convert the coating completely to zinc-iron alloys; dull gray in appearance, have no spangle, and after proper preparation, are well suited for painting without additional surface preparation, can withstand moderate forming and are more weldable than galvanized coatings.

Galvanize
A sheet product substrate to which free zinc is applied either by hot-dipping or electro-plating.

Galvanize Coatings (G Coatings)
Free zinc coatings applied to a hot rolled or cold rolled steel to produce galvanized steel. The coating can be applied by the hot-dip or electro-deposition process.

Galvanneal Furnace
A furnace (gas-fired or induction) which is placed over the strips as it exits the zinc bath for the purpose of producing fully alloyed iron zinc coating.

Galvanized Steel
Steel coated with a thin layer of zinc to provide corrosion resistance in underbody auto parts, garbage cans, storage tanks, or fencing wire. Sheet steel normally must be cold-rolled prior to the galvanizing stage.
Hot-dipped. Steel is run through a molten zinc coating bath, followed by an air stream “wipe” that controls the thickness of the zinc finish.
Electro-galvanized. Zinc plating process whereby the molecules on the positively charged zinc anode attach to the negatively charged sheet steel. The thickness of the zinc coating is readily controlled. By increasing the electric charge or slowing the speed of the steel through the plating area, the coating will thicken.
Differences. Electro-galvanizing equipment is more expensive to build and to operate than hot dipped, but it gives the steel maker more precise control over the weight of the zinc coating. The automotive manufacturers, because they need the superior welding, forming and painting ability of electro-galvanized steel, purchase 90% of all tonnage produced.

Galvanizing
Coating steel with a thin layer of zinc to increase its corrosion resistance. Most galvanizing is done on a hot-dip operation, but electro-galvalizing is becoming more important today. Electro-galvanizing is a cold-coating electroplating process that, unlike the hot-dip process, does not influence the mechanical properties of the sheet steel. Electro-galvanizing provides a more uniform coating.

Galvanizing Pot
Holds the molten free zinc coatings applied to a hot rolled or cold rolled steel to produce Hot-dip Galvanized steel.

Galvannealed
An extra tight coat of galvanizing metal (zinc) applied to a soft steel sheet, after which the sheet is passed through an oven at about 1200 degrees F. The resulting coat is dull gray without spangle especially suited for subsequent painting.

Gangue
Part of an ore, which has to be either removed during benefication of the ore, or slagged during smelting.

Ganister
A siliceous refractory material used in acid furnace.

Gardner Impact Test
In this test, a projectile is dropped from a particular distance to dent the steel to various depths. The impact is measured in inch-pounds, and the coating adherence is determined by assessing flaking or crazing on the convex side of the cup.

Gas Carburising
Carburising carried-out by heating the steel in direct contact with carburizing gases.

Gas Knife
It consists of a stream of gas, usually air or stream, directed at both sides of the strip being galvanized, as it emerges from the coating bath. The pressure of the gas and the positioning of the knife relative to the strip surface are controlled to give the desired weight of coating for the speed used. In special cases, nitrogen gas is used to produce a smoother finish.

Gate
The clearance cut in the front of a die to accommodate the bar undergoing forging and to retain a connection between the bar & the forging.

Gathering
Increasing the cross section of the stock beyond the original size.

Gauge
1. An instrument that measures pressure, temperature, level or flow depending on the purpose. 2. The thickness of the steel strip. Better-quality steel has a consistent gauge to prevent weak spots or deformation.

Gauge Code
Industry-standard code that indicates quality tolerance of the thickness of the steel.

Gauge Tolerance
A range by which a product’s gauge can deviate from those ordered and still meet the order’s requirements.

Gel Spotting
A coating defect consisting of the uniform circular spots or droplets of higher film thickness on the coated sheet. Gel spotting, while appearing similar to slinging, is much more uniform in appearance and caused by a different mechanism. Gel spotting occurs when a partially gelled coating is applied to the substrate.

Geometric Marking
Unusual design put on one side (lite coating) of a coil to identify a different coating weight.

Ghost
A segregated streak, usually containing a concentration of sulphide, oxide, etc. which have become elongated during rolling or forging. This looks different in colour than the rest of the sheet when sheet is tarnished.

Goethic Section
A rolled or forged product having approximately square section. The dimensions are specific with specified radius or chamfer at corners without any concavity on the sides.

Gouges
A gross type of scratch.

Grade
The term grade designates divisions within different types based on carbon content or mechanical properties; for example, “This is a high tensile (grade) structural steel.”

Grain Structure
Microstructure consisting of grains (crystals) and phases in metals; generally requires examination under a microscope of an etched, polished specimen for observation.

Granular Fracture
A type of irregular surface produced when metal is broken that is characterized by a rough, grain-like appearance, rather than a smooth or fibrous one. It can be sub-classified into trans-granular and inter-granular forms. The fracture is frequently called crystalline fracture, but the implication that the metal failed because it crystallized is misleading, because all metals are crystalline in the solid state.

Granulated Slag
Molten blast-furnace slag is quenched quickly in water to form a product called ‘granulated slag’. No crystallization occurs in this process. Depending upon chemical composition of the slag, its temperature at the time of quenching in water, and the method of production utilized, the physical structure of the granulated grains may vary from a friable popcorn-like structure to grains resembling dense glass.

Graphite Electrodes
Made from petroleum coke at high heat to form artificial crystalline carbon, graphite electrodes are used in electric steel-making furnaces.

Graphitization
The decomposition of iron oxide or, in any event, the rejection of elemental carbon in a casting after solidification has taken place, the carbon being liberated in the form of graphite which is usually found existing as minute, flaky particles disseminated throughout the casting.

Graphitizing
Annealing a ferrous alloy such that some or all the carbon precipitates as graphite.

Greenfield Steel Mill
New mill that is built “from scratch,” presumably on a green field.

Grinding
Removing material from a workpiece using a grinding wheel or abrasive belt.

Grit Size
Nominal size of abrasive particles in a grinding wheel, corresponding to the number of openings per linear inch in a screen through which the particles can pass.

Grit
1. Texture of the surface of a roll; applied through sand-blasting and grinding; the lower the number, the higher the grit and the rougher the surface; 50, 90, 150, 200, and 220 grit. Temper Mills may run grit. Grit also refers to the finish on the surface of the steel. 2. The size of the shot blast used to mechanically texture a roll for producing a grit finish product. Grit can be classified as either night or heavy. Light grit is a non-metallic inorganic material with excellent abrasive characteristics, such as aluminum oxide. Heavy grit is principally of the metallic type such as cast-iron shot. Metallic grit is the type most generally used on a bar product.

Grit Blasting
Or blast-cleaning, is a mechanical process used for removing scale and rust from bar products. It consists of eroding or abrading away the scale from the surface of the bar impinging an abrasive substance like sand, aluminum oxide, or a metallic substance like cast iron or steel shot.

Ground Roll Finish
The bright or smooth microfinish on the last stand of a tandem mill or temper mill; produced by grinding; determines the surface finish of the product where brightness is desired.

Guides
In order to prevent collaring and to ensure that the steel piece being rolled enters and leaves the pass in the correct position, guides are employed. These guides vary in form and size to fit the conditions. Guides may be employed on both sides of the pass, in which case they are designated as entering guides and delivery guides.

Guide Mark (Guide Scratch, Guide Score, Guide Shearing)
A surface defect resulting from abrasion between the steel / iron and a guide used for ensuring location in rolling.

Guards
Devices employed mainly on the delivery side of the mill to control the direction of the piece being rolled after it leaves the pass. Reversing and three-high mills are provided with guards on both sides of the mill.

Gutter
A recess surrounding the impression in the die face , to receive access metal beyond the fash proper

Haematite (Hematite)
Iron oxide, having a composition Fe2O3, corresponding to 69.94% of iron and 30.06% of oxygen, specific gravity 5.26, occurring in nature in igneous, metamorphic, and sedimentary rocks as a product of the weathering of magnetite and associated with varying amounts of impurities.

Hair Line Cracks (Hair Cracks)
Internal ruptures in steel caused by stresses which arise from the combination of several factors, such as volume changes due to transformation, brittleness due to the presence of hydrogen, and the arrangement of the micro-structure, resulting from hot working. The size of such ruptures may vary considerably but they are usually comparatively short in length when viewed on a surface cut at right angles to the plane of defect and generally are so fine that they cannot be discerned other than after etching or by magnetic crack detection.

Half-Hard Temper
Cold Rolled steel produced to a Rockwell hardness range of 70 to 85 on the B scale. Product of this temper is intended for limited cold forming and will only withstand 90-degree bends made across the rolling direction.

Hangar Crack
A transverse ingot crack caused by obstruction to normal contraction of an ingot during cooling in mould, and is associated with incorrect feeder head setting. Also occurs from overfilling.

Hanging
See Slips.

Hardenability
The relative ability of a ferrous alloy to form martensite when quenched from a temperature above the upper critical temperature. Hardenability is commonly measured as a distance below a quenched surface at which the metal exhibits a specific hardness– 50 HRC, for example- or a specific percentage of martensite in the micro-structure.

Hardening
Increasing hardness by suitable treatment, usually involving heating and cooling. See also age hardening, case hardening, induction hardening, precipitation hardening, and quench hardening.

Hardness
A measure of the resistance of a material to surface indentation or abrasion; may be thought of as a function of the stress required to produce some specified type of surface deformation. There is no absolute scale for hardness; therefore, to express hardness quantitatively, each type of test has its own scale of arbitrarily defined hardness. Indentation hardness can be measured as Brinell, Rockwell, Vickers, Knoop, and Scleroscope hardness tests.

Hard Drawn Wire
Wire drawn with a relatively large reduction(over 10%) from the rod without heat treatment.

Hardness Index
A property of metallurgical coke to withstand abrasion. It is expressed as the percentage of coke remaining on �-inch screen when the coke of selected size is screened after it has been tumbled in a standard drum which is rotated for a specific time at a specific rate.

Hardness Value
Degree to which a material resists deformation, indentation or scratching. There are many numerical scales (and thus methods) to measure the hardness value (example: Brinell, Rockwell, Vickers, etc.)

Hardening
What Process that increases the hardness of steel, i.e., the degree to which steel will resist cutting, abrasion, penetration, bending, and stretching.
Why The increased endurance provided by hardening makes steel suitable for additional applications.
How Hardening can be achieved through various methods, including (1) heat treatment, where the properties of steel are altered by subjecting the steel to a series of temperature changes; and (2) cold working, in which changes in the structure and shape of steel are achieved through rolling, hammering, or stretching the steel at a relatively low temperature.

Heat (of Steel)
A batch of refined steel. A basic oxygen or electric furnace full of steel. One heat of steel will be used to cast several slabs, blooms or billets.

Heat Affected Zone
That portion of the base metal that was not melted during brazing, cutting, or welding, but whose microstructure and mechanical properties were altered by the heat.

Heat Cover
A cylindrical or rectangular inner cover placed over the coils prior to placing the furnace on the base in the Batch Anneal.

Heat Exchanger
Removes heat from oil with water.
Heat Exchanger Tubes
Tubes used in a unit for the purpose of transferring heat from one medium to another.

Heat Number
In the Batch Anneal, this is the computerized annealing sequence number used by the Firing Model to associate target values to the Heat Sequence. It is required to run the Firing Model. In the BOP a sequential number assigned to each batch of steel.

Heat Tinting
Coloration of a metal surface through thermal oxidation by heating to reveal details of structure.

Heat Treatment
What Altering the properties of steel by subjecting it to a series of temperature changes.
Why To achieve the desired microstructural / mechanical properties like the hardness, strength, or ductility of steel or alloys so that it is suitable for additional applications.
How The steel is heated and then cooled as necessary to provide changes in the structural form that will impart the desired characteristics. The time spent at each temperature and the rates of cooling have significant impact on the effect of the treatment.

Heat Waste (Fire Waste)
The loss of material by scaling in a reheating or hot working process.

Heavy Coating
A condition caused by too much coating being applied to the strip.

Heavy Gauge
Product with a thickness above the customer’s maximum gauge tolerance.

Heavy/Light Gauge
Steel plate not meeting customer gauge specifications.

Heavy Structural Shapes
A general term given to rolled flanged sections that have at least one dimension of their cross sections three inches or greater. The category includes beams, channels, tees and zees if the depth dimension is three inches or greater, and angles if the length of the leg is three inches or greater.

Hertz
Term used to describe the frequency in an AC circuit. Essentially the same as cycles. If a circuit is 60 Hz or 60 cycles, that means that the AC wave has gone through 60 complete waves in one second.

Hickey
A coating defect consisting of a randomly oriented small speckled appearance on coated plate after inks are applied.

High Carbon Steel
Carbon steel containing generally more than 0.6% carbon. The more carbon that is dissolved in the iron, the less formable and the tougher the steel becomes. High-carbon steel’s hardness makes it suitable for plow blades, shovels, bedsprings, cutting edges, or other high-wear applications.

High Hot-Blast Temperatures
Use of better stove-firing techniques, better stove-changing equipment, improvements in burden materials, the use of tuyere-injected fuels and the control of blast moisture make it possible for the blast furnace to accept the higher hot-blast temperatures (upto 1250o C). This results in reduction in coke rate as well as improvement in blast furnace efficiency.

High Rockwell
A condition that occurs when the hardness of the steel is above the maximum limit as specified by the customer.

High Speed Steel
A special variety of tool steel which, by virtue of its composition, retains its cutting hardness at a low red heat.

High Strength Low Alloy (HSLA)
A specific group of steel in which higher strength, and in some cases additional resistance to atmospheric corrosion or improved formability, are obtained by moderate amounts of one or more alloying elements such as columbium, vanadium, titanium, used alone or in combination.

HNX Gas
A mixture of hydrogen and nitrogen gas used to prevent oxidation and to clean the strip during the annealing process.

Hold
Coil type indicating that a produced coil or lift has problems that need to be resolved by the Quality Assurance department.

Hollow Forging
Forging a tube, ring or drum on a becking bar or mandrel.

Home Scrap
Also called ‘revert scrap’, it includes such items as pit scrap ; ingots too short to roll; rejected ingots; crop ends from slabs, blooms and billets; shear cuttings from trimming flat-rolled products to specified size; products irrevocably damaged in handling or finishing; ends cut from structural shapes, rails, bars, pipe or tubing to bring them to standard or exact ordered lengths; turnings from machining operations, broken moulds; obsolete machinery, dismantled buildings, steel shot recovered from slag, and so on. Bloom and slab crops constitute the largest single item of home scrap.

Homogenizing
Holding at high temperature to eliminate or decrease chemical segregation by diffusion.

Hood
The membrane-type construction (alongwith the stacks) above the basic oxygen furnaces leading to the gas cleaning and dust collecting facilities are called hoods. These are cooled by water flowing in 1 � inch dia steel tubes separated on 2 inch centres.

Hook
A short bend or curvature caused either by improperly adjusted delivery guides or by any obstruction which may halt momentarily the forward motion of the bar from one roll stand to another.

Horse Shoe Quality
A quality of wrought iron specifically manufactured for horse shoes.

Hot Band (Hot-Rolled Steel)
A coil of steel rolled on a hot-strip mill (hot-rolled steel). It can be sold in this form to customers or further processed into other finished products.

Hot Briquetted Iron (HBI)
Direct reduced iron that has been processed into briquettes. Instead of using a blast furnace, the oxygen is removed from the ore using natural gas and results in a substance that is 90%-92% iron. Because DRI may spontaneously combust during transportation, HBI is preferred when the metallic material must be stored or moved.

