An ironworks or iron works is an industrial plant where iron is smelted and where heavy iron and steel products are made. The term is both singular and plural, i.e. the singular of ironworks is ironworks .
21-577: The Horseley Ironworks (sometimes spelled Horsley ) was a major ironworks in the Tipton area in the county of Staffordshire , now the West Midlands , England . Founded by Aaron Manby , it is most famous for constructing the first iron steamer , The Aaron Manby , in 1821. The boat was assembled at Rotherhithe . She was only the first of a number of steamboats built on the "knock-down" principle. The ironworks have also been responsible for
42-506: A blast furnace where the iron compounds in the ore give up excess oxygen and become liquid iron. At intervals of a few hours, the accumulated liquid iron is tapped from the blast furnace and either cast into pig iron or directed to other vessels for further steel making operations. Historically the Bessemer process was a major advancement in the production of economical steel, but it has now been entirely replaced by other processes such as
63-709: A rolling mill . Originally the minimill was adapted to production of bar products only, such as concrete reinforcing bar , flats, angles, channels, pipe, and light rails. Since the late 1980s, successful introduction of the direct strip casting process has made minimill production of strip feasible. Often a minimill will be constructed in an area with no other steel production, to take advantage of local markets, resources, or lower-cost labour. Minimill plants may specialize, for example, in making coils of rod for wire-drawing use, or pipe, or in special sections for transportation and agriculture. Capacities of minimills vary: some plants may make as much as 3,000,000 tons per year,
84-613: A continuous production campaign of several years duration. Even during periods of low steel demand, it may not be feasible to let the blast furnace grow cold, though some adjustment of the production rate is possible. Integrated mills are large facilities that are typically only economical to build in 2,000,000-ton per year annual capacity and up. Final products made by an integrated plant are usually large structural sections, heavy plate, strip, wire rod, railway rails , and occasionally long products such as bars and pipe . A major environmental hazard associated with integrated steel mills
105-457: A typical size is in the range 200,000 to 400,000 tons per year, and some old or specialty plants may make as little as 50,000 tons per year of finished product. Nucor Corporation , for example, annually produces around 9,100,000 tons of sheet steel from its four sheet mills, 6,700,000 tons of bar steel from its 10 bar mills and 2,100,000 tons of plate steel from its two plate mills. Since the electric arc furnace can be easily started and stopped on
126-632: Is believed to have been by 1815. Industry in the area prospered and the location retained the name of the Horseley estate as shown in an 1822 survey of the area. With the increasing popularity of canals , the ironworks quickly became popular for manufacturing canal bridges, mainly in the local vicinity. Canal bridges made by the ironworks include the Engine Arm Aqueduct (1825), two roving bridges at Smethwick Junction (1828), Galton Bridge (1829), and Braunston Towpath Bridges (1830). By
147-566: Is derived from the Greek words sideros - iron and ergon or ergos - work. This is an unusual term in English, and it is best regarded as an anglicisation of a term used in French , Spanish , and other Romance languages . Historically, it is common that a community was built around the ironworks where the people living there were dependent on the ironworks to provide jobs and housing. As
168-452: Is linked to Gas Street. Horseley Ironworks were also responsible for manufacturing in the railway industry. Railway bridges constructed included that of the viaduct for the London and Birmingham to Holyhead railway at Shifnal , Shropshire which was cast in 1848. As well as manufacturing bridges, they also produced locomotives . The company also manufactured construction steelwork for
189-416: Is sometimes used with scrap, to help maintain desired chemistry of the steel, though usually DRI is too expensive to use as the primary raw steelmaking material. A typical mini-mill will have an electric arc furnace for scrap melting, a ladle furnace or vacuum furnace for precision control of chemistry, a strip or billet continuous caster for converting molten steel to solid form, a reheat furnace and
210-640: Is the pollution produced in the manufacture of coke , which is an essential intermediate product in the reduction of iron ore in a blast furnace. Integrated mills may also adopt some of the processes used in mini-mills, such as arc furnaces and direct casting, to reduce production costs. A minimill is traditionally a secondary steel producer; however, Nucor (one of the world's largest steel producers) and Commercial Metals Company (CMC) use minimills exclusively. Usually it obtains most of its iron from scrap steel, recycled from used automobiles and equipment or byproducts of manufacturing. Direct reduced iron (DRI)
