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Sandvik AB is a Swedish multinational engineering company specializing in products and services for mining , rock excavation, rock drilling , rock processing ( crushing and screening ), metal cutting and machining . The company was founded in Gävleborg County , Sweden, in 1862. In 2023, it had approximately 41,000 employees and a revenue of 127 billion SEK, with sales in around 170 countries.

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94-462: The company was founded by Göran Fredrik Göransson , who was an early user of the Bessemer process . In 1857, he acquired rights to use the patented process and initially applied it in a blast furnace at Edsken, Hofors Municipality . There, he became the first user of the process to achieve technically and commercially acceptable results. However, production at sufficient scale was not possible in

188-600: A patent on the process in 1856. The process was said to be independently discovered in 1851 by the American inventor William Kelly though the claim is controversial. The process using a basic refractory lining is known as the "basic Bessemer process" or Gilchrist–Thomas process after the English discoverers Percy Gilchrist and Sidney Gilchrist Thomas . A system akin to the Bessemer process has existed since

282-734: A 2,250-newton-per-millimetre (12,800 lb f /in), 3,400-metre-long (3,700 yd) underground belt installed at Baodian Coal Mine, part of in Yanzhou Coal Mining Company , China , was reported to provide energy savings of over 15%. Whilst Shenhua Group , has installed several aramid conveyor belts, including a 4,400-newton-per-millimetre (25,000 lb f /in) belt with a length of 11,600 m (7.2 miles). Today there are different types of conveyor belts that have been created for conveying different kinds of material available in PVC and rubber materials. Material flowing over

376-404: A 31-kilometre-long (19 mi) conveyor feeding a 20-kilometre-long (12 mi) conveyor. Cable belt conveyors are a variation on the more conventional idler belt system. Instead of running on top of idlers, cable belt conveyors are supported by two endless steel cables (steel wire rope) which are in turn supported by idler pulley wheels. This system feeds bauxite through the difficult terrain of

470-473: A Louisiana-based company, registered the first patent for all plastic, modular belting. The belt consists of one or more layers of material. It is common for belts to have three layers: a top cover, a carcass and a bottom cover. The purpose of the carcass is to provide linear strength and shape. The carcass is often a woven or metal fabric having a warp & weft . The warp refers to longitudinal cords whose characteristics of resistance and elasticity define

564-595: A cement factory at Chhatak Bangladesh . It is about 17 km (11 miles) long and conveys limestone and shale at 960 t/h (1,060 short tons per hour), from the quarry in India to the cement factory (7 km or 4.3 miles long in India and 10 km or 6.2 miles long in Bangladesh). The conveyor was engineered by AUMUND France and Larsen & Toubro. The conveyor is actuated by three synchronized drive units for

658-415: A circular section like a pipe. Like a troughed belt conveyor, a pipe conveyor also uses idler rollers. However, in this case, the idler frame completely surrounds the conveyor belt helping it to retain the pipe section while pushing it forward. In the case of travel paths requiring high angles and snake-like curvatures, a sandwich belt is used. The sandwich belt design enables materials carried to travel along

752-406: A closed loop of carrying medium—the conveyor belt—that rotates about them. One or both of the pulleys are powered, moving the belt and the material on the belt forward. The powered pulley is called the drive pulley while the unpowered pulley is called the idler pulley. There are two main industrial classes of belt conveyors; Those in general material handling such as those moving boxes along inside

846-565: A conveyor is about to turn on. In the United States, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration has issued regulations for conveyor safety, as OSHA 1926.555. Some other systems used to safeguard the conveyor are belt sway switches, speed switches, belt rip switch, and emergency stops . The belt sway switch will stop the conveyor if the belt starts losing its alignment along the structure. The speed switch will stop

940-480: A corner. These conveyor systems are commonly used in postal sorting offices and airport baggage handling systems . Belt conveyors are generally fairly similar in construction consisting of a metal frame with rollers at either end of a flat metal bed. Rubber conveyor belts are commonly used to convey items with irregular bottom surfaces, small items that would fall in between rollers (e.g. a sushi conveyor bar ), or bags of product that would sag between rollers. The belt