Hot-Dip Galvanizing After Fabrication
A batch process used to produce a zinc coating on manufactured steel products by total immersion of structural or fabricated steel in a bath of molten zinc. The process provides a metallurgically bonded coating, generally 100 um (4 mils) thick, consisting of iron-zinc alloy layers covered with zinc.

Hot Drawn
Tubes which have been reduced in diameter, or diameter and thickness both, by drawing hot on a mandrel through a die.

Hot End
The section of a steel making complex from the furnace up to, but not including, the hot-strip mill.

Hot Etching
Development and stabilization of the micro-structure at elevated temperature in etchants or gases.

Hot Forming
Operations such as bending and pressing, after heating the material to appropriate temperature.

Hot Metal
The name for the molten iron produced in a blast furnace. It proceeds to the basic oxygen furnace in molten form or is cast as pig iron.

Hot Metal Process
A steel making process using molten metal from blast furnace mixer or cupola as major portion of the charge.

Hot Mill
The rolling mill that reduces a hot slab into a coil of specified thickness; the whole processing is done at a relatively high temperature (when the steel is still “red”).

Hot Quenching
An imprecise term for serious quenching procedures in which a quenching medium is maintained at a prescribed temperature above 70o C.

Hot Roll
Product that is sold in its “as produced state” off the Hot Mill with no further reduction or processing steps aside from being pickled and oiled (if specified).

Hot Roll Base
Hot rolled coils which have been pickled in an acid solution to remove surface oxidation, then is oiled to prevent rust. Coils that come directly off the Pickling Line and are not cold roll reduced on the tandem mill.

Hot Roll, P&O
Hot Roll Pickle and Oil that does not go to a in-house Tandem Mill. It may not necessarily be shipped out; it could go to the Temper Mill.

Hot Rolled Sheets
Manufactured by hot rolling slabs to the required thickness.

Hot Sawing
Cutting hot iron to length during or immediately following hot rolling, by a circular saw.

Hot-Strip Mill
A rolling mill of several stands of rolls that converts slabs into hot-rolled coils. The hot-strip mill squeezes slabs, which can range in thickness from 2-10 inches, depending on the type of continuous caster, between horizontal rolls with a progressively smaller space between them (while vertical rolls govern the width) to produce a coil of flat-rolled steel about a quarter-inch in thickness and a quarter mile in length.

Hot Working
Plastic deformation of metal at temperatures higher than recrystallization temperature. The forces required to deform the metal are very insensitive to the rate of application of loads and to temperature variations, but the basic strength of the metal after the deformation is essentially unchanged.

Hydro-forming
A forming process in which a tube is placed into a forming die. The tube is then formed to the shape of the die through the application of internal water pressure. The hydroforming process allows for severe shape deformation, making it ideal for automotive structural parts such as engine cradles, radiator supports and body rails. Various shaped and sized holes can be punched in the tube almost anywhere during the process.

Hydrogen Damage
A general term for the embrittlement, cracking, blistering, and hydride formation that can occur when hydrogen is present in some metals.

Hydraulic Lap-weld Process (Water-Gas Lapweld Process)
A process for making large diameter welded tubes in which a steel plate is bent into cylindrical shape in bending rolls. The overlapping edges are heated for short distances to welding temperature and subsequently welded by pressing them together by hydraulic power. The heating and pressing is repeated until the length is welded. The tube is then heated all over and passed through rounding rolls. For certain sizes, two plates may be required to make the necessary circumference.

I-Beams
Structural sections on which the flanges are tapered and are typically not as long as the flanges on wide-flange beams. The flanges are thicker at the cross sections and thinner at the toes of the flanges. They are produced with depths of 3-24 inches.

ID
Inside diameter (of a coil).

Immersion Etching
Method in which a microstructure is dipped face up into etching solution and is moved around during etching. This is the most common etching method.

Impact Tests
Tests to determine the energy absorbed in fracturing a test specimen at high velocity. There are various kinds of impact tests, such as charpy, izod, drop weight, etc.

Inclusions (Non-metallic Inclusions)
Refers to a defect when particles of nonmetallic impurities, usually oxides, sulfides, silicates, refractories and such, which are the products of deoxidation, are insoluble in the matrix and are mechanically held in steel during solidification.

Inclusion Count
Determination of the number, kind, size, and distribution of non-metallic inclusions.

Induction Hardening
A surface-hardening process in which only the surface layer of a suitable ferrous workforce is heated by electrical induction to above the upper transformation temperature and immediately quenched.

Induction Process
A process in which the heating is done by eddy currents generated in the charge by the induction coil surrounding the charge. Depending upon the frequency used, the process is called low frequency, medium frequency and high frequency melting.

Ingot
A form of semi-finished steel. Liquid steel is teemed (poured) into vertical cast iron moulds, where it slowly solidifies. Once the steel is solid, the mould is stripped, and the 25- to 30-ton ingots are then ready for subsequent rolling or forging.

Ingot Corner Segregation
A longitudinal plane of relatively impure steel arising from segregation occurring in the region of a corner of an ingot.

Ingot Iron
Very low carbon steel generally made in the open hearth in which all the other elements are removed to the maximum extent possible. Some of the commercial products falling under this group have less than 0.1 percent of all elements put together.

Ingot Mould (Mould)
The container, usually made of cast iron, into which molten steel is poured and allowed to solidify.

Inmetco
What Inmetco is a coal-based process similar to FASTMET that uses iron oxide fines and pulverized coal to produce a scrap substitute. Mill scale and flue dust, inexpensive byproducts of steel making, can be mixed with the iron oxide fines. Inmetco, unlike other direct reduction products, is intended to be hot charged into an EAF, with attendant energy savings.
How The process includes three steps. First, iron oxide fines, pulverized coal and a binder are formed into pellets. Second, the pellets, two to three layers deep, are heated in a gas-fired rotary hearth furnace for 15-20 minutes to produce sponge iron. Subsequently, the iron must be desulfurized. The coal in the pellets provides much of the energy required in the second phase.

Insert
A piece of steel permanently fixed in the die, which may be used to fill a cavity or to replace a portion or the whole of the impression.

Integrated Mills
These facilities make steel by processing iron ore and other raw materials in blast furnaces. Technically, only the hot end differentiates integrated mills from mini-mills. However, the differing technological approaches to molten steel imply different scale efficiencies. See Mini Mills.

Integrated Steel Producer
A steel company which manufactures solid steel products; starts with raw materials such as iron ore, flux, etc, to make molten iron; converts the molten iron to liquid steel in the steel making furnaces and processes liquid to solid steel products.

Inter Annealed Wire
Wire drawn to an intermediate stage, annealed and drawn to the size required.

Inter-Chemical Gauge
Wet film thickness can also be measured using an Inter-chemical Gauge. A graduated circular cam is rolled against the plate between two parallel rollers. The wet film thickness is then read directly on cam at demarcation of coating wetting the cam.

Intermediate Annealing
Annealing wrought metal at one or more stages during manufacture and before final thermal treatment.

Intermediate Temper
A cold rolled hardness range specified with a 15-point Rockwell B spread. See Quarter Hard Temper and Half-Hard Temper.

Internal Cleanliness
Measure of number and types of non-metallic inclusions such as oxides, sulfides or silicates.

Interstitial Free Steel
A recently developed sheet steel product with very low carbon levels that is used primarily in automotive deep-drawing applications. Interstitial Free Steel’s improved ductility (drawing ability) is made possible by vacuum degassing.

Interrupted Aging
Aging at two or more temperatures by steps and cooling to room temperature after each step. Compare with progressive aging and step aging.

Interrupted Quenching
Quenching in which the metal object being quenched is removed from the quenching medium while the object is at a temperature substantially higher than that of the quenching medium.

IPM (In-Process Material)
An identifiable piece of steel; can be a slab, coil, or a bundle of sheets, or several slit mults banded together.

Iron Carbide
One of several substitutes for high-quality, low-residual scrap for use in electric furnace steel making. Iron carbide producers use natural gas to reduce iron ore to iron carbide.

Iron Notch
The opening for removing the liquid iron from the blast furnace. The opening on the inside of the furnace is larger than that on the outside so that the tapping hole can be drilled horizontally or at different angles. Although most of the older furnaces had only one iron notch, modern large blast furnaces have two or three and a few very larger ones have four.

Iron Ore
Mineral containing enough iron to be a commercially viable source of the element for use in steel making. Except for fragments of meteorites found on Earth, iron is not a free element; instead, it is trapped in the earth’s crust in its oxidized form. It is of two types : containing ferric oxide (Hematite) or ferro-ferric oxide (Magnetite).

Iron-Zinc Alloy Coating
See Galvanized Steel.

ISO Codes
The codes that designate the amount of contamination in the oil.

Isolate (Isolation)
To remove a boiler, or any particular part or system of a boiler, form service by closing the manual valves.

Isothermal Annealing
It is a type of full annealing in which the steel first is cooled to the temperature at which it is desired to have transformation occur, at a rate sufficiently rapid to prevent any structural change above that temperature. The steel then is held at the selected temperature for the time necessary to complete such transformation.

Isotropy
A term indicating equal physical or mechanical properties in all directions within a material.

Jasper Ore
The term applied to iron formations which are composed of steel-gray, crystalline or specular hematite, and finely granular quartz, with minor iron silicates. Jaspers are concentrated by froth floatation methods.

JP (Jet-Process)
1. Fully alloyed galvanneal product. 2. The aluminum percentage is reduced from the pot on the Galvanize lines; primarily zinc left; produces a flat, dull coating on the steel (Jet-Process).

Jumbo Coil
A single coil produced by welding two or more coils.

Kaldo Process
A process of steel making where the impurities are oxidised by blowing high purity oxygen through an inclined lance (or lances) on the surface of high phosphorous molten pig iron held in a basic lined converter which is inclined at about 20o to the horizontal and is rotated at rates up to 35 revolutions/minute.

Key
A wedge used for fastening the dies into the hammer tup of into the anvil block.

Killed Steel (Solid Steel)
Steel which has been fully deoxidized to reduce the oxygen content of the steel to a minimum in order that it lies perfectly quiet when poured into an ingot mould and no reaction takes place between carbon and oxygen during solidification. There is no evolution of gas in the mould and the to surface of the ingot solidifies with relative rapidity. Killed steel generally is used when a homogeneous structure is required in the finished steel. In general, all steels with more than 0.30% carbon content are killed.

Kisser
Patches of scale left on sheets after pickling. This results from two sheets having remained in close contact during pickling.

K-Plate
Tin plate with superior corrosion resistance to mild acid food products; must meet four (4) special property tests : 1. Pickle lags 10 or less. 2. Tin crystal size ASTM 9 or larger. 3. ISV (iron solution value) 20 micro grams Fe or less. 4. ATC (Alloy tin couple – American Can test) or AMP (Aerated Media Polarization test) Avg. 0.050 micro amps/sq. cm. Or less – 95% 0.085 or less. No test over 0.120.

Knoop Hardness Test
An indentation hardness test using calibrated machines to force a rhombic-based pyramidal diamond indentor having specified edge angles, under specified conditions, into the surface of the material under test and to measure the long diagonal after removal of the load.

Lace
Area where the strip is joined together (with wire, bands, etc.) after being broken.

Lacquer
A coating composition which is based on synthetic thermoplastic film forming material dissolved in organic solvent and which dries primarily by solvent evaporation during stoving operations.

Ladle Injection
A process by which deoxidizers, special materials and rare earth metals are added to ladles of steel. The process is the best of all secondary steel-making processes for achieving excellent inclusion morphology in steel.

Ladle Refining Furnace (LRF)
A ladle refining furnace has the ability to reheat the liquid steel. This allows the steel-makers to add greater amounts of alloys to the liquid steel. The furnaces’ capacity to provide heat during refining by arc-reheating gives the steel-makers the capability to desulphurize, deoxidize and perform metallurgical operations with synthetic slag. The ladle refining step comes after the steel is melted and refined in the electric arc or basic oxygen furnace, but before the steel is sent to the continuous caster.

Ladle Rigging
A mechanism for raising and lowering the stopper rod vertically to open and close the bottom hole of a steel ladle.

Lagging
Slack in the strip.

Lamellar Tear
A system of cracks or discontinuities aligned generally to the worked surface of a plate. This is usually associated with a fusion weld in thick plate.

Laminations
Imperfections resulting from the presence of foreign inclusions, laps, blisters or other discontinuity in the steel typically aligned parallel to the worked surface or rolling direction of the metal. This imparts a tendency to split into layers along the direction of rolling.

Lap (Overlap, Shut)
A surface imperfection on worked metal caused by folding over a fin overfill or similar surface condition, then impressing this into the surface by subsequent working without welding it.

Lap Weld
Done at platers; coil ends are “lapped” over one another and welded; it doubles the thickness of the steel at the weld and is marked by a hole punch.

Lattens
A measure of thickness, and refers to those hot rolled sheets having thickness from 0.56 to 0.4 mm.

LD-AC (Arbed Cockerill Process)
This process is an extension of the LD process developed in Belgium whereby lime powder is introduced vertically into an LD converter along with the oxygen in order to make the LD process suitable for refining high phosphorus (up to 2 percent) bearing molten pig iron.

LD Process (Linz Donawitz Process)
A process of steel making where the impurities are oxidized by blowing high purity oxygen through a lance at supersonic speeds vertically on the surface of the molten pig iron held in a stationary basic lined converter which itself is kept vertical.

Lead Annealing
A process to anneal wire, it consists of drawing the wire through a bath of molten lead heated to the proper temperature.

Lead-Time
Delivery time for an item of inventory to be moved from a source location to a destination via a specific route. Detail is specific to the level of the location. Also the time to produce a customer’s order from order placement to shipment.

Leveling
The process by which a leveling machine flattens metal strip, coil, or sheets beyond its yield point by bending it up and down over the interrupting arcs of upper and lowers sets of long, slender work rolls. Machines generally employ 17, 19, or 21 relatively small diameter rolls whose deflection under load is controlled by additional back-up rollers and a rigid frame.

Leveling Line
A process to flatten any shape deficiencies (wavy edges and buckles) in the sheet, prior to final shipment. Most cold-rolled sheet initially has a crowned cross-section that, if such a shape is undesirable to the customer, must be flattened in the leveling line.

Leveling Rolls
A set of five adjustable rolls that flatten or level the front end strip of steel when running through the feeders.

Life Cycle Costing
An accounting method of costing where expenses are allocated over the life of the product. Life cycle costs are often lower for stainless steel than for alternatives despite a higher initial outlay, because stainless products generally last longer and require little maintenance.

Lift
A stack of sheared-to-length plates or sheets.

Light Gauge (Defect)
Product with a thickness below the customer’s minimum gauge tolerance.

Light-Gauge Steel
Very thin steel sheet that has been temper-rolled or passed through a cold-reduction mill. Light gauge steel normally is plated with tin or chrome for use in food containers.

Light Special Treatment
A surface treatment of dried-in-place chromate for electro-galvanized product which provides corrosion resistance. A lighter film weight is applied as compared to special treatment. (See Special Treatment)

Lime
A product (calcium oxide, CaO) obtained by burning limestone (calcium carbonate, CaCo3) and is used in basic steel making practice as a flux, and to a limited extent as mould wash.

Limestone
Naturally occurring mineral comprising mainly calcium cabonate (CaCo3) containing various impurities, chiefly silica and alumina and used as flux in steel industry.

Lineal Footage Counter
Electronic device used to count lineal footage of a coil.

Line Marking
Lines are used as the identifying marks on the heavy Tin coated side of the strip to identify it to the customer.