231-522: The South Staffordshire Railway line. The factory survived under a succession of owners until 1991, when it was closed down and subsequently redeveloped as a housing estate. Download coordinates as: 52°31′47″N 2°02′38″W / 52.5296°N 2.0438°W / 52.5296; -2.0438 Ironworks Ironworks succeeded bloomeries when blast furnaces replaced former methods. An integrated ironworks in
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#1732772931694252-434: The basic oxygen furnace . Molten steel is cast into large blocks called blooms . During the casting process various methods are used, such as addition of aluminum , so that impurities in the steel float to the surface where they can be cut off the finished bloom. Because of the energy cost and structural stress associated with heating and cooling a blast furnace, typically these primary steel making vessels will operate on
273-548: The manufacture of steel . It may be an integrated steel works carrying out all steps of steelmaking from smelting iron ore to rolled product, but may also be a plant where steel semi-finished casting products are made from molten pig iron or from scrap . Since the invention of the Bessemer process , steel mills have replaced ironworks , based on puddling or fining methods. New ways to produce steel appeared later: from scrap melted in an electric arc furnace and, more recently, from direct reduced iron processes. In
294-425: The 19th century usually included one or more blast furnaces and a number of puddling furnaces or a foundry with or without other kinds of ironworks. After the invention of the Bessemer process , converters became widespread, and the appellation steelworks replaced ironworks. The processes carried at ironworks are usually described as ferrous metallurgy, but the term siderurgy is also occasionally used. This
315-401: The context of the iron industry, the term manufacture is best reserved for this final stage. The notable ironworks of the world are described here by country. See above for the largest producers and the notable ironworks in the alphabetical order. The largest Japanese steel companies' main works are as follows: Steel mill A steel mill or steelworks is an industrial plant for
336-546: The end of the canal construction era, Horseley Ironworks had emerged as one of the most prolific manufacturers of canal bridges in the West Midlands region , especially in Birmingham . This was a result of their signature bridge design which had become popular amongst canal constructors. The design has been replicated more recently, for example in Birmingham during the regeneration of Gas Street Basin where Worcester Bar
357-414: The following: The mills operating converters of any type are better called steelworks, ironworks referring to former processes, like puddling . After bar iron had been produced in a finery forge or in the forge train of a rolling mill, it might undergo further processes in one of the following: Most of these processes did not produce finished goods. Further processes were often manual, including In
378-425: The ironworks closed down (or was industrialised) these villages quite often went into decline and experienced negative economic growth. Ironworks is used as an omnibus term covering works undertaking one or more iron-producing processes. Such processes or species of ironworks where they were undertaken include the following: From the 1850s, pig iron might be partly decarburised to produce mild steel using one of
399-673: The late 19th and early 20th centuries the world's largest steel mill was the Barrow Hematite Steel Company steelworks located in Barrow-in-Furness , United Kingdom . Today, the world's largest steel mill is in Gwangyang , South Korea . An integrated steel mill has all the functions for primary steel production: The principal raw materials for an integrated mill are iron ore, limestone, and coal (or coke). These materials are charged in batches into
420-548: The manufacture of numerous canal and railway bridges of the 19th century. The ironworks were built near the Toll End Communication Canal on the Horseley estate, which had been sold by their owner at the turn of the 19th century due to demand from engineers wishing to profit on the construction of the BCN Main Line through the estate. The date when the ironworks were constructed is unknown but
441-673: The pier of Ryde , the Palace Theatre in London, Rugby railway station, a seaplane hangar in Las Palmas and the Dome of Discovery at the 1951 Festival of Britain. People who have worked for the iron foundry include Charles Manby , the son of Aaron Manby, James Thomson , William Johnson and Richard Roberts . The firm moved in 1865 to a site on the now defunct Dixon's Branch, off the BCN New Main Line (Island Line), near
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