1034-505: A factory and bulk material handling such as those used to transport large volumes of resources and agricultural materials, such as grain , salt , coal , ore , sand , overburden and more. Conveyors are durable and reliable components used in automated distribution and warehousing, as well as manufacturing and production facilities. In combination with computer-controlled pallet handling equipment this allows for more efficient retail , wholesale , and manufacturing distribution . It

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1128-405: A full day of heating, stirring and reheating to achieve this. The blowing of air through the molten pig iron introduces oxygen into the melt which results in oxidation , removing impurities found in the pig iron, such as silicon , manganese , and carbon in the form of oxides . These oxides either escape as gas or form a solid slag . The refractory lining of the converter also plays a role in

1222-429: A lower rate on a proportion of their output in order to encourage production, but not so large a proportion that they might decide to reduce their selling prices. By this method he hoped to cause the new process to gain in standing and market share. He realised that the technical problem was due to impurities in the iron and concluded that the solution lay in knowing when to turn off the flow of air in his process so that

1316-444: A mine to a refinery that converts the coal to diesel fuel. The third longest trough belt conveyor in the world is the 20-kilometre-long (12 mi) Curragh conveyor near Westfarmers, QLD, Australia. Conveyor Dynamics, Inc. supplied the basic engineering, control system and commissioning. Detail engineering and Construction was completed by Laing O'Rourke. The longest single-belt international conveyor runs from Meghalaya in India to

1410-625: A new stainless steel called Safurex was developed. In 1997, Sandvik acquired a majority of the Swedish company Kanthal AB , which specialized in metallic electrical resistance products and high-temperature ceramic materials. Also, in the same year, Sandvik bought all remaining shares in the Finnish company Tamrock , a manufacturer of mining equipment in which it previously had a minority holding. In 1999, Sandvik divested its production of saws and other craft tools. In 2001, Sandvik started testing

1504-620: A new system named Automine for automation and remote control of mining equipment in mines in Canada and Sweden. In 2002, Sandvik acquired a majority position in the German cutting tool manufacturer Walter AG . In 2004, the Kanthal division developed new alloy production methods with high-temperature powder metallurgy . In 2009, Sandvik bought the Austrian company Wolfram Bergbau , which

1598-582: A number of English puddlers visited this place to see my new process. Several of them have since returned to England and may have spoken of my invention there." It is suggested Kelly's process was less developed and less successful than Bessemer's process. Sir Henry Bessemer described the origin of his invention in his autobiography written in 1890. During the outbreak of the Crimean War , many English industrialists and inventors became interested in military technology. According to Bessemer, his invention

1692-452: A patent that was taken out in May 1878. Sidney Gilchrist Thomas's invention consisted of using dolomite or sometimes limestone linings for the Bessemer converter rather than clay, and it became known as the 'basic' Bessemer rather than the 'acid' Bessemer process. An additional advantage was that the processes formed more slag in the converter, and this could be recovered and used very profitably as

1786-399: A path of high inclines up to 90-degree angles, enabling a vertical path as opposed to a horizontal one. This transport option is also powered by idlers. Other important components of the belt conveying system apart from the pulleys and idler rollers include the drive arrangement of reducer gear boxes, drive motors, and associated couplings. scrapers to clean the belt, chutes for controlling

1880-669: A phosphate fertilizer. In 1898, Scientific American published an article called Bessemer Steel and its Effect on the World explaining the significant economic effects of the increased supply in cheap steel. They noted that the expansion of railroads into previously sparsely inhabited regions of the country had led to settlement in those regions, and had made the trade of certain goods profitable, which had previously been too costly to transport. The Bessemer process revolutionized steel manufacture by decreasing its cost, from £40 per long ton to £6–7 per long ton, along with greatly increasing

1974-431: A time. They were usually operated in pairs, one being blown while another was being filled or tapped. By the early 19th century the puddling process was widespread. Until technological advances made it possible to work at higher heats, slag impurities could not be removed entirely, but the reverberatory furnace made it possible to heat iron without placing it directly in the fire, offering some degree of protection from