Line Pipe
Pipe used in the surface transmission of oil, natural gas and other fluids.

Line Speed
Speed at which the coil is processed through the line; Platers may run 1800+ feet per minute.

Liquid Carburizing
A light, hard case, which is also a mixture of carbides and nitrides, is obtained by immersing the steel in a molten salt bath containing about 30% sodium cyanide at 870o C for periods of about ½ to 1 hour. This results in a case depth of about 0.25mm.

Location
A coding system that defines the physical placement of materials, usually to a high degree of specificity.

Lock Out / Tag Out
Terminology used to describe the process of securing an energy source so that work may be done. This is accomplished by locking out all the energy sources pertaining to the device, tagging out the resources, and trying out the device to make sure that it is de-energized and safe for work to be done.

Lockseam Test
A test performed on a galvanized product to evaluate the adherence of the zinc to the steel substrate. This test involves bending the steel to form an ‘S’ shape and assessing the adherence of the coating along the apexes.

Logistics
The science of identifying, maintaining, and transporting materials.

Longitudinal Direction
The principal direction of flow in a worked metal.

Long Products
Classification of steel products that includes bar, rod and structural products, that are “long”, rather than “flat”.

Looper / Loop Tower
1. Area where the strip accumulates enabling the line to continue running while making a weld. 2. Collecting unit used for storing steel. This enables the Entry or Delivery End of the line to stop without stopping production.

Loose Wrap
A coil that is not wound tight. Using too little tension when winding causes this condition.

Lot No.
Identifies groups of coils for a particular customer order to be processed at a certain time; identifies a particular group of coils to load.

Low-Carbon Steel
Steel with less than 0.005% carbon is more ductile (malleable): It is capable of being drawn out or rolled thin for use in automotive body applications. Carbon is removed from the steel bath through vacuum degassing.

Low Coating
A condition that occurs when the coating thickness is less than customer specifications.

Lowboy (or Stabilizer Roll)
Submerged roll in the pot used to stabilize the strip as it exits the pot before entering the dies.

Low Temperature Steel
Steels which are especially suited for extremely cold climates and for the handling of relatively ‘warm’ (to –100o) liquefied gases such as propane, anhydrous ammonia, carbon dioxide and ethane.

Luting
The original method of sealing the doors of coke ovens by trowelling and smoothening ground ‘mud’ into the V-shaped opening between the door and the door jamb. In recent years, there have been developed self-sealing doors that do not require luting.

Machinability
The capability of being machined. It is controlled through the composition and rate of cooling, but often must be sacrificed for some more essential property, such as strength or toughness.

Machine Straightening
Straightening by reeling, speening or other mechanical means.

Magnesite
Naturally occurring magnesium carbonate (MgCO3) containing small amounts of silica, alumina and iron oxide, and is used in making banks and bottom of a basic furnace, as well as during its fettling.

Magnetite
The iron oxide, having the composition Fe3O4, corresponding to 72.36% of iron and 27.64% of oxygen, specific gravity 5.16 to 5.18, occurring in nature in igneous, metamorphic, and sedimentary rocks and associated with varying amounts of impurities.

Magnetite Taconite
The rock name applied to bedded sedimentary iron formations in which the principal iron mineral is magnetite. It is a hard, dense, compact, fine-grained rock, commonly containing from 40 to 55% silica and 15 to 35% iron in the form of magnetite. Magnetite taconite ores are concentrated by magnetic methods after fine grinding.

Magnet Steels
These are an example of alloy electrical steels. The outstanding property of these steels is their retentivity or ability to retain magnetism. Cobalt, chromium, and tungsten are the alloying elements commonly used to enhance this characteristic.

Malleability
Capacity for undergoing deformation in all directions, usually cold deformation by hammering or squeezing, without fracture.

Malleable Iron
The term usually means malleable cast iron but it is sometimes applied to wrought iron also.

Malleablizing
Annealing white cast iron so that some or all of the combined carbon is transformed into graphite or, in some instances, so that part of the carbon is removed completely.

Mandrel
A round bar, usually slightly tapered, inserted through the forging and not supported at the ends, and around which a tube, ring or drum is forged between the upper & lower tools of the hammer or press. The mandrel governs the internal diameter.

Man-Hours Per Ton
This is a measure of labor efficiency i.e. the ratio of total hours worked by steel employees to the tons shipped for a given period of time. Changes in the inventory level and work that is contracted out will affect the reported measurement.

Martempering
1. A hardening procedure in which an austentized ferrous material is quenched into an appropriate medium at a temperature just above the martensite start temperature of the material, held in the medium until the temperature is uniform throughout, although not long enough for bainite to form, then cooled in air. The treatment is frequently followed by tempering.
2. When the process is applied to carburized material, the controlling martensite start temperature is that of the case. This variation of the process is frequently called marquenching.

Martensitic
Small category of stainless steel characterized by the use of heat treatment for hardening and strengthening. Refers to a particular grain structure of steel which is extremely hard and consists of iron oxide precipitates in a ferrite matrix. Martensitic stainless steels are plain chromium steels with no significant nickel content. They are utilized in equipment for the chemical and oil industries and in surgical instruments. The most popular martensitic stainless steel is type 410 (a grade appropriate for non-severe corrosion environments requiring high strength).

Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS)
Sheets that document safety issues associated with various materials used.

Matte Finish
A dull or grit surface appearance achieved by rolling on rolls which have been roughened by mechanical, chemical, or electrical means to various degrees of surface texture.

Matte Surface
A dull surface appearance on a tin plate product; non-reflowed tinplate. See Reflowed Surface.

Mechanical Galvanizing
A batch process used to produce a zinc coating on manufactured steel items by shot peening. Small iron and steel parts are coated with zinc by drum-tumbling with a mixture of promoter chemicals, zinc powder, and glass beads. The tumbling action peens the zinc powder onto the part.

Mechanical Properties
Those properties of a material that reveal the elastic and inelastic reaction when force is applied, or that involve the relationship between stress and strain; for example, the modulus of elasticity, tensile strength, and fatigue limit. These properties have often been designated as “physical properties,” but the term “mechanical properties” is much to be preferred. These are determined by mechanical methods involving destruction or deformation or both, such as tensile test, bend test, impact test and hardness test.

Mechanical Shaping
Permanent deformation of metal with the objective usually of production of a specific shape or size.

Medium-Carbon Steel
Carbon steel containing generally minimum of 0.30% carbon and maximum 0.60% carbon.

Melt
A stage in the steel making process when all the scrap charged has been melted. This term is also synonymous with cast, blow or heat.

Merchant Bar
1. A group of commodity steel shapes that consist of rounds, squares, flats, strips, angles, and channels, which fabricators, steel service centers and manufacturers cut, bend and shape into products. Merchant products require more specialized processing than reinforcing bar.
2. A trade term for black bar.

Metallizing
A process used to produce a zinc coating on manufactured steel items by metal spraying. Zinc metal wire or powder is fed into a spray gun where it is melted and sprayed onto the part to be coated. Melting is accomplished either by combustion in an oxygen-fuel gas flame or an electric arc. Combustion gases and/or auxiliary compressed air provide the necessary velocity to spray the liquid metal onto the part.

Metallography
The science dealing with the condition and structure of metals and alloys as revealed to the unaided eye or by using such tools a low-power magnification, optical microscopy, electron microscopy, and diffraction or x-ray techniques.

Microcleanliness
Removal of undesirable non-metallics, primarily oxides and sulphides.

Microvalve
A control valve used to control the hydraulic pressure to the clutch plates on the winch drive.

Middling
Forging the middle of an ingot or billet as a first operation; into finishing the middle of a forging before either end.

Mild Drawn Wire (Soft Drawn Wire)
Wire drawn from the rod or annealed base with a reduction of area of less than 10%.

Mill Edge
The edge as obtained from the normal practice of rolling without the use of edge rolls. This replaces the old term, band edge.

Mill Finish
The surface finish on sheets corresponding to the ground finish of rolls used.

Mill Scale
Oxide layer (scale) formed during heating of the bar, which is dislodged at the mill and collected.

Mild Steel
Carbon steel containing generally less than 0.30% carbon.

Mini-Mills
Normally defined as steel mills that melt scrap metal to produce commodity products. Although the mini-mills are subject to the same steel processing requirements after the caster as the integrated steel companies, they differ greatly in regard to their minimum efficient size and product markets. See Integrated Mills.

Minimized Spangle
A dull Hot-Dipped Galvanized surface appearance in which the normal zinc formation has been suppressed; achieved by applying water droplets or some other nucleating agent to the zinc surface after the bath but before the zinc solidifies to suppress the growth of spangle.

Minimum Triple Spot Average Coating
The average of three coating weights test results obtained from a full width sample of a galvanized (or any other coated) coil: 2 inches from each end and dead center.

Misting
A coating defect consisting of a condition encountered, primarily on D & I high speed beverage can coating machines, which appears as many fine spots of coating.

Mist Cooling
A cooling process used in secondary cooling section of steel melting shop in place of conventional water sprays. The mist is produced by an atomized nozzle in which cooling water and compressed air are premixed; the mist is discharged through a slit outlet from a pressure chamber. This improves heat transfer, resulting in significantly lower water volumes and greater cooling uniformity.

Mixer
A large refractory lined cylindrical or rectangular vessel, provided with tilting arrangement, and is used for storage of molten iron, and in some cases, for pertly refining the stored metal (active mixer used in open hearth shops). Apart from storage, it offers considerable latitude towards the intake of ‘off standard’ hot iron, and aims in bringing about some uniformity in the supply of hot iron for steel making.

Mixer Metal
Molten iron from the blast furnace which has been stored in a mixer preparatory to conversion to steel.

Modulus of Elasticity
The number which represents the relative “springness” of a given type of metal. All steels have the same modulus of elasticity or “springiness” regardless of the tensile or yield strengths. That is, until the yield point is reached they all stretch the same amount for a given load. Aluminum, on the other hand, is more elastic than steel and thus will stretch more than steel under the same loading.

Molybdenum (Mo)
An alloying element used as a raw material for some classes of stainless steel. Molybdenum in the presence of chromium enhances the corrosion resistance of stainless steel.

Monkey
(See Slag Notch.)

Months of Inventory
Ratio of the end-of-period inventory to average monthly level of sales for the period.

Mould Dressing
Materials (such as varnish, lacquor, tar, etc.) applied to the inner faces of moulds for better ingot surface.

M Sections (Bantam BeamsTM , Junior BeamsTM)
Light footweight beams primarily used in the construction of pre-engineered housing. These beams are produced in lighter footweights, usually six to 10 pounds per foot, than traditional structural products.

Muck Bar
Semi-finished bar produced in the forge.

Mud Gun
It consists of a hollow, cylindrical barrel and a plunger that pushes the refractory clay out through a nozzle into the tap hole of a blast furnace to plug it after the cast has been completed.

Mult
A “mult” is the term used to describe the slitting of a coil into multiple smaller strips. If a coil is slit into strips less than 9″, each strip is referred to as a “mult” and does not receive an individual IPM number. Mults are not removed from the line individually, but as a whole coil unit. For reasons pertaining to customer orders, however, they may be separated and packaged with “mults” from other coils for shipping.

Multiple Lengths
Length from which a given number of pieces of specific lengths can be cut with minimum waste.

Multi Stage Pumps
Pumps that are designed to put out different amounts of water pressure by changing the speed of the pump by opening up different ports on the turbine of the pump.

Nailing
Slow heating to visible redness of refractory crucibles prior to use of crucibles for the melting of steel.

Natural Gas
Derived from the remains of marine animal and plant life (same as petroleum), natural gas is made up predominantly of hydrocarbons. Petroleum rarely is free of natural gas and the same fields usually produce both fuels. Gas found in a field is usually under pressure which diminishes with extended use or from the presence of too many other wells.

Necking
Strip condition caused by the application of too much tension which causes the strip to become narrower (or stretched) before fracture.

Neutral Refractory
A refractory having neither strongly acidic nor basic properties, for example, chromite.

NDT
Non-destructive testing, mainly used in pipe mills.

Nickel (Ni)
An alloying element used as a raw material for certain classes of stainless steel. Nickel provides high degrees of ductility (ability to change shape without fracture) as well as resistance to corrosion. Approximately 65% of all nickel is used in the making of stainless steel.

Nitriding
The nitrogen case-hardening process which consists of subjecting machined and heat-treated parts to the action of a nitrogenous medium, commonly ammonia gas, at temperatures of about 510o to 538o. The outer layer of a conventionally nitrided case contains a shallow (0.05mm) but very brittle ‘white layer’ consisting or iron and other nitrides. Quenching is not required to produce a hard case.

Nitrocarburizing
Any of several case-hardening processes in which nitrogen and carbon are absorbed into the surface layers of a ferrous material at temperatures below the lower critical temperature and, by diffusion, create a concentration gradient. Compare with carbonitriding.

No. 1 Heavy Melt
Obsolete steel scrap grade, at least one-quarter inch in thickness and in sections no larger than five feet by two feet. Much of the metal comes from demolished buildings, truck frames and heavy duty springs. Mini-mills are primary consumers of No. 1 heavy scrap.

Non-Aging
Little to no change in mechanical and physical properties over time; Yield point elongation is zero. See Aging.

Normalizing
Heating to a temperature about 100o F above the critical range, as indicated by the iron carbon diagram, and cooling in still air. Normalizing is used to restore the steel to its normal condition after hot working, cold working, non-uniform cooling or overheating, or to eliminate the effects of previous heat treatment. Other common objects of normalizing include the development of uniformity in grain, structure and physical properties, a slight hardening of medium carbon steels to improve machinability and the removal of stresses, strains, or course grain prior to hardening. The usual normalizing temperatures range from about 1500o degrees to 1800o F depending on the steel involved.

Non-Temper Passed Bands
Hot bands.

Nozzle
The refractory lined outlet tube, generally between 25 to 50 mm in diameter, through which molten steel is released from the ladle to fill up moulds.

OCTG
See Oil Country Tubular Goods.

OD
Outside diameter (of a coil).

Off Gauge
A defect referring to a variation of offset of the thickness of the plate from the designated aim gauge thickness and tolerance.

Offsetting
A coating defect consisting of a transference of smearing of ink or coating or other substance from the surface of one sheet of coated substrate to the back of the next sheet in a stack.

Oil Country Tubular Goods (OCTG)
Label applied to the pipe products used by petroleum exploration customers. Includes casing, drill pipe and oil well tubing, which, depending on their use, may be formed through welded or seamless processes.

Oiled
A product to which oil has been applied to retard rusting.

Oil Film Weight
Measure of the amount of oil applied to a flat rolled steel product; for Tin Mill Products, the measure is grams/base box; for Sheet Products, the measure is oz./sq.ft. (or gm./sq.m.).

Oiling
The application of a surface layer of lubricant intended to retard rusting on sheet products and lubrication on Tin Mill products.

Olsen Cup Test
A test used to obtain an indication of the drawing properties of the base metal as well as the adherence of the coating. In this test, the male and female dies are used to deform the steel into a cup shape. The force draws the metal into the die slowly so the coated sheet stretches to conform to the shape of the die. The depth of the cup is measured when the steel fractures, and the coating is then examined.

Open Coil Annealing (Unitised Annealing)
Annealing of a sheet coil in the form of a loosely wound coil with or without a metal spacer between successive laps of the coil, thus providing gap for the atmosphere to circulate around each lap of the coil. This form of annealing is generally used for decarburisation annealing and / or nitriding, that is, annealing simultaneously with decarburisation and denitriding to produce extra low carbon and low nitrogen steels. Generally it is carried out in Bell type furnaces, but when carried out in Bogie Hearth Furnaces, the process is usually termed as ‘unitised annealing’.