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2068-522: A ton. Sidney Gilchrist Thomas , a Londoner with a Welsh father, was an industrial chemist who decided to tackle the problem of phosphorus in iron, which resulted in the production of low grade steel. Believing that he had discovered a solution, he contacted his cousin, Percy Gilchrist , who was a chemist at the Blaenavon Ironworks . The manager at the time, Edward Martin, offered Sidney equipment for large-scale testing and helped him draw up

2162-577: A total power of about 1.8 MW supplied by ABB (two drives at the head end in Bangladesh and one drive at the tail end in India). The conveyor belt was manufactured in 300-metre (980-foot) lengths on the Indian side and 300-metre (980-foot) lengths on the Bangladesh side. The idlers, or rollers, of the system are unique{{ }} in that they are designed to accommodate both horizontal and vertical curves along

2256-437: A troughed belt conveyor is used. The trough of the belt ensures that the flowable material is contained within the edges of the belt. The trough is achieved by keeping the idler rollers in an angle to the horizontal at the sides of the idler frame. A pipe conveyor is used for material travel paths that require sharper bends and inclines up to 35 degrees. A pipe conveyor features the edges of the belt being rolled together to form

2350-464: A vast array of uses. Mushet's patent ultimately lapsed due to Mushet's inability to pay the patent fees and was acquired by Bessemer. Bessemer earned over 5 million dollars in royalties from the patents. The first company to license the process was the Manchester firm of W & J Galloway , and they did so before Bessemer announced it at Cheltenham in 1856. They are not included in his list of

2444-580: A visit to London in 1857. During the first half of 1858, Göransson, together with a small group of engineers, experimented with the Bessemer process at Edsken near Hofors , Sweden before he finally succeeded. Later in 1858 he again met with Henry Bessemer in London, managed to convince him of his success with the process, and negotiated the right to sell his steel in England. Production continued in Edsken, but it

2538-914: Is capable of planning the drill procedure, optimizing its electric power usage, changing drill bits and automatically returning to a charging station when necessary. In addition to the potential for higher productivity, workplace safety is an area where this kind of technology may bring significant improvements. The rock processing solutions business area produces mobile and stationary crushing and screening equipment for rock and mineral processing as well as related tools and services. The manufacturing and machining solutions business area produces tools, software and other equipment for metal cutting, additive manufacturing and metrology . Machining tools are sold under several brand names, for example Sandvik Coromant and Dormer Pramet . In 2023, Sandvik used equipment and software for precision machining and metrology to produce an AI-designed statue simultaneously inspired by

2632-611: Is considered a labor-saving system that allows large volumes to move rapidly through a process, allowing companies to ship or receive higher volumes with smaller storage space and with labor expense . Belt conveyors are the most commonly used powered conveyors because they are the most versatile and the least expensive. Products are conveyed directly on the belt so both regular and irregular shaped objects, large or small, light and heavy, can be transported successfully. Belt conveyors are also manufactured with curved sections that use tapered rollers and curved belting to convey products around

2726-600: Is in the developing stages and will prove to be an efficient innovation. The longest belt conveyor system in the world is in Western Sahara . It was built in 1972 by Friedrich Krupp GmbH (now thyssenkrupp) and is 98 km (61 miles) long, from the phosphate mines of Bu Craa to the coast south of El-Aaiun . The longest conveyor system in an airport is the Dubai International Airport baggage handling system at 63 km (39 miles). It

2820-420: Is looped around each of the rollers and when one of the rollers is powered (by an electrical motor ) the belting slides across the solid metal frame bed, moving the product. In heavy use applications, the beds in which the belting is pulled over are replaced with rollers. The rollers allow weight to be conveyed as they reduce the amount of friction generated from the heavier loading on the belting. The exception to

2914-601: Is notable for developing battery-powered, remotely monitored and automated equipment. The vehicle TH665B, with a capacity of 65 metric tons, was the highest-capacity battery-electric underground mining truck in the world when it was launched in 2022. Besides the advantage of not producing any diesel exhaust gases, battery-powered trucks emit less heat than diesel-powered trucks, which is beneficial in underground mines, and tend to achieve higher uphill top speeds. Sandvik has developed systems for swapping battery packs of mining trucks and loaders to freshly charged ones, instead of charging

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3008-518: The Forest of Dean . His method was to first burn off, as far as possible, all the impurities and carbon, then reintroduce carbon and manganese by adding an exact amount of spiegeleisen , an alloy of iron and manganese with trace amounts of carbon and silicon . This had the effect of improving the quality of the finished product, increasing its malleability —its ability to withstand rolling and forging at high temperatures and making it more suitable for

3102-653: The Lackawanna Iron & Coal Company in Scranton, Pennsylvania , had also investigated the process in Europe. He built a mill in 1876 using the Bessemer process for steel rails and quadrupled his production. Bessemer steel was used in the United States primarily for railroad rails. During the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge, a major dispute arose over whether crucible steel should be used instead of

3196-410: The check-out counter to move shopping items, and may use checkout dividers in this process. Ski areas also use conveyor belts to transport skiers up the hill. Industrial and manufacturing applications for belt conveyors include package handling, trough belt conveyors, trash handling, bag handling, coding conveyors, and more. Integration of Human-Machine Interface(HMI) to operate the conveyor system

3290-485: The mass production of steel from molten pig iron before the development of the open hearth furnace . The key principle is removal of impurities from the iron by oxidation with air being blown through the molten iron. The oxidation also raises the temperature of the iron mass and keeps it molten. The modern process is named after its inventor, the Englishman Henry Bessemer , who took out

3384-568: The 11th century in East Asia. Economic historian Robert Hartwell writes that the Chinese of the Song dynasty (960–1279 CE) innovated a "partial decarbonization" method of repeated forging of cast iron under a cold blast. Sinologist Joseph Needham and historian of metallurgy Theodore A. Wertime have described the method as a predecessor to the Bessemer process of making steel. This process

3478-460: The 1920s, the company began melting stainless steel , and in 1924, it started producing its first stainless seamless tubes. In 1932, it acquired a license to use a new method for cold-rolling tubes, called pilgering , and in 1934, it became the first European company to use the method at industrial scale. In 1937, there were subsidiaries in 37 countries. World War II forced the company to reorganize production. Exports were halved, but demand from

3572-428: The 19th century. In 1868, an English shipwright Joseph Thomas Parlour from Pimlico patented a grain elevator with a conveyor belt while Illinoisan Charles Denton of Ames Plow Co. patented a reaper with a belt "conveyer". By the 1880s conveyor belts were used in American elevators, sugarcane mills and sawmills , as well as British maltings . In 1892, Thomas Robins began a series of inventions which led to

3666-485: The B. F. Goodrich Company patented a Möbius strip conveyor belt, that it went on to produce as the "Turnover Conveyor Belt System". Incorporating a half-twist, it had the advantage over conventional belts of a longer life because it could expose all of its surface area to wear and tear. Such Möbius strip belts are no longer manufactured because untwisted modern belts can be made more durable by constructing them from several layers of different materials. In 1970, Intralox ,

3760-601: The Bessemer process, was developed in Europe. In 1740, Benjamin Huntsman developed the crucible technique for steel manufacture, at his workshop in the district of Handsworth in Sheffield . This process had an enormous impact on the quantity and quality of steel production, but it was unrelated to the Bessemer-type process employing decarburization. The Japanese may have made use of a Bessemer-type process, which

3854-689: The Darling Ranges to the Worsley Alumina refinery. The second longest single trough belt conveyor is the 26.8-kilometre-long (16.7 mi) Impumelelo conveyor near Secunda, South Africa. It was designed by Conveyor Dynamics, Inc. based in Bellingham, Washington, USA and constructed by ELB Engineering based in Johannesburg South Africa. The conveyor transports 2,400 t/h (2,600 short tons per hour) coal from

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3948-875: The French society REI created in New Caledonia the longest straight-belt conveyor in the world in that moment, at a length of 13.8 km (8.6 miles). Hyacynthe Marcel Bocchetti was the concept designer. . The longest conveyor belt is that of the Bou Craa phosphate mine in Western Sahara (1973, 98 km in 11 sections). The longest single-span conveyor belt is at the Boddington bauxite mine in Western Australia (31 km). In 1957,