Open Hearth Furnace
A broad, dish-shaped, shallow hearth to refine pig iron and scrap into steel. Heat is supplied through convection from a large, luminous flame over the surface of the metal and by radiation from the roof, and the refining takes seven to nine hours. Open Hearths, at one time the most abundant steel making furnaces among integrated companies, have been replaced by the basic oxygen furnace.

Open Line
Usually a steel-making defect, an open line refers to a line down the length of the strip caused by unknown conditions.

Open Steel
Steel partially killed prior to casting.

Open Weld
A weld that shows an area which is not fused.

Operating Rates
The ratio of raw steel production to the mill’s stated capacity.

Orange Peel
Characteristic roughing over the surface of cold-rolled or cold-deformed sheet or strip due to coarse grain size. Also known as pebbles and alligator skin

Order Rate
The ratio of new orders recorded to the mill’s capacity to produce the steel to fill the orders. Many analysts view trends in the order rate as harbingers of future production levels.

Ore
An iron bearing material used primarily in the blast furnace.

Organosol
Organosols contain poly-vinyl chloride (PVC) dispersed in solvents. At temperatures of 325-350o F (165-175o C) the vinyl particles coalesce and dissolve in the plasticizers to form homogeneous films with good hardness, toughness and adhesion.

Oscillating
A method of winding narrow strip steel over a much wider roll. Customers want to have as much steel on a coil as will fit in their machines, so they can spend less time moving the material and more time using it. By coiling the strip like fishing line (or thread) over a spool, a much longer strip can fit onto a coil of proper diameter. Oscillate-wound coils allow the customer to enjoy longer processing runs.

Overaging
Aging under conditions of time and temperature greater than those required to obtain maximum change in a certain property. See also aging.

Overheating
Heating to such a high temperature that an undesirably coarse grained structure is produced. Severe overheating may result in the properties being permanently impaired.

Overpickling
Results from line delays which permit sections of the steel to remain in the acid too long. Causes pronounced chemical attack, resulting in pitting and roughness on the surface.

Overwidth
Product whose width is above the customer’s finished width tolerance.

Oxidation
Rust, corrosion. See Red Rust and White Rust.

Oxygen Enrichment (of Blast)
Enrichment of blast air with oxygen to increase hot metal production in the blast furnace. For every percent of oxygen above the normal air blast (21%), the production rate can be increased about 2 to 4%.

Oxygen Lance
Pure oxygen is injected into the molten steel during top-blown oxygen steel-making process through a tubular, water-cooled, copper-tipped retractable lance kept perpendicular above the center of the bath. At the top of the lance, armored rubber hoses are connected to a pressure-regulated oxygen source and top a supply of re-circulated cooling water. The tip of the lance contains from three to five converging-diverging nozzles to impart a supersonic velocity (mach 1.7 to 2.3) to the gas jets exiting normally under a pressure between 140 to 180 psi.

Pack Carburizing
The steel is packed in boxes with carbonaceous solids, sealed to exclude the atmosphere, and heated to about 927oC for a period of time depending upon the depth of case desired. A time of about 8 hours at 927oC results in a case depth of about 1.6mm.

Pack Rolling
Rolling two or more sheets at a time, in one pack.

Pairs
Two sheets hot-rolled together.

Paper Drum
Paper insert placed on the reel around which the coil is wound. The drum is used to eliminate damage in the center of the coil. Certain customers may require that coils are to be shipped with this paper drum.

Passivated Tin Plate
Tin plate that has been chemically treated to control tin oxide formation and growth.

Passivation Treatment
See Chemical Treatment.

Parting Line (Die line)
The dividing plane between the faces of a pair of dies.

Peg (Stopper)
A block placed to keep the forging tools at a minimum distance.

Peeling
Separation of the zinc coating from the steel strip.

Pellets
(See Agglomerating Process.)

Peritectic Grade
Crack sensitive grade of steel with .08 to .16% Carbon.

Phenolic
A type of resin made from a condensation reaction of phenols and aldehydes. Resultant films have a high degree of chemical resistance with limited flexibility properties.

Phosphatized
See Bonderized Coating.

Phosphide Streak
An elongated area of segregated phosphide which revealed on etching.

Pickler
1. An operating unit that removes iron oxide from a hot rolled product by immersion into a hydrochloric or sulfuric acid solution. 2. The pickler tank contains 5-6% concentrations of sulfuric acid. This solution is kept at a temperature of 180-190o F. The purpose of the pickler is to complete the preparation of the steel for plating, by removing any oxides from the surface.

Piano Wire (Music Wire)
A very high quality high carbon, patented drawn and polished wire having a tensile strength in excess of 190 kgf/mm2 and generally in size of 1.6 mm dia and finer. The term music wire also includes wire intended for mandolins.

Pickle Stain
Surface stain after pickling due to inadequate washing and drying

Pickling
What Process that cleans a steel coil of its rust, dirt and oil so that further work can be done to the metal.
Why When hot-rolled coils cool, rust forms on the unprotected metal; often coils are stored or transported while exposed to outside air and water.
How Through a continuous chemical or electrochemical process, the steel is uncoiled and sent through a series of hydrochloric acid baths that remove the oxides (rust). The steel sheet is then rinsed and dried.

Piercing
Making a hole with a tapered and pointed tool without removal of metal.

Pigging Back
Introduction of carbon in the steel bath by the addition of pig iron.

Pig Iron
The name for the melted iron produced in a blast furnace, containing a large quantity of carbon (above 1.5%, usually between 3% to 4.5%), along with silicon, manganese, phosphorus, and sulphur in varying amounts depending upon the quality of raw materials used and solidified in moving metal moulds of a Pig Casting Machine. Pig iron is used in the foundry or for conversion into steel. Named long ago when molten iron was poured through a trench in the ground to flow into shallow earthen holes, the arrangement looked like newborn pigs suckling. The central channel became known as the “sow,” and the moulds were “pigs.”

Piling (Sheet Piling)
A structural steel product with edges designed to interlock; used in the construction of cofferdams or riverbank reinforcement.

Pipe
1. Technically a tube used to transport fluids or gases. However, pipe and tube are often used interchangeably in steel lexicon, with a given label applied primarily as a matter of historical use.
2. An axial cavity caused by contraction during solidification of an ingot. Also the defects arising from the axial cavity on the semi-finished or finished products.

Pinchers
Surface disturbances which result from the rolling process and which ordinarily appear as fernlike ripples running diagonally across the direction of rolling.

Pinch Rolls
While preparing the coils for processing, the lead edge of the strip is manually engaged in a set of small pinch rolls which can be opened and closed by air pressure and which are usually motor driven. The function of these rolls is to permit the operator to advance the lead edge of a new coil into the welding assembly.

Pin-hole Detector
Device based on photoelectric cell which continuously scan, identify and tabulate the number of pin holes in a coil.

Pinholes
A coating defect consisting of the randomly spaced small round holes (as a straight pin would make in the cured film, which quite often occur in large numbers. The open area (pinhole) usually exposes bare substrate. Contaminated substrate or improperly dispersed lubricant or additive may cause pinholes. Pinholes are typically caused by laminations, inclusions, scratches or gouges.

Pipe (Contraction Cavity, Shrinkage Cavity)
An axial cavity caused by contraction during solidification of an ingot. Also the defect arising from the axial cavity in semi-finished or finished products.

Pit Sample (Ladle Sample)
The sample taken from a cast during teeming into moulds, for determining the chemical composition of the cast.

Pitting
A coating defect consisting of randomly spaced small depressions in the cured film. Pitting is similar to pinholing, except that pits do not expose the bare substrate.

Planishing
Improving the surface by the action of chill cast or hardened steel rolls or by hammering with smooth faced hammer.

Plastic Deformation
Permanent deformation occurring in forming of metal which occurs after elastic limits have been exceeded.

Plasticity
The property that enables a material to undergo plastic deformation without rupture.

Plastic Working
The permanent deformation accomplished by applying mechanical forces to a metal surface. The primary objective of such working is usually the production of a specific shape or / and size or the improvement of certain physical properties of the metal.

Plate
A hot or cold rolled flat product, rolled from an ingot or slab in rectangular cross section with a width 600mm and above and a thickness 5mm and above (going upto one foot). (See Sheet Steel).

Plater
An operating unit which electrolytically applies zinc, chrome or tin to black plate.

Plugged Steel
It is a rimming steel poured in a bottle shaped mould with a central plug. The rimming action is arrested when the metal rises and comes in contact with the bottle portion of the mould and the central plug.

Plumbago
A material with graphite as the primary constituent, used for its refractoriness.

Plowing
In tribology, the formation of grooves by plastic deformation of the softer of two surfaces in relative motion.

Polishing
A mechanical, chemical, or electrolytic process or combination thereof used to prepare a smooth, reflective surface suitable for micro-structural examination that is free of artifacts or damage introduced during prior sectioning or grinding.

Porter Bar
The tool used to hold the ingot or bloom during forging.

Post-Paint
To paint a manufactured part after it has been formed.

Powdering
A problem encountered in the field where the iron-zinc coating (from Galvanneal products) comes off the base metal and collects in the die.

Powder Injection
Powdered desulphurizing materials such as magnesium-flourspar (Mag-Spar), calcium silicide (Cal-Sil) or prefused calcium aluminate, are injected with a single or a double-port lance deep into the steel bath in the ladle with argon flowing at rates in the range 0.9-1.8 nm3/min for ladle refining of steel.

Powdered Iron
The sponge iron in the purified granular form. It is used in the manufacture of many useful articles articles by the metallurgy where (1) iron powders are first compacted by pressure alone into the approximate shape of the finished article; (2) the compact is then ‘sintered’ at a temperature ranging between approximately 950 and 1095o C in furnaces provided with a protective atmosphere to prevent oxidation; and (3) the sintered articles are then pressed or machined to their final shape.

Powder Metals
Fabrication technology in which fine metallic powder is compacted under high pressure and then heated at a temperature slightly below the melting point to solidify the material. Primary users of powder metal parts are auto, electronics and aerospace industries.

Precipitation Hardening (PH)
Hardening due to the precipitation of a constituent from a super-saturated solid solution upon quenching and then holding at a prescribed temperature below transformational range. A small group of stainless steels with high chromium and nickel content, with the most common types having characteristics close to those of martensitic (plain chromium stainless class with exceptional strength) steels. Heat treatment provides this class with its very high strength and hardness. Applications for PH stainless steels include shafts for pumps and valves as well as aircraft parts.

Pre-Paint
To paint a product in coil form and then manufacture it into a final part.

Press Forming
See Brake Press Bending.

Pretreated
Steel to which a chemical treatment has been applied to prepare it for future surface treatments such as painting. (See Bonderized, Light Special Treatment and Special Treatment).

Prime Coil
Any coil produced by the line that is not held for any out-of-spec or quality reasons.

Process Annealing
A heat treatment used to soften metal for further cold working. In ferrous sheet and wire industries, heating to a temperature close to but below the lower limit of the transformation range and subsequent cooling for working. In the non-ferrous industries, heating above the recrystalization temperatures at a time and temperature sufficient to permit the desired subsequent cold working.

Process Control System
The general form of a process control system is one in which a multiplicity of inputs, such as the physical and chemical characteristics of the raw materials, the energy levels, the machine settings, and so forth are used to provide desired outputs such as product quality, productivity, and minimum cost, or some selected combination of these. In addition, there may be other outputs required; for example, processing information for supporting functions such as accounting and evaluation.

Producer Gas
Producer gas is manufactured by blowing an insufficient supply of air for complete combustion, with or without the admixture of steam, through a thick, hot, sold-fuel bed. A large proportion of the original heating value of the solid fuel is recovered in the potential heat of carbon monoxide, hydrogen, tarry vapours, and some hydrocarbons, and in the sensible heat of the composite gas which also contains carbon dioxide and nitrogen.

Progressive Aging
Aging by increasing the temperature in steps or continuously during the aging cycle. Compare with interrupted aging and step aging.

Prompt Industrial Scrap
The scrap generated by steel consumers in making their products. It may consist of the unwanted portions of plate or sheet that has been cut or sheared to the desired final size and shape, trimmings resulting from stamping and pressing operations, machine turnings, rejected products scrapped during manufacture, short ends, flash from forgings, and other types of scrap.

Puddling Furnace
The process used for the production of wrought iron, pig iron and cast iron by means of chemical action. This process was invented in 1780. The older process, dry puddling, is known as Cort’s Process and the newer, wet puddling or pig boiling, is known as Hall’s Process.

Pull
An irregular transverse crack on the face of an ingot caused by restriction to free contraction during cooling in the mould.

Pulverized Coal Injection System (PCI)
A blast furnace enhancement to reduce an integrated mill’s reliance on coke (because of environmental problems with its production). Up to 30% of the coke charged into the blast furnace can be replaced by this talcum-like coal powder, which is injected through nozzles at the bottom of the furnace.

Q-BOP
Modified Basic Oxygen Furnace in which the oxygen and other gases are blown in from the bottom, rather than from the top. While the Q-BOP stirs the metal bath more vigorously, allowing for faster processing, the design produces essentially the same steel grades as the top-blowing basic oxygen furnace. Today’s state-of-the-art furnace design combines the previous technologies: 60% of the oxygen is blown from above, with the rest blown through the bottom of the vessel.

Qualification Trials
The testing required for a new process adopted to make certain grades of steel with exacting end uses. In order for the process to become qualified, the steel made by the process must be tested.

Quarter Hard Temper
Cold Rolled steel produced to a Rockwell hardness range of 60 to 75 on the B scale. Product of this temper is intended for limited bending and cold forming and can be bent 90 degrees in the rolling direction and 180 degrees across the rolling direction over its own thickness.

Quench Aging
Quench aging is a type of artificial or accelerated aging which causes a change in the properties of steel that occurs gradually with time at moderately elevated temperatures after a hot working heat treatment. It is a consequence of the precipitation of carbon, nitrogen or both, from supersaturated solid solution in ferrite. The consequences of quench aging are increased hardness, increased yield and tensile strength, decreased elongation and reduction of area in tension test, increased temperature of transition from ductile to brittle fracture in a notch-impact test, an increase in coercive force and a decrease in magnetic permeability.

Quench Annealing
Annealing an austenitic ferrous alloy by solution heat treatment followed by rapid quenching.

Quench Hardening
A process of hardening a ferrous alloy of suitable composition by heating within or above the transformation range and cooling at a rate sufficient to increase the hardness substantially. The process usually involves the formation of martensite.

Quenching
Cooling very rapidly from a high temperature by immersing in water or some other liquid.

Quenching and Tempering
This treatment is given in addition to annealing in order to develop the optimum mechanical properties and in place of annealing when the amount of machining or cutting to be done is not great. It consists of first heating the steel above the critical range, and then cooling it rapidly by immersing it in a liquid cooling medium such as oil or water. This is followed by heating the steel to an intermediate temperature, very seldom higher than 650oC and usually somewhat lower.

Quenching Crack
Cracks formed as a result of thermal stresses produced by rapid cooling from a high temperature.

Quench Tank
Tank of water used to quickly cool the strip before it reaches the delivery end of the line.

Quencher Water
Water that keeps boiler duct work cool.

Rabbling
Working with a rabble, that is, the tool provided for stirring the molten metal bath in a puddling furnace with cinder to assist purification.

Ragging
A series of grooves usually horizontal, made in the surface of a roll in order to assist the roll to bite the steel and to prevent skidding between the roll and the work. Ragging is usually found in roughing and forming passes.