4042-603: The Swedish military for grenades prevented a corporate crisis. Already before the war, the company had wanted to enter the cemented carbide tool market, but the patent situation was complicated, and it was unable to find a suitable business partner. However, in 1942, it entered into an agreement with the Lumalampan subsidiary of Kooperativa Förbundet . Lumalampan mainly produced tungsten light bulbs but also made tungsten carbide tips for grenades, as well as its own carbide tools for filament wire drawing , and thus possessed

4136-629: The United Kingdom and negotiate with the Bank of England on their behalf. Holley secured a license for Griswold and Winslow to use Bessemer's patented processes and returned to the United States in late 1863. The trio began setting up a mill in Troy, New York in 1865. The factory contained a number of Holley's innovations that greatly improved productivity over Bessemer's factory in Sheffield, and

4230-468: The United States. His A Treatise on Ordnance and Armor is an important work on contemporary weapons manufacturing and steel-making practices. In 1862, he visited Bessemer's Sheffield works, and became interested in licensing the process for use in the US. Upon returning to the US, Holley met with two iron producers from Troy, New York , John F. Winslow and John Augustus Griswold , who asked him to return to

4324-506: The batteries while attached to the vehicle. The minimum time required for battery swapping is a few minutes. Rio Tinto , LKAB , Boliden , Torex Gold, Foran Mining, Rana Gruber and Byrnecut are examples of mining companies that have been reported to use battery-electric Sandvik trucks and loaders. As of 2024, Sandvik operates a working prototype of a fully automatic battery-powered autonomous drill rig in its test mine in Finland. The machine

4418-463: The belt may be weighed in transit using a beltweigher . Belts with regularly spaced partitions, known as elevator belts , are used for transporting loose materials up steep inclines. Belt Conveyors are used in self-unloading bulk freighters and in live bottom trucks. Belt conveyor technology is also used in conveyor transport such as moving sidewalks or escalators , as well as on many manufacturing assembly lines . Stores often have conveyor belts at

4512-618: The belt. Steel conveyor belts are used when high strength class is required. For example, the highest strength class conveyor belt installed is made of steel cords. This conveyor belt has a strength class of 10,000 N/mm (57,000 lb f /in) and it operates at Chuquicamata mine, in Chile . Polyester, nylon and cotton are popular with low strength classes. Aramid is used in the range 630–3,500 N/mm (3,600–20,000 lb f /in). The advantages of using aramid are energy savings, enhanced lifetimes and improved productivity. As an example,

4606-452: The blister steel bars were broken into pieces and melted in small crucibles, each containing 20 kg or so. This produced higher quality crucible steel but increased the cost. The Bessemer process reduced the time needed to make lower-grade steel to about half an hour while requiring only the coke needed initially to melt the pig iron. The earliest Bessemer converters produced steel for £7 a long ton , although it initially sold for around £40

4700-434: The blowing air, prevented Bessemer steel from being used for many structural applications. Open-hearth steel was suitable for structural applications. Steel greatly improved the productivity of railroads. Steel rails lasted ten times longer than iron rails. Steel rails, which became heavier as prices fell, could carry heavier locomotives, which could pull longer trains. Steel rail cars were longer and were able to increase

4794-594: The cause of this was the lack of trained personnel and investment in technology rather than anything intrinsic to the process itself. For example, one of the major causes of the decline of the giant ironmaking company Bolckow Vaughan of Middlesbrough was its failure to upgrade its technology. The basic process, the Thomas-Gilchrist process, remained in use longer, especially in Continental Europe, where iron ores were of high phosphorus content and

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4888-602: The cheaper Bessemer steel. In 1877, Abram Hewitt wrote a letter urging against the use of Bessemer steel in the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge . Bids had been submitted for both crucible steel and Bessemer steel; John A. Roebling's Sons submitted the lowest bid for Bessemer steel, but at Hewitt's direction, the contract was awarded to J. Lloyd Haigh Co. Using the Bessemer process, it took between 10 and 20 minutes to convert three to five tons of iron into steel – it would previously take at least

4982-475: The conversion — clay linings may be used when there is little phosphorus in the raw material, and Bessemer himself used ganister sandstone – this is known as the acid Bessemer process. When the phosphorus content is high, dolomite , or sometimes magnesite , linings are required in the basic Bessemer limestone process, see below . In order to produce steel with desired properties, additives such as spiegeleisen (a ferromanganese alloy), can be added to