Rare Earth Metals
The lanthanide metals of the periodic table (atomic nos. 57 to 71) are also known as rare earth metals.

Reaming
The removal of the ragged inside edge at the ends of cut tubes.

Recarburisation
The adjustment of carbon content of molten steel by addition of carbonaceous material, high-carbon pig iron or a high-carbon alloy.

Recrystallization
1. A change from one crystal structure to another, such as that occurring upon heating or cooling through a critical temperature.
2. Formation of a new, strain-free grain structure from the structure existing in cold-worked metal.

Recrystallization Annealing
Annealing cold-worked metal to produce a new grain structure without a phase change.

Recrystallization Temperature
The approximate minimum temperature at which recrystallization of a cold-worked metal occurs within a specified time.

Recuperator
The waste flue gases from high temperature processes contain the sensible heat of vapourisation of water (apart from the latent heat, which is not practical to recover) which is recovered in a recuperator by transfer of heat continuously from one fluid to another.

Red Hardness
The relatively high hardness retained by certain special steels (for example, high speed tool steels) even when heated up to a low red heat.

Red Rust
A reddish brittle coating of iron oxide which develops on an uncoated or coated steel surface when oxygen in the atmosphere mixes with iron.

Reducing Agent
Either natural gas or coal can be used to remove the oxygen from iron ore in order to produce a scrap substitute. In gas-based processes, the iron ore is heated in a vessel as reformed natural gas passes through. In coal-based processes, iron ore is combined with gasified or ground coal and heated. The oxygen in the ore combines with carbon and hydrogen in the gas or coal, producing reduced, or metallic, iron.

Reed
An internal discontinuity originating from a subcutaneous blow-hole which has become oxidised and has been elongated during rolling.

Reel Breaks
Fractured base metal normally caused by poor leveling. It is indicated by light kinks across the width of the winding coil.

Reeking
Ingot mould dressing with soot deposition, derived from tar burning.

Reeling
Straightening (and planishing) a round bar by feeding it between contoured steel rolls in a direction approximately parallel to the principal axis of the rolls.

Refining
The removal, by slag or other reactions, of undesirable elements and of metallic oxides and gases from molten steel.

Refining Slag
The finishing slag employed for refining the heat.

Refractory Brick
Heat-resistant (normally non-metallic) brick. Because its melting point is well above the operating temperatures of the process, refractory bricks line most steel making vessels that come in contact with molten metal and slag, like the walls of the blast furnace, sides of the ladles, and inside of the BOF apart from the flues or stacks through which hot gases are conducted. These are made of materials such as dolomite (double calcium and magnesium carbonate), magnesite (magnesium carbonate), silica (SiO2), silicates of aluminium, chromic oxides, etc. and are able to withstand temperatures from 260o to 1760oC.

Reflowed Surface
A shiny tin plate product surface which is achieved by heating the tin coating up to its melting point (thereby melting the tin) and cooling it back to room temperature.

Refractory Creep
Like most structural materials, refractories experience creep behaviour when exposed to high temperatures. Most refractories show two characteristic stages of creep. In the first stage, called primary creep, rate of subsidence declines gradually with time. In the second stage, called steady stage, the rate of subsidence is constant. At very high temperatures, steady stage creep is sometimes followed by tertiary creep region where the rate of subsidence accelerates and leads to catastrophic failure or creep rupture. Primary creep is generally short in duration, while secondary creep can occur over a long term.

Regenerator
Arrangement (chambers filled with a checkwork of refractory bricks) for receiving and then utilizing heat from hot spent gas from a furnace. They are used alternately to absorb heat from one fluid and then transfer it to another fluid.

Reheating
Heating steel to a uniform temperature in readiness for hot working.

Reheating Furnaces
These are divided into two general classes :
1. Batch Type : Here, the charged material remains in a fixed position on the hearth until heated to rolling temperature.
2. Continuous Type : Here, the charged material moves through the furnace and is heated to rolling temperature as it progresses through the furnace. These include pusher-type, rotary-hearth-type, walking-beam-type, walking-hearth-type and roller-hearth-type furnaces.

Reinforcing Bar (Rebar)
A commodity-grade steel used to strengthen concrete in highway and building construction.

Reline
The process of replacing the refractory lining of a liquid steel vessel. Once it wears out, the brick lining of a furnace must be cooled, stripped and replaced. This maintenance can be significant because a blast furnace reline may require up to three months to complete.

R Enamel
An unpigmented enamel used to increase resistance to corrosion, or decrease bleaching effect of tinplate on food can interiors.

Rephosphorisation
Reversion of or addition of phosphorus into steel under steel making practice.

Reshearing (Resquaring)
Shearing sheets to desired finished dimensions with right-angled edges.

Residuals
The impurities in mini-mill steel as the result of the mix of metals entering the process dissolved in obsolete scrap. Residuals are key concerns regarding the mini-mills’ recent entry into the flat-rolled market, where high residuals can leave sheet steel too brittle for customer use.

Resilience
The ability of a material to absorb energy when deformed elastically and return to its original shape upon release of load.

Resistance Heating
Heating of steel by passing current through solid conductors and using the heat generated as a result of the conductors’ inherent resistance to the flow of current. It can be applied through three methods :
1. The indirect method, in which the steel is heated by radiation and convection from resistors through which the current is passed.
2. The direct method in which the current is passed directly from a power source through the metal.
3. The induction method in which the current is induced in the steel by an induction coil connected to the power supply.
Neither the indirect nor the direct method of resistance heating is practical for steel-making operations. However, the induction method is employed successfully in special steel-melting operations.

Reversing Mill
The stand of rolls used to reduce steel sheet or plate by passing the steel back and forth between the rolls; the gap between the rolls is reduced after each pass.

RH Degassing
Ruhrsthal-Heraeus process developed in the early 1960’s with the objective of degassing a ladle of steel without total enclosure of the ladle in a vacuum chamber. The argon gas is injected into one leg or extension of the refractory-lined vacuum vessel, which is dipped into the steel containing ladle. This causes the molten steel from the ladle to rise into the evacuated chamber with a boiling action that releases gases from the steel that then flows back into the ladle through the second leg. The recirculation of steel is continued until the desired degree of degassing is attained.

Ribbing
A coating defect consisting of a flow mark defect with an appearance similar to corduroy fabric. Ribbing usually occurs when the flow marks (ribs), from application on the coater, do not flow out and level the surface of the coating.

Ridge
A hump across the width of the surface of the coil.

Rimming
When molten steel cools to the temperature range in which it begins to solidify as ingot, the solubility of gases dissolved in the steel decreases and the excess gases are expelled from the metal. The amount of gases, chiefly oxygen, dissolved in liquid steel and the amount of gases released during the solidification determine the type of ingots : killed, semi-killed, capped and rimmed.

Sometimes, the amount of gases evolved during solidification are so much that the top ingot surface does not solidify immediately after pouring. Instead, numerous honeycomb blowholes form very close to the side surface of the ingot, extending from top to bottom. The evolution of gas causes the steel to rise after pouring and produces a boiling action that is commonly called rimming action. This action is stopped by a metal cap secured to the top of the mould.

Rimming Steel
A steel possessing a rim of purer material (with maximum freedom from surface blemishes), and is associated with evolution of carbon monoxide gas occurring due to the interaction of dissolved iron oxide and carbon during the solidification of low carbon and low manganese steel made under controlled deoxidation. The composition and extent of the rim can be varied and, if required, the rimming action can be arrested after sometime.

Rockwell Hardness Test
An indentation hardness test using a calibrated instrument that utilizes the depth of indentation, under constant load, as a measure of the hardness of the material. Either a 120o diamond cone with a slightly rounded point, or a 1/16-or 1/8-inch diameter steel ball is used as the indenter.

Rod (Wire Rod)
Generally round, square, half-round, rectangular or polygonal semi-finished steel length that is rolled from a billet and coiled for further processing. Rod is commonly drawn into wire products or used to make bolts and nails. Rod trains (rolling facilities) can run as fast as 20,000 feet per minute (more than 200 miles an hour).

Roke (Roak)
A longitudinal surface defect (an elongated fissure) caused by a blow which is not welded up during rolling and has perforated the surface and become oxidised.

Rolled Edge
Edge which is finished accurately to desired shape by using rolls at the edges.

Rolled-in-Scale
Local areas of scale, formed during a previous heating, which has failed to be eliminated during the rolling operations and has got pressed into the surface of the stock during rolling.

Roller Levelling (Mangling)
A staggered system of rolls used to flatten the steel without any appreciable reduction in gauge.

Roller Table
During the complete rolling cycle, the hot steel is transported by reversible, live rollers in the mill tables, called roller tables. Front and back roller tables alternately feed and receive the piece during each pass through the rolling mill, and mechanical units called manipulators rotate the piece through 90o as required and move it from pass to pass.

Roll Force Cylinder
See A.G.C. Cylinder.

Roll Force Systems
Mill stands place considerable pressure on slabs, blooms and coils to further process the material. There are two general ways of applying the force to the steel‹screw and hydraulic systems.
Screw (Incline Plane) This older method used the basic principle of the screw to adjust the space between the mill rolls. Because metal touches metal, these configurations will wear down over time and can cause quality problems.
Hydraulic (Pancake Cylinder) This modern system uses fluid pressure to rapidly adjust the roll spacing several times per second. These minute, instantaneous adjustments allow for superior gauge tracking and higher-quality products.

Roll Forming
1. An operation used in forming sheet. Strips of sheet are passed between rolls of definite settings that bend the sheet progressively into structural members of various contours, sometimes called “moulded sections.” 2. A process of coiling sheet into open cylinders.

Roll Marks
Periodic surface defects due to some imperfection on the surface of a roll or due to particles of matter picked up by rolls.

Rolling Mill
1. Any of the mills in which metal undergoes a rolling process. These include the Slabbing Mill, Hot Roll Mills, Cold Roll Mills, Single Reduction Mills, and Double Reduction Mills. 2. Any operating unit that reduces gauge by application of loads through revolving cylindrical rolls; operation can be hot or cold. The elevated temperature rolling mill is the Hot Mill and is capable of reducing the gauge of a slab 92-99%.

Roll Pass (Pass)
Openings of definite shapes formed between a set of rolls through which hot steel passes for taking up the given shape or undergoing a desired amount of reduction in sectional area. This term also applies to a single passage through a pair of rolls for the purpose of altering the shape and / or reducing the cross-sectional area.

Rolls
The rolls control the reduction and shaping of the metal. There are three parts to a roll; namely, the body, or the part on which the rolling is done, the necks which support the body and take the rolling pressure, and the wobblers, where the driving force is applied through loose-fitting spindles and boxes which together form a sort of ingenious universal coupling.

Roll Scale
Oxide of iron which forms on the surface of steel while it is being heated and rolled. Much of the scale is cracked and loosened during the rolling operation and may fall off the piece naturally or be blown off by high-pressure water sprays or other means.

Roughing Stand
The first rolling stand through which metal passes during hot rolling imparting very high reduction. Once reduced by the roughing stands, the metal continues on to the finishing stands where smoother rolls with a smaller gap are used to complete the hot roll process.

Runner
The refractory channel through which the molten steel enters the mould.

Salamander
When a blast furnace has been in operation for an extended period of time, the portion near the center of the hearth that cannot be cooled adequately gradually erodes away, leaving a dish-shaped cavity in the hearth blocks that may be as much as 2 to 3 metres deep. This cavity fills with liquid metal which remains in the furnace hearh during tapping because its elevatyion is well below that of the iron notch. This metal is known as salamander (or ‘bear’). The hot metal accumulated therein is drained-out immediately after the last cast, to prevent solidification of 400-600 tonnes of hot metal into a huge chunk that would have to be blasted-out during relining.

Salt Spray Test
A test to determine the life of coated steel when exposed to corrosive saltwater solution (generally 5% NaCl).

Saturated Gas
A gas which contains the maximum amount of water vapour it can hold without any condensation of water taking place.

Sand Marks
Patches of furnace refractory material embedded on the surface of hot steel and rolled subsequently.

Scab
Irregular shaped patches of metal on ingot surface arising from cavities in mould walls or caused by loosely adhering layers of metal.

Scaffolding
The term used when accretions or scabs build up on the blast furnace walls and cause a decrease in the cross-sectional area of the furnace stack.

Scale Breaking
Breaking up of scale layer on slabs, blooms or billets during rolling by the application of water jets under pressure. Breaking the scale by repeated reverse bends by passing the hot steel through a suitable machine, a procedure which helps to minimise the kinks during subsequent processing, is also practised.

Scarfing (Deseaming)
1. Cutting the surface of slabs, ordinarily by using a gas torch, to remove surface defects prior to rolling at the Hot Mill.
2. Making a chamfered end for hammer welding two bars together.

Scleroscope Hardness Test
A dynamic indentation hardness test using a calibrated instrument that drops a diamond-tipped hammer from a fixed height onto the surface of the material being tested. The height of rebound of the hammer is a measure of the hardness of the material.

Scoring
In tribology, a severe form of wear characterized by the formation of extensive grooves and scratches in the direction of sliding.

Scrap (Ferrous)
Ferrous (iron-containing) material that generally is re-melted and recast into new steel. Integrated steel mills use scrap for up to 25% of their basic oxygen furnace charge; 100% of the mini-mills’ raw material for their electric furnaces generally is scrap.
Home (Revert) Scrap Waste steel that is generated from within the steel mill, through edge trimming, rejects and metallic losses in slag. It normally is sent directly back to the furnace.
Prompt (Industrial) Scrap Excess steel that is trimmed by the auto and appliance stampers and auctioned to scrap buyers as factory bundles. This is a high-quality scrap as the result of its low-residual content and consistent chemistry.
Obsolete (Reclaimed) Scrap Iron-bearing trash. Automobile hulks, worn-out refrigerators and useless storage tanks, for example, can be recovered from the junkyard and re-melted. The residual impurity of such scrap normally relegates obsolete scrap to the mini-mills (see No. 1 Heavy Melt).

Scraped Edge
An edge with abrasion markings due to incorrect setting of guides.

Scrap Substitute
Raw material that can be charged in place of scrap in electric arc furnaces and basic oxygen furnaces. Scrap substitutes include, among others, DRI, HBI, iron carbide, and pig iron.

Scratch or Gouge
This type of defect can be recognized, in most cases, as to its source. If the scratch or gouge occurs in the hot strip mill there will be an oxide which has formed at the base of it. Scratches or gouges occurring at the finishing end can be recognized by the bright appearance at the base of the defect which is indicative of oxide removal after the steel has cooled.

Scratching
In tribology, the mechanical removal or displacement, or both, of material from a surface by the action of abrasive particles or protuberances sliding across the surface. See also plowing.

Screw Down Mechanism
Used on mills to position the top roll for each pass through the mill, except on continuous and three-high mills where fixed passes are used. The top roll is adjusted by screws which extend through the top of each housing.

Scuffling
A form of adhesive wear that produces superficial scratches or a high polish on the rubbing surfaces. It is observed most often in inadequately lubricated parts.

Seam
Long, shallow grooves or striations formed during working by the elongation of oxidised surface or subsurface blow-holes. Seams may also be caused by rippled surfaces or by recurrent teeming laps.

Seamless Pipe
A pipe without a longitudinal joint or weld, made from a solid billet, which is heated, then rotated under extreme pressure. This rotational pressure creates an opening in the center of the billet, which is then shaped by a mandrel to form pipe.

Secondary Cooling
During slab casting operation, the secondary cooling system starts from the bottom of the mould through complete solidification of the strand to the cut-off operations. The system, conventionally, consists of water sprays which are directed at the strand surface through openings between the containment rolls. Recently, air-water mist sprays have been employed which provide more uniform cooling.

Secondary Steel
Steel that does not meet the original customer’s specifications because of a defect in its chemistry, gauge or surface quality. Mills must search to find another customer (that can accept the lower quality) to take the off-spec steel at a discount. While secondary will not affect the reported yield, margins will suffer.

Secondary Steel Making
The purpose of secondary steel making (also referred to as ladle metallurgy) is to produce ‘clean’ steel, steel which satisfies stringent requirements of surface, internal and micro-cleanliness quality and of mechanical properties. Ladle metallurgy is a secondary step of the steel making process often performed in a ladle after the initial refining process in a primary furnace is completed.

Section
A hot rolled product widely used for structural purposes, with a cross-section of special contour. The common types are equal & unequal angles, bulb plate & angle, channel, round, square, flat, beam, tee bar, zed bar etc.

Section Tubes
Tube with a cross section other than circular.

Seediness
Coating defects consisting of the randomly spaced undissolved particles, usually resin particles, which are immersed in the coating. They are raised up in the coating and appear somewhat like fine sand sprinkled throughout the film.

Segregation
A non-uniform distribution of some constituents and / or impurities in a cast product characterised by the mode of solidification of alloys. Segregation usually persists through subsequent hot and cold working. Generally the concentration of low melting constituents tends to be higher in the centre than the surface. Sometimes, the reverse of this phenomenon takes place and is known as inverse segregation.

Semi-finished Steel
Steel shapes—for example, blooms, billets or slabs—that later are rolled into finished products such as beams, bars or sheet.

Sendzimir Mill (Z-mill)
What Compact mill used for rolling cold coils of stainless steel in order to make the steel thinner, smoother, and stronger.
Why To control the thickness of steel better at lower capital cost, and to roll thinner sheets and strips.
How Stainless steel sheet or strip passes between a matching pair of small work rolls with extremely smooth surfaces, heavily reinforced by clusters of back-up rolls. The rolls reduce the steel to the desired thickness.

Sequence Casting
Casting machine set-up, after the completion of a cast, is time consuming since it involves feeding the dummy bar through the entire length of the casting machine into the mould cavity and packing the dummy bar head to prevent leakage between the mould wall and head. Sequence casting was developed to reduce the frequency of setting the dummy bar by casting a series of heats in succession without interrupting the casting process.

Service Center
A catchall name for an operation that buys steel, often processes it in some way and then sells it in a slightly different form. A service center is distinguished from an end-user by the fact that, unlike an end-user, a service center sells steel, not a fabricated product. Service centers are manufacturers to the extent that they add labor to steel by providing a service.

Shafting (Lathe Turned)
Bright material usually produced by lathe turning, polishing and hand setting to given limits of dimensions and straightness.

Shape Control
Ability to produce material to a given geometric flatness standard. (See Flatness)

Shape Correcting
Rolling, heating and quenching steel sheets often affect the dimensions of the steel. Levelers, temper mills and edge trimmers rework the processed steel to match customer specifications.

Shape Defect
Geometric non-uniformity of a strip, such as bent strip, coil set, center buckle, wavy edge, etc.

Sheared Edges
Edges detached by shearing (and at times by slitting wheel).

Shearing
If the edges of sheet and strip are not controlled during reduction, they must be trimmed parallel by shears. This process may be performed by either the steel mill or steel processor to match customer needs.

Shear Distortion
A mashed or deformed end on a bar caused by defective or improperly adjusted shearing equipment.

Sheet
A hot or cold-rolled flat product, rolled in rectangular sections of thickness below 5 mm and supplied in straight lengths. The width is at least 100 times the thickness and the edges can be mill trimmed, sheared or flame cut. A sheet can also be obtained by cutting of strips.

Sheet Bar (Slab Bar)
Semi-finished product of rectangular section, of thickness not less than 6mm and width not less than 150mm, and of such dimensions that the thickness does not exceed one-fourth of the width. This term also includes tin plate bars.

Sheet Products
1. Hot Rolled : Uncoated, heavy gauge, fully processed in Strip Steel, never cold reduced at Tandem Mill.
2. Cold Rolled : Uncoated, heavy gauge, primarily processed in Strip Steel, although some goes to the Tin Mill, always cold reduced at Tandem Mill.
3. Galvanized : “Bath” coated with zinc, heavy gauge, primarily processed through Strip Steel & Sheet Mill, majority is cold reduced at Tandem Mill.
4. Electro-galvanized : Zinc coated, normally lighter gauge than galvanized, processed through Strip Steel & Tin Mill, mostly single reduced. (Tandem)

Sheet Slab
A slab of suitable size for rolling into sheet.

Sheet Steel
Thin, flat-rolled steel. Coiled sheet is created in a hot-strip mill by rolling a cast slab flat while maintaining the side dimensions. The malleable steel lengthens to several hundred feet as it is squeezed by the rolling mill. The most common differences among steel bars, strip, plate, and sheet are merely their physical dimensions of width and gauge (thickness).

Product Classification by Size
Specified Thickness in Inches Specified Width in Inches
Up to 6 Over 6 to 8 Over 8 to 12 Over 12 to 48 Over 48
0.2300 + Bar Bar Plate Plate Plate
0.2299 – 0.2040 Bar Bar Plate Plate Plate
0.2039 – 0.1800 Strip Strip Strip Sheet Plate
0.1799 – 0.0449 Strip Strip Strip SheetSheet

Shell (Scab, Sliver, Spill)
A relatively thin film or torque of metal imperfectly attached to the surface of steel. The defect on the sides of the ingot caused by metal splashes during teeming, having solidified and stuck to the mould wall is also called shell or splash.

Short (Cut Bar)
The portion left out after specified lengths are cut out or sheared from a long length in hot-rolled product.

Shortness
A form of brittleness in metal. It is designated a ‘cold’, ‘hot’, and ‘red’ to indicate the temperature range in which the brittleness occurs.

Shot Blast Roll Finish
The surface finish (with a grit micro-finish) on the rolls in the last stand of tandem mill or temper mill; determines the surface finish of the product where a grit finish produced to a specified micro-inch reading is desired.

Shredded Scrap
Fist-sized, homogenous pieces of old automobile hulks. After cars are sent through a shredder, the recyclable steel is separated by magnets. Mini-mills consume shredded scrap in their electric arc furnace operations.

Siderite
Chemical composition FeCO3, corresponding to 48.20% of iron, 37.99% of CO2 and 13.81% of oxygen; specific gravity 3.83 to 3.88. The siderite ores are sometimes termed ‘spathic iron ore’ or ‘black-band ore’. Carbonate ores are commonly calcined before they are charged into the blast furnace. They frequently contain enough lime and magnesite to be self-fluxing.

Side Trimming
Removing continuously the desired amount from both edges of the strip, thereby establishing accurate and uniform width and producing parallel and reasonably smooth edges. These trimmers employ mating circular knives which are mounted on arbors.

Silica
Silicon dioxide (SiO2) occurring in nature as sand and ganister, with varying amounts of other impurities. It is used as an acid refractory.

Silicate
A compound of silica and a metallic oxide.

Silicon Electrical Steel
A type of specialty steel created by introducing silicon during the steel-making process. Electrical steel exhibits certain magnetic properties (such as greatly increased electrical resistivity, high permeability and greatly reduced core losses), which make it optimum for use in transformers, power generators and electric motors. They are of two types :
Grain-Oriented The metal’s grain runs parallel within the steel, permitting easy magnetization along the length of the steel. Although grain-oriented steel may be twice as expensive to produce, its magnetic directional characteristics enable power transformers, made from this metal, to absorb less energy during operation.
Non-Grain-Oriented Because there is no preferential direction for magnetization, non-grain-oriented steel is best used in rotating apparatus such as electric motors.

Silky Fracture
A metal fracture in which the broken metal surface has a fine texture, usually dull in appearance. Characteristic of tough and strong metals.

Single Reduced
Refers to temper rolling in the tin mill. No gauge reduction occurs here. Steel sheet that is rolled in multiple-strand reduction mills while cold, then annealed and temper rolled to produce thin gauges for can making. Besides reducing gauge and permitting fabrication of lighter weight cans, cold rolling also improves the steel’s surface and metallurgical properties.

Single Shear Steel (Faggot)
A cutlery steel obtained by forging (and welding) a pile of converted bars (teemed as a faggot). At times, the forged product is piled by cutting it into pieces and reforged, the resulting product being termed as a double-shear steel.

Single Spot Test
A test of galvanized (or any other metallic) coating weights administered by sampling the coated steel across the width at two inches from each edge and dead center. See Triple Spot Test.

Sinter
One form of agglomeration of fines (iron ore fines, coke, flue dust, mill scale, limestone and dolomite fines) roasted into lumps by heating at lower temperature till clinker like aggregate is formed which is well-suited for use as a blast furnace feed.

Sinter Coolers
Rotary-type and shaft-type coolers used in conjunction with a water quench. The most recent developments in sinter cooling have been directed towards on-strand cooling. This improves heat recuperation, sinter quality, and dust collection.

Sinter Cooling
Cooling of the sinter below 150o so that it can be handled on conveyor belts.

Sintering
A process that combines iron-bearing particles, once recovered from environmental control filters, into small pellets. Previously, these materials were too fine to withstand the air currents of the smelting process and were thrown away. The iron is now conserved because the chunks can be charged into the blast furnace (see Agglomerating Processes).

Skelp
Steel that is the entry material to a pipe mill. It resembles hot-rolled strip, but its properties allow for the severe forming and welding operations required for pipe production.

Skid Marks
Visibly colder “stripes” on slabs caused by contact with water-cooled skids in a pusher-type reheat furnace. Walking beam reheat furnaces eliminate skid marks.
Skimmer Block
A refractory block in the blast furnace cast house which holds back the slag and diverts it into the slag runners.

Skin Holes
Holes visible on ingot surface.

Skin Passing (Killing / Pinch Passing)
Passing hot-rolled, annealed or normalized sheets in cold state through rolls for removing kinks, stretcher strains or similar surface conditions, develop mechanical properties, and/or reduce the tendency of stretcher strain or fluting during forming. the cold deformation being very light. Usually reduction is less than 5 percent.

Skin Roll
A product that has been processed at the Skin Mill.

Skull
Solidified metal with some amount of slag and refractories remaining in furnace or ladle after the molten metal is poured out. It may also refer to the film formed inside a mould after casting. If detached, it may get entrapped and lead to skull patches.

Skull Patch
Thin layer of solid metal deposited in the inner mould wall and trapped during teeming.

Slab
The most common type of semi-finished steel – rolled, forged or continuously cast. The thickness does not exceed one third of the width. Traditional slabs measure 10 inches thick and 30-85 inches wide (and average about 20 feet long), while the output of the recently developed “thin slab” casters is approximately two inches thick. Subsequent to casting, slabs are sent to the hot-strip mill to be rolled into coiled sheet and plate products.

Slab Slitting
Rather than interrupting a string of heats to change the mould size, a practice has evolved in which a small number of master slab sizes are cast with the slab product being slit longitudinally in a separate operation using mechanized oxy-natural gas torches.

Slag
The impurities in a molten pool of iron. Flux such as limestone may be added to foster the congregation of undesired elements into a slag. Slags act as a carrier of oxygen to the molten bath for the oxidation and removal of various elements (such as carbon, silicon, phosphorus, etc.) from the molten charge. Usually slags consist of combinations of acid oxides with basic oxides and neutral oxides are added to aid fusibility. Because slag is lighter than iron, it will float on top of the pool where it can be skimmed.

Slagging
Taking out molten slag from the furnace.

Slag Foaming
Whenever gas passes through a liquid, the liquid expands due to the presence of the gas. During steel-making, oxygen lancing causes formation of stable slag foam bubbles on top of the molten hot metal. While some foam is desirable to help capture the energy from post combustion, excessive foaming can lead to slopping in oxygen steel-making. On the other hand, controlled foaming in the electric arc furnace is desirable to protect the refractories from the electric arc radiation.

Slag Patch (Slag Inclusion)
Slag trapped in the steel during solidification.
Slag Pots (Slag Ladles, Cinder Pots, Slag Pans)
Cast or fabricated receptacles used for slag disposal.

Slag Notch
3 to 5 feet above the iron notch level is the cinder notch or slag notch. This originally was used to withdraw slag from the blast furnace between iron casts. Formerly, before burdens were beneficiated, slag volumes were quite large and it was a great advantage to remove slag, which is lighter than iron and floats on top of it, before casting to decrease the undesirable high liquid level in the hearth and to avoid having to remove a large volume of slag through the tapping hole. Because liquid slag does not dissolve copper as liquid iron does, the slag is now withdrawn through a water-cooled copper member called a monkey.

Slag Splashing and Coating
Slag splashing (and coating) is a technology which uses high pressure nitrogen through the oxygen lance after tapping the heat to coat the refractory lining on the walls and cone of the converter with remaining slag. The slag coating thus formed cools and solidifies on the existing refractory, and serves a the consumable refractory coating in the next heat. Slag splashing requires only a minute or two to perform and is done when the vessel is in vertical position after the heat is tapped. The process has greatly reduced the need for gunning of the lining by more than half and has contributed substantially to maintaining furnace lining profiles for safety and performance. Slag coating is an art form that requires considerable attention if it is to be done most effectively. Actions that make coating practices successful include : selecting the right slag, making the right and proper amount of additions, rocking the vessels correctly, disposing of the slag when necessary, and coating when it is the best time.

Sliding Gate
Flow of liquid steel from the ladle to the mould may be controlled by stopper rods or sliding gates. More recently, more ladles have been equipped with a sliding gate system when the extended holding times or other factors associated with continuous casting or in ladle processing have required external flow-control systems.

Slips
Caused initially by hanging or bridging of the burden material in the stack of the furnace. When this occurs, the material below the ‘hang’ continues to move downward, forming a space that is void of solid material but filled with hot gas at very high pressure. This space continues to grow until the hang finally collapses. In severe cases, the sudden downward thrust of the hanging material (called ‘slip’) forces the hot gas upward with the force of an explosion. This sudden rush of gas opens the explosion bleeders and sometimes is so great that is causes severe damage to the furnace-top gear.

Slit Edge
The relatively smooth edge produced from side trimming or slitting. See Mill Edge.

Slitter
1. Area on the Pickler where the strip is side-trimmed (slit) to its proper width. 2. Side-trims the edges of the strip to certain width in the customer’s specifications, or the vertical cutting of coil material to form narrow strip product.

Slitting
Cutting a sheet of steel into a number of narrower strips by means of rotary cutters, to match customer needs. Because steel mills have limited flexibility as to the widths of the sheet that they produce, service centers normally will cut the sheet for the customer.

Slivers
Slivers are due to defective teeming of the molten metal and to a tearing of corners of the steel in blooming, roughing, or finishing. Tearing is attributed to many things, such as over-oxidation in the open hearth, or burning during re-heating or soaking.

Snarl
A link which has been drawn tight in a wire.

Snowflakes
When hairline cracks are exposed by fracturing, they appear as bright crystalline areas of almost circular form, sometimes known as snowflakes.

Soaking
Holding the material in a furnace after the outside has reached the desired temperature until uniformity of that temperature has been reached throughout its mass and any desired metallurgical changes have been completed.

Soldering
Joining metals by fusion of alloys that have relatively low melting points – most commonly, lead-base or tin-base alloys, which are the soft solders. Hard solders are alloys that have silver, copper, or nickel bases and use of these alloys with melting points higher than 800o F is generally termed brazing.