5076-429: The development of a conveyor belt used for carrying coal, ores and other products. In 1901, Sandvik invented and started the production of steel conveyor belts. In 1905, Richard Sutcliffe invented the first conveyor belts for use in coal mines which revolutionized the mining industry. In 1913, Henry Ford introduced conveyor-belt assembly lines at Ford Motor Company 's Highland Park, Michigan factory. In 1972,

5170-456: The discharge direction, skirts for containing the discharge on the receiving belt, take up assembly for "tensioning" the belt, safety switches for personnel safety and technological structures like stringer, short post, drive frames, pulley frames make up the balance items to complete the belt conveying system. In certain applications, belt conveyors can also be used for static accumulation or cartons. Primitive conveyor belts have been in use since

5264-558: The four to whom he refunded the license fees. However, they subsequently rescinded their license in 1858 in return for the opportunity to invest in a partnership with Bessemer and others. This partnership began to manufacture steel in Sheffield from 1858, initially using imported charcoal pig iron from Sweden . This was the first commercial production. A 20% share in the Bessemer patent was also purchased for use in Sweden and Norway by Swedish trader and Consul Göran Fredrik Göransson during

5358-473: The freight to car weight from 1:1 to 2:1. As early as 1895 in the UK it was being noted that the heyday of the Bessemer process was over and that the open hearth method predominated. The Iron and Coal Trades Review said that it was "in a semi-moribund condition. Year after year, it has not only ceased to make progress, but it has absolutely declined." It has been suggested, both at that time and more recently, that

5452-572: The growth of the United States as a major world steel producer. Using the Bessemer process, Carnegie Steel was able to reduce the costs of steel railroad rails from $ 100 per ton to $ 50 per ton between 1873 and 1875. The price of steel continued to fall until Carnegie was selling rails for $ 18 per ton by the 1890s. Prior to the opening of Carnegie's Thomson Works, steel output in the United States totaled around 157,000 tons per year. By 1910, American companies were producing 26 million tons of steel annually. William Walker Scranton , manager and owner of

5546-432: The impurities were burned off but just the right amount of carbon remained. However, despite spending tens of thousands of pounds on experiments, he could not find the answer. Certain grades of steel are sensitive to the 78% nitrogen which was part of the air blast passing through the steel. The solution was first discovered by English metallurgist Robert Forester Mushet , who had carried out thousands of experiments in

5640-402: The impurity of the fuel source. Thus, with the advent of this technology, coal began to replace charcoal fuel. The Bessemer process allowed steel to be produced without fuel, using the impurities of the iron to create the necessary heat. This drastically reduced the costs of steel production, but raw materials with the required characteristics could be difficult to find. High-quality steel

5734-499: The initial location. This prompted the foundation, in 1862, of a new company, Högbo Stål & Jernverks AB , in a place that developed into the town of Sandviken . Already in the 1860s, the company was exporting its products. The United Kingdom , Germany , France and Russia were important markets. In 1868, the company was reorganized as Sandvikens Jernverks AB (the Sandviken Ironworks). The Sandvik brand name

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5828-406: The molten steel once the impurities have been removed. When the required steel had been formed, it was poured into ladles and then transferred into moulds while the lighter slag was left behind. The conversion process, called the "blow", was completed in approximately 20 minutes. During this period, the progress of the oxidation of the impurities was judged by the appearance of the flame issuing from

5922-406: The mouth of the converter. The modern use of photoelectric methods of recording the characteristics of the flame greatly aided the blower in controlling final product quality. After the blow, the liquid metal was recarburized to the desired point and other alloying materials were added, depending on the desired product. A Bessemer converter could treat a "heat" (batch of hot metal) of 5 to 30 tons at

6016-514: The open-hearth process was not able to remove all phosphorus; almost all inexpensive construction steel in Germany was produced with this method in the 1950s and 1960s. It was eventually superseded by basic oxygen steelmaking . In the U.S., commercial steel production using this method stopped in 1968. It was replaced by processes such as the basic oxygen (Linz–Donawitz) process , which offered better control of final chemistry. The Bessemer process