Spalling
The cracking and flaking of metal particles out of a surface.

Spangle
Finish achieved when zinc is allowed to “freeze” naturally on the sheet during galvanizing. Achieved by adding antimony to the hot dip bath.

Spangle Free
A galvanized product in which the spangle formation has been suppressed; accomplished by eliminating antimony and lead in the molten zinc bath during the production of Hot Dipped Galvanized. Galvannealed is always spangle free.

Special Bar Quality (SBQ)
SBQ represents a wide variety of higher-quality carbon and alloy bars that are used in the forging, machining and cold-drawing industries for the production of automotive parts, hand tools, electric motor shafts and valves. SBQ generally contains more alloys than merchant quality and commodity grades of steel bars, and is produced with more precise dimensions and chemistry.

Special Killed
1. Low carbon aluminum killed steels used mainly for extra deep drawing varieties of sheet and strip. 2. Steel deoxidized by silicon or aluminum or in combination to reduce the oxygen content to a minimum so that no reaction occurs during solidification of the metal.

Special Steel
Steel in the production of which special care has to be taken so as to attain the desired cleanliness, surface quality and mechanical properties.

Special Treatment
A treatment applied to electro-galvanized product to enhance corrosion resistance.

Specialty Steel
Category of steel that includes electrical (see Silicon Electrical Steel), alloy (Alloy Steel), stainless (see Stainless Steel) and tool (see Tool Steels) steels.

Specialty Tube
Refers to a wide variety of high-quality custom-made tubular products requiring critical tolerances, precise dimensional control and special metallurgical properties. Specialty tubing is used in the manufacture of automotive, construction and agricultural equipment, and in industrial applications such as hydraulic cylinders, machine parts and printing rollers. Because of the range of industrial applications, the market typically follows general economic conditions.

Specifications
The chemical composition and dimensions of products made by the plant. The specifications include all processes required to achieve the finished product.

Spheroidization Annealing
It is a type of annealing which causes practical all carbides in the steel to agglomerate in the form of small globules or spheroids. Spheroidizing may be accomplished by heating to a temperature just below the lower critical and holding for a sufficient period of time.

Spinning
Straightening by feeding through rotating rollers or dies. The bar or wire does not rotate.

Splash
A layer of steel with uneven and rough surface formed over the bottom portion of an ingot and arises from the solidification of the spray of liquid steel reaching the mould wall due to rebound after impact on the bottom plate during early stages of teeming.

Sponge Iron
Iron obtained by solid state reaction. In this process, iron is not melted. For many centuries before blast furnace was developed around 1300 AD, sponge iron provided the main source of iron and steel. It was produced in relatively shallow hearths or in shaft-furnaces, both of which used charcoal as fuel. The product of these early smelting processes was a spongy mass of coalesced granules of nearly pure iron intermixed with considerable slag. Usable articles of wrought iron were produced by hammering the spongy mass, while still hot from the smelting operation, to expel most of the slag and compact the mass. By repeated heating and hammering, the iron was further freed of slag and forged into the desired shape.

Spooled Coil
A coil having edges that are turned up (like a spool of thread).

SR Plate
Single Reduced Plate. This product comes from the Temper Mills and goes to the Tin Mill for processing but does not get any further cold reduction.

Stability Index
A property of metallurgical coke to withstand breakage. It is expressed as the percentage of coke remaining on 1-inch screen when the coke of selected size is screened after it has been tumbled in a standard drum which is rotated for a specific time at a specific rate.

Stack Test
A full width sample of chemically treated steel saved for metallurgical testing.

Stain
A defect on the plate causing a discoloration of the plate.

Staining
Precipitation etching that causes contrast by distinctive staining of micro-constituents; different interference colors originate from surface layers of varying thickness.

Stainless Steel
The term for grades of steel that contain higher (more than 10%) chromium, with or without other alloying elements. By AISI definition, a steel is called “Stainless” when it contains 4% or more chromium. Stainless steel resists corrosion, maintains its strength at high temperatures, and is easily maintained. For these reasons, it is used widely in items such as automotive and food processing products, as well as medical and health equipment. The most common grades of stainless steel are:
Type 304 The most commonly specified austenitic (chromium-nickel stainless class) stainless steel, accounting for more than half of the stainless steel produced in the world. This grade withstands ordinary corrosion in architecture, is durable in typical food processing environments, and resists most chemicals. Type 304 is available in virtually all product forms and finishes.
Type 316 Austenitic (chromium-nickel stainless class) stainless steel containing 2%-3% molybdenum (whereas 304 has none). The inclusion of molybdenum gives 316 greater resistance to various forms of deterioration.
Type 409 Ferritic (plain chromium stainless category) stainless steel suitable for high temperatures. This grade has the lowest chromium content of all stainless steels and thus is the least expensive.
Type 410 The most widely used martensitic (plain chromium stainless class with exceptional strength) stainless steel, featuring the high level of strength conferred by the martensitics. It is a low-cost, heat-treatable grade suitable for non-severe corrosion applications.
Type 430 The most widely used ferritic (plain chromium stainless category) stainless steel, offering general-purpose corrosion resistance, often in decorative applications.

Stamp Charging
A process where the entire coal charge to the coke oven is stamped, or compressed, and then pushed into the oven for coking. The main advantages are : increase in bulk density of the charge, enhancement of coking properties, usage of poorer quality coking coals, production of more abrasion-resistant coke, higher yield of blast furnace-size coke and higher throughput from the ovens.

Statistical Process Control (SPC)
A technique used to predict when a steel-making function’s quality may deteriorate. By tightly monitoring the product’s variance from specifications, the operator can determine when to apply preventative maintenance to a machine before any low-quality (secondary) steel is produced.

Steam Blowing Process
A process that puts water droplets on steel leaving the galvanizing pot to suppress spangle formation. See Minimized Spangle and Spangle Free.

Steckel Mill
A reversing steel sheet reduction mill with heated coil boxes at each end. Steel sheet or plate is sent through the rolls of the reversing mill and coiled at the end of the mill, reheated in the coil box, and sent back through the Steckel stands and recoiled. By re-heating the steel prior to each pass, the rolls can squeeze the steel thinner per pass and impart a better surface finish.

Steel
For the purpose of classification, steel is an iron base alloy generally suitable for working to the required shape in the solid state having a carbon content generally less than 1.5 percent and containing varying amounts of other elements. A limited number of high alloyed steels may have more than 2 percent carbon but 2 percent is the usual dividing into between steel and cast iron.

Steel Drum
Center insert that keeps a coil from collapsing. Used on Double Reduced material.
Steel Insert
Small corrugated insert used to keep coils from collapsing before rewinding.

Steel Intensity
The amount of steel used per unit of gross domestic product. Intensity reflects the secular demand for steel, as opposed to cyclical demand. The amount of steel used in vehicles and the popularity of alternative materials affect the intensity, or how much steel is needed per unit produced. The state of the economy, however, determines the number of units.

Steel-Intensive Products
Consumer products such as automobiles and appliances that, because so much of their weight is from steel, exhibit a high demand correlation with steel.

Steel Strapping
Banding and packaging material that is used to close and reinforce shipping units, such as bales, boxes, cartons, coils, crates, and skids.

Step Aging
Aging at two or more temperatures by steps, without cooling to room temperature after each step. Compare with interrupted aging and progressive aging.

Sticking
The joining up of two adjacent surfaces, due to partial welding of pack-rolled or batch-annealed sheets.

Stiffness
1. The ability of a metal or shape to resist elastic deflection.
2. The rate of stress with respect to strain; the greater the stress required to produce a given strain, the stiffer the material is said to be.

Stopper Rods
An arrangement in the ladle which controls the flow of liquid steel to the mould through the nozzle, and consists of a steel rod protected by thick cylindrical refractory sheaths.

Stoves
The regenerative stoves in which the blast air is preheated before it is delivered to the blast furnace. This decreases the amount of fuel that has to be burned in the blast furnace for each unit of hot metal and thus improves the efficiency of the process and increases the hot-metal production.

Strain
The amount of elongation or compression that occurs in a metal at a given stress or load. Generally in terms of inches elongation per inch of material.

Strain Aging
Strain aging is a type of artificial or accelerated aging which causes a change in the properties of steel that occurs gradually with time at moderately elevated temperatures after a cold working operation. Strain aging differs from quench aging in that plastic deformation is necessary before the aging process can begin. Also, unlike quench aging, a supersaturated solution of carbon or hydrogen in ferrite is not essential for strain aging. Most of the manifestations of strain aging are similar to those of quench aging – increased hardness, yield and tensile strength, reduced ductility and increased notch-impact transition temperature. In addition, strain aging has another troublesome characteristic. Low-carbon sheet steel often is temper rolled to eliminate the abrupt yield point elongation characteristic of this material. After temper rolling, the sheet can be formed with uniform yielding and related smooth contours. If aging takes place after temper rolling, the abrupt yield point returns, and the sheet is then susceptible to discontinuous yielding, fluting, and stretcher strains on subsequent deformation. Flexing the sheet by effective roller leveling just prior to forming will minimize this susceptibility.

Strain Hardening
As plastic deformation proceeds beyond yielding, new imperfections are formed and odd ones may be annihilated. At low temperatures, the overall effect is the creation of more imperfections, raising the stress required to cause further deformation. This phenomenon is known as strain hardening (or work hardening) and is typical of cold working.

Strength
Properties related to the ability of steel to oppose applied forces. Forms of strength include withstanding imposed loads without a permanent change in shape or structure and resistance to stretching.

Stress Corrosion Cracking (SCC)
Slow growth of cracks in stainless steel caused by the combined effect of mechanical stress and exposure to a corrosive environment.

Stress Relieving
Heating to a suitable temperature, holding long enough to reduce residual stresses, then cooling slowly enough to minimize development of new stresses.

Stretcher Strains (Luder Lines)
The roughening and somewhat furrowed appearance on the surface of low carbon sheets or strips as a result of uneven spreading in the initial stages of cold-deformation after annealing, normalizing or after hot-rolling, though being not so marked in the last two cases. See Fluting.

Stretch Levelling (Patent Flattening, Stretcher Flattening)
Flattening of sheets and thereby taking away buckles, warpage, kinks, etc., by applying uniform tension at the ends gripped along the entire edge in a stretching machine.

Striation
A coating defect consisting of a series of near parallel lines or channels in the cured coating. Striation is a type of flow mark, which is caused by some contaminant, such a silicone flow-out. Striation is similar to ribbing, but striation is usually smaller in size and not always parallel.

Strip
1. Thin, flat steel that resembles hot-rolled sheet, but it is normally narrower (up to 12 inches wide) and produced to more closely controlled thicknesses. Strip also may be cut from steel sheet by a slitting machine (see Sheet Steel). 2. Another name for the steel that travels through the line.

Stripping (Stripper)
The removal of an ingot from a mould after the steel has solidified. The machine used for this purpose is called a stripper.

Strip Steel
Facility which produces hot rolled bands, hot rolled and pickled bands, cold rolled steels and cold rolled bands for further processing in Sheet Mill and Tin Mill.

Structural Quality
Material applicable to the various classes of structures, indicated by the standard specifications, which is suitable for the different mechanical operations employed for the fabrication of such structures. Structural quality (the characteristics of which are defined in the standard specifications of the American Society for Testing Materials) represents the quality of steel produced under regular or normal manufacturing conditions.

Structural
Steel product group that includes I-beams, H-beams, wide-flange beams and sheet piling. These products are used in the construction of multi-story buildings, industrial buildings, bridge trusses, vertical highway supports, and riverbank reinforcement.

Sub-critical (or Process) Annealing
This consists of heating the steel to a temperature just under lower critical and holding at this temperature for the proper time (usually 2 to 4 hours) followed by air cooling.

Substrate
Raw material used as an input for steel processing: For example, hot-rolled steel is the substrate for cold-rolling operations.

Sulfide Staining
A coating defect consisting of a dark grey-black colored residue on tinplate which occurs when a break in the coating permits a high sulfur food to contact the tinplate.

Sulfurized Pickle Oil
An oiled applied at the Pickle Line (on cold reduced product only) which contains a sulfur based emulsifier which enhances lubricity in cold reduction and burn off of oil in annealing.

Sulling (Rusting)
Formation of a thin coating of hydrated oxide of iron on a coil of wire or rod obtained by keeping the coil of wire or rod obtained by keeping the coil wet by spraying water in the fine jets after pickling.

Supercooling
Cooling to a temperature below that of an equilibrium phase transformation without the transformation taking place. Also termed undercooling.

Superheater Tubes
Tubes through which the steam generated in a boiler is passed in order to raise its temperature, that is, tubes used for the conversion of saturated steam into superheated steam.

Superheating
1. Heating to a temperature above that of a phase transformation without the transformation taking place.
2. Heating molten metal to a temperature above the normal casting temperature to obtain more complete refining or greater fluidity.

Surface Finish (Tin Mill Products)
The ground roll finishes are : 7B, a smooth finish, normally for melted coatings intended for special applications; 7C, the standard mill finish, for either melted or unmelted coatings is the finish used for most applications. The blasted roll finishes are 5B, a shot blast finish (SBF) with a melted tin coating; 5C, a shot blast finish with an unmelted tin coating, principally for crowns and closures; 5D, a shot blast finish with and unmelted tin coating primarily for drawn & ironed cans.

Surface Imperfections
A superficial defect that mars the surface of steel and is detrimental to the end use; examples include blisters and roll mark defects.

Surface Inclusion
An inclusion or non-metallic particles that shows through at the surface of the steel. (See also Inclusion)

Surface Oil
Oil which is applied for corrosion protection or other special purposes.

Surface Roughness
The texture or “pattern” of a steel surface determined by the grit on the roll or the grind on a brite roll.

Swaging
Making a forging of circular section between specially shaped concave tools.

Sweep
Controlled deviation in dimensions in any particular region or place with respect to the remainder of the material. In rolls, sweep refers to the camber at the middle. In sheets, sweep refers to controlled dishing of a load of sheets for annealing to ensure flatness in the finally processed sheets.

Swift
A rotating device on which the coils of wire are placed for unwinding.

Taconite
What Natural mineral containing less than 30% iron. It is the primary ore used in blast furnaces in USA.
Why In USA, domestic supplies of iron-rich ores (greater than 50% iron) were largely depleted in the 1940s, so integrated steel companies now process the lower-grade taconite to make it useful.

Tailored Blanks
A section of sheet or strip that is cut-to-length and trimmed to match specifications for the manufacturer’s stamping design for a particular part. Because excess steel is cut away (to save shipping costs), all that remains for the stamper is to impart the three-dimensional shape with a die press (see Blanking).

Tail Scale (Trickle Scale)
Loose scale which flakes off from the ends during hot-rolling or packs of pairs of sheets, and finds its way in between the sheets, and is rolled in during further pack-rolling.

Talbot Process
A modified basic open hearth steel making process adopted for phosphoric iron, and is claimed to give greater output and speed. It consists in tapping only a part of the refined steel, from a large tilting furnace, and then adding a fresh charge to fill up the furnace. The resulting charge gets refined quickly, when a portion is tapped out followed by refilling the furnace.

Tandem Mill
A cluster of rolling mills where mill stands are in tandem. The tandem mill imparts greater strength, a uniform and smoother surface, and reduced thickness to the steel sheet. Unlike the original single-stand mills, a tandem mill rolls steel through a series of rolls (generally three to five in a row) to achieve a desired thickness and surface quality.

Tapping
Taking out refined steel from the furnace into a ladle.

Teeming (Casting, Pouring)
Filling of moulds with finished molten steel from the ladles.

Telescoping Coil
A coil that has not wound properly whose sidewall protrudes out. Tension problems or a bad start on the exit reel causes this condition.

Temper
A condition produced in a metal or alloy by mechanical or thermal treatment and having characteristics structure and mechanical properties. A given alloy may be in the fully softened or annealed temper, or it may be cold worked to the hard temper, or further to spring temper. Intermediate tempers produced by cold working (rolling or drawing) are called “quarter-hard”, “half-hard” and “three quarters hard”, and are determined by the amount of cold reduction and the resulting tensile properties. In addition to the annealed temper, conditions produced by thermal treatment are the solution heat-treated temper and the heat-treated and artificially aged temper. Other tempers involve a combination of mechanical and thermal treatments and include that temper produced by cold working after heat treating, and that produced by artificial aging of alloys that are as-cast, as-extruded, as-forged and heat treated, and worked.

Temper Code
Industry-standard code that indicates the hardness of the steel.

Tempering
Reheating the quenched steel for a short time to a relatively low temperature to make it less brittle without too drastically lessening the hardness obtained by quenching.

Tempered Layer
A surface or subsurface layer in a steel specimen that has been tempered by heating during some stage of the preparation sequence. When observed in a section after etching, the layer appears darker than the base material.

Temper Mill
A relatively light cold rolling operation in a cold-rolling mill, usually with only one or two stands, that may be used on hot rolled, cold rolled and some coated steel such as galvanized. Temper rolling hot rolled sheet helps to improve flatness, minimize coil breaks and fluting and alter mechanical properties. Temper rolling cold reduced and coated sheet steel improves surface finish (shiny, dull or grooved surface) alters mechanical properties and reduces the tendency of the steel to flute during fabrication.

Temper Rolling
A light cold-rolling process that develops the proper stiffness temper in steel, improves flatness, and imparts a desired surface finish by preventing stretcher strains.

Tensile (Tension) Test
A destructive mechanical test whereby strength and ductility properties are measured.

Tensile Strength
The greatest longitudinal stress steel can sustain without breaking.

Tension Bridle
Or Drag Bridle, is a dynamic tension device used in rolling mills whose function is to produce sufficient drag on the strip to maintain a positive strip tension throughout the line. It consists of a series of rolls, some of which may be pinch rolls, through which the strip passes out of the looper.

Terne Coated Sheet
Sheet steel coated by immersion in a bath of molten terne, an alloy of lead and tin. Terne (meaning dull) principally is used in the manufacture of gasoline tanks, although it also can be found in chemical containers, oil filters and television chassis. Sheet steel coated with terne metal is duller in appearance than sheet steel coated with tin alone.

Thermo-mechanical Treating (TMT)
Permanent deformation of metal with the objective usually of improvement of certain physical properties of the metal.

Thomas Process
A basic steel making process in which pig iron is refined in a basic refractory lined converter by blowing air or a mixture of air, carbon dioxide and oxygen or steam through the molten metal.

Three-Piece Can
Three-piece cans consist of a body and two ends. The body side seam can be accomplished by soldering, cementing or welding. The two ends are attached using a double-rolled seam. The curl on the end, containing the seal compound and its flange on the can body are indexed and rolled flat. The sealing compound between fold gives a hermetic seal.

Tin/Chrome Plating
A plating process whereby the molecules from the positively charged tin or chromium anode attach to the negatively charged sheet steel. The thickness of the coating is readily controlled through regulation of the voltage and speed of the sheet through the plating area.

Tin Coated Steel
See Tin Plate.

Tin-Free Steel
Single or double reduced black plate having a thin coating of chromium and chromium oxide applied electrolytically. Because it is used in food cans just like tin plate, it ironically is classified as a tin mill product. Tin-free steel is easier to recycle because tin will contaminate scrap steel in even small concentrations.

Tin Mill
Continuous tin-plating facility to produce tin mill steel sheet to be used in food and beverage cans and other containers.

Tin Mill Product
Tin Plate, Tin-Free Steel, or Black Plate.

Tin Plate
Thin sheet steel with a very thin coating of metallic tin. Tin plate is used primarily in canmaking.

Tolerances
A customer’s specifications can refer to dimensions or to the chemical properties of steel ordered. The tolerance measures the allowable difference in product specifications between what a customer orders and what the steel company delivers. There is no standard tolerance because each customer maintains its own variance objective. Tolerances are given as the specification, plus or minus an error factor; the smaller the range, the higher the cost.

Toll Processing
The act of processing steel for a fee (“toll”). Owners of the steel sheet may not possess the facilities to perform needed operations on the material (or may not have the open capacity). Therefore, another steel mill or service center will slit, roll, coat, anneal, or plate the metal for a fee.

Ton
Unit of measure for steel scrap and iron ore.
Gross Ton 2,240 pounds (1,016.05 kg).
Long (Net) Ton 2,240 pounds (1,016.05 kg).
Short (Net) Ton 2,000 pounds (907.185 kg). Normal unit of statistical raw material input and steel output in the United States.
Metric Ton 1,000 kilograms (2,204.6 pounds or 1.102 short tons).

Tongs
Long-handled pliers used to remove scrap pieces from the welder or other sections of the line.

Tool Steels
Steels that are hardened for the use in the manufacture of tools and dies.

Top Blowing
Injection of oxygen from the top through a water-cooled lance into the liquid bath during oxygen steelmaking. The blowing end of this lance features three to five special nozzles that deliver the gas jets at supersonic velocities. The stirring created by these focused, supersonic jets cause the necessary slag emulsion to form and keeps the vigorous bath flows to sustain the rapid reactions.

Top Dross
Skimmings for the continuous galvanize pot. Composition consists of approximately 87% zinc, 5% aluminum, and 6% to 8% iron.

Torpedo Car (or Ladle)
The refractory-lined hot metal railcar used to carry molten iron from the blast furnace to steel making units.

Toughness
The ability of a metal to absorb energy and deform plastically before fracture.

Tramlines
An overall or lap usually occurring in parallel pairs of lines. Long straight marks due to drawn out inclusions on rolled sheet are also called tramlines.

Transverse
Literally, ‘across’, usually signifying a direction or plane perpendicular to the direction of working. In rolled plate or sheet, the direction across the width is often called long transverse, and the direction through the thickness, short transverse.

Trepanning (Hollow Punching)
Removing a core from a piece of steel either by machining with tubular cutter or by hollow punching that is by pressing a hollow punch through the hot steel.

Tribology
A science that deals with the design, friction, wear and lubrication of interacting surfaces in relative motion.

Triple Spot Test
See Minimum Triple Spot Average Coating.

Trough Castings (Tundish Castings)
Casting or pouring effected through a refractory basin or trough, placed between the ladle and the mould, with the object of minimizing the force of impact of the liquid steel on the bottom plate and thus counteract violent splashings resulting from direct teeming from the ladle into the mould.

Tubing
When referring to OCTG, tubing is a separate pipe used within the casing to conduct the oil or gas to the surface. Depending on conditions and well life, tubing may have to be replaced during the operational life of a well.

Tundish
The shallow refractory-lined basin on top of the copper mould continuous caster. It is an intermediate vessel between the ladle and the mould. It receives the liquid steel from the ladle prior to the cast, allowing the operator to precisely regulate the flow of metal into the mould.

Tundish Nozzle
It is a critical link in the continuous-casting system because it must deliver a constant and controlled flow of steel to the mould with minimum stream flare to minimize splatter, spray, and atmospheric oxidation. Because the ferro-static head remains substantially constant in the tundish throughout casting of much of each heat, the bore of the nozzle must remain at a constant diameter throughout the cast. High purity, stabilized zirconia, having low thermal conductivity and good erosion resistance, has demonstrated the most desirable overall properties of any type of nozzle used to date.

Tunnel Furnace
Type of furnace whereby stock to be heated is placed upon cars which are then pushed or pulled slowly through the furnace.

Turbo-Blower
A steam-turbine-driven centrifugal blower used to provide air blast for blowing the blast furnace.

Tuyeres
The inlets for air to the blast furnace are water-cooled openings called tuyeres and are located at the top of the hearth.

Twist
A bar defect wherein the ends of a bar have been forced to rotate in relatively opposite directions about its longitudinal axis.

Twisting
Torsional displacement of parts of a forging as in the manufacture of a crankshaft.

Type D
Base-metal steel, aluminum killed; sometimes required to minimize severe fluting and stretcher strain hazards for severe drawing applications.

Undercure (Blocking)
If the initial cure is carried out below that necessary for full polymerization undercure may result in subsequent “blocking” or sticking of coated sheets.

Underfill
A cross-section which has not filled up the roll pass, so that it is inaccurate in both shape and dimensions.

Underpickling
Results when the steel has not had sufficient time in the pickling tanks to become free of adherent scale and occurs when acid concentration, solution temperatures and the line speed are not balance properly.

Unitemper Mill
It is used as one means for temper rolling or skin rolling of finished cold-reduced strip. The mill consists of two stands of two-high mills, but with the second stand above the first in the same mill housing, to provide closer spacing between the two stands. Here, the strip can be elongated a controlled amount between passes with only a very slight reduction in each stand due to rolling.

Universal Mill
A combination of horizontal and vertical rolls, usually mounted in the same roll stand. The mill is made up of two-high (and occasionally three-high) horizontal rolls, with vertical roll sets on either or both sides of the horizontal stand. The direction of the piece is reversed after each pass in the mill.

Universal Rolling
Rolling in an universal mill provided with edging rolls for obtaining width tolerance and better edges in plates and slabs.

Ultrasonic Test (Supersonic Test)
A versatile and highly-reliable non-destructive test for detecting and locating internal defects such as cracks, cavities and unsoundness due to discontinuities, by the application of high frequency sound waves. The detecting instrument transmits such waves through the prepared surface of the material under test and these waves are reflected back by internal flaws.

Upend Forging
A forging produced in a closed dies so that the direction of the grain flow is largely at right angles to the die faces.

Vacuum Degassing
An advanced steel refining facility that removes oxygen, hydrogen and nitrogen under low pressures (in a vacuum) to produce ultra-low-carbon steel for demanding electrical and automotive applications. Normally performed in the ladle, the removal of dissolved gases results in cleaner, higher-quality, more pure steel (see Ladle Metallurgy).

Vacuum Oxygen Decarburization (VOD)
What Process for further refinement of stainless steel through reduction of carbon content.
Why The amount of carbon in stainless steel must be lower than that in carbon steel or lower alloy steel (i.e., steel with alloying element content below 5%). While electric arc furnaces (EAF) are the conventional means of melting and refining stainless steel, VOD is an economical supplement, as operating time is reduced and temperatures are lower than in EAF steel making. Additionally, using VOD for refining stainless steel increases the availability of the EAF for melting purposes.
How Molten, unrefined steel is transferred from the EAF into a separate vessel, where oxygen is blown from the top to oxidise the carbon present in the steel bath and thus reduce the carbon content as per permissible limit in stainless steel chemistry. Being an exothermic process, the heat generated maintains the fluidity of steel. Argon is blown from the bottom to accentuate the stirring of the bath and homogenise the temperature, while oxygen enters from the top of the vessel. Substantial quantities of undesirable gases escape from the steel and are drawn off by a vacuum pump. Alloys and other additives are then mixed in to refine the molten steel further.

Varnish
A colorless, transparent finish applied over a decorative system to protect the substrate and inks and improve gloss

Vickers Hardness Test
An indentation hardness test employing a 136o diamond pyramid indenter (Vickers) and variable loads, enabling the use of one hardness scale for all ranges of hardness- from very soft lead to tungsten carbide. Also known as diamond pyramid hardness test.

Vinyl
Vinyl resins are co-polymers with vinyl chloride and vinyl acetate as the major film formers. They offer toughness, flexibility, and adhesion and are considered flavour-free.

Voss Leveler
A set of rolls that flattens and stretches the strip into a flat shape.

Wad
A thin web of metal which is punched out to produce a hole through the forging.

Walking Beam Furnace
A type of continuous reheat furnace in which the billet or slab is moved through distinct heating zones within the furnace by repeatedly lifting and setting it down at a more forward point in the furnace; this is in contrast to a batch reheat furnace or a pusher-type reheat furnace. By controlling the speed through the zones, steel-makers can achieve precise rolling temperatures and consume less fuel during operation.

Wap
The single turn in a coil.

Wash Heating (Sweating)
The soaking of an ingot or part cogged ingot (after limited rolling) at high temperature under oxidizing conditions so that surface melts and runs off as fluid slag. Surface defects of an ingot or partly cogged ingot may be removed in this way.

Water Based (Aqueous)
A coating in which the film forming ingredients are dissolved in or suspended in a volatile system containing water as the major solvent.

Wavy Edges
A term used to describe a quality defect in which the edge of the strip is wavy.

Wear
Damage to a solid surface, generally involving progressive loss of material, due to relative motion between that surface and a connecting surface or substance.

Wedge Section (Wedge Shape)
A strip with gradual change in thickness along the width.

Weigh-Strip-Weigh
A coating weight test.

Wet Drawn Wire
A wire passing through liquid lubricants. This imparts a bright surface to the wire.

White Pickling
The second pickling, after annealing of sheets intended for tinplate.

White Rust
A coating metal oxide, such as zinc oxide, which develops when the oxygen in the atmosphere mixes with the coating material (such as galvanized coating).

Wide-Flange Beam
A structural steel section on which the flanges are not tapered, but have equal thickness from the tip to the web and are at right angles to the web. Wide-flange beams are differentiated by the width of the web, which can range from 3 inches to more than 40 inches, and by the weight of the beam, measured in pounds per foot.

Widths
The lateral dimension of rolled steel, as opposed to the length or the gauge (thickness). If width of the steel strip is not controlled during rolling, the edges must be trimmed.

Wiped Galvanised Wire
Wire which has been hot dip galvanised and drawn through suitable wipers while the zinc is in the molten state. The term is also applied to electro-galvanised wire of uniform coating.

Wire
A finished product, round, half round, square, hexagonal, flat or of any other section including grooved section characterised by the fact that it has been subjected to a sizing operation at ambient temperature by the process of drawing through a die or by other mechanical means. Wire is generally supplied in coil form but in exceptional cases can be supplied in straight lengths. It shall be within following dimensions :

Wortle
A hard plate for wire drawing containing series of straight lines.

Wrap
The single turn in a coil.

Wrinkling
1. A coating defect consisting of the formation of small ridges or folds in the coating which resemble the surface of a prune, but are usually smaller in size.
2. A wavy condition obtained in drawing in the area of the metal that passes over the draw radius. Wrinkling may also occur in other forming operations when unbalanced compressive forces are set-up.

Wrought Iron
A very low carbon iron containing varying amounts of mechanically included slag. The chief characteristic of wrought iron is that the temperatures employed in its production are so low that it gets liquified beyond pasty or semi-fused state.

Yield
The ratio of the quantity of finished shipments to the total raw steel produced, adjusted for changes in inventory and any slabs that are purchased from outside. Yield has significantly improved during the past decade, primarily as the result of the industry’s conversion to continually cast steel, whose yield is superior to that of traditional ingot teeming.

Yield Point
The stress in a material at which there occurs a marked increase in strain without an increase in stress during tensile testing.

Yield Point Elongation
The amount of strain that is required to complete the yielding process. It is measured from the onset of yielding to the beginning of strain hardening.

Yield Strength
The stress at which a material exhibits a specified limiting deviation from the proportionality of stress to strain during tensile testing.

Yield Stress
The stress level of highly ductile materials, such as structural steels, at which large strains take place without further increase in stress.

Z-Mill
(See Sendzimir Mill.)