6110-471: The owners gave a successful public exhibition in 1867. The Troy factory attracted the attention of the Pennsylvania Railroad , which wanted to use the new process to manufacture steel rail. It funded Holley's second mill as part of its Pennsylvania Steel subsidiary. Between 1866 and 1877, the partners were able to license a total of 11 Bessemer steel mills. One of the investors they attracted

6204-402: The patent for his process to four ironmasters , for a total of £27,000, but the licensees failed to produce the quality of steel he had promised—it was "rotten hot and rotten cold", according to his friend, William Clay —and he later bought them back for £32,500. His plan had been to offer the licenses to one company in each of several geographic areas, at a royalty price per ton that included

6298-551: The previous one. Sandvik divides its operations into three business areas, Mining and rock solutions , accounting for 52 percent of revenues in 2023, Rock processing solutions , accounting for 9 percent, and Manufacturing and machining solutions , accounting for 39 percent. The mining and rock solutions business area provides vehicles for loading and hauling minerals, equipment for drilling, cutting and other rock excavation tasks, as well as supporting services and infrastructure like digital monitoring and automation systems. Sandvik

6392-594: The process is likely derived from accounts of other Europeans who had traveled to Japan. Wagner believes that the Japanese process may have been similar to the Bessemer process, but cautions that alternative explanations are also plausible. In the early to mid-1850s, the American inventor William Kelly experimented with a method similar to the Bessemer process. Wagner writes that Kelly may have been inspired by techniques introduced by Chinese ironworkers hired by Kelly in 1854. The claim that both Kelly and Bessemer invented

6486-617: The product range since 1902, and in 1980, a conveyor-belt-based system called Rotoform for granulation of liquid chemicals was developed. In 1980, profits began to fall, and over the following years, there were personnel reductions, restructuring efforts and divestments. Still, in 1983, the company recorded its first loss in 62 years. In 1984, the organization was made more decentralized. In 1989, Sandvik began investing in Eastern Europe . In 1994, production at industrial scale of diamond-coated carbide cutting inserts began. In 1996,

6580-541: The required technology. In the same year, the Sandvik Coromant brand was registered for cemented carbide products, and the company started working on tools for metal cutting and rock drilling. Metal cutting tools were successfully produced beginning in 1943, but it took several more years to develop sufficiently durable rock drilling tools. Bessemer steel production was discontinued in Sandviken in 1947. In

6674-470: The running properties of the belt. The weft represents the whole set of transversal cables allowing to the belt specific resistance against cuts, tears and impacts and at the same time high flexibility. The most common carcass materials are steel , polyester , nylon , cotton and aramid (class of heat-resistant and strong synthetic fibers, with Twaron or Kevlar as brand names). The covers are usually various rubber or plastic compounds specified by use of

6768-409: The same process remains controversial. When Bessemer's patent for the process was reported by Scientific American , Kelly responded by writing a letter to the magazine. In the letter, Kelly states that he had previously experimented with the process and claimed that Bessemer knew of Kelly's discovery. He wrote that "I have reason to believe my discovery was known in England three or four years ago, as

6862-401: The same year, the company became the exclusive supplier of cemented carbide rock drill steels to Atlas Diesel (later known as Atlas Copco ). In the 1950s, the company expanded its cemented carbide production capacity by building factories in new locations. A workshop that was opened in the small town of Gimo in 1951 gradually expanded into a major production facility, and in 1953, a factory

6956-588: The scale and speed of production of this vital raw material. The process also decreased the labor requirements for steel-making. Before it was introduced, steel was far too expensive to make bridges or the framework for buildings and thus wrought iron had been used throughout the Industrial Revolution . After the introduction of the Bessemer process, steel and wrought iron became similarly priced, and some users, primarily railroads, turned to steel. Quality problems, such as brittleness caused by nitrogen in

7050-461: The standard belt conveyor construction is the sandwich belt conveyor. The sandwich belt conveyor uses two conveyor belts, instead of one. These two conventional conveyor belts are positioned face to face, to firmly contain the items being carried in a "sandwich-like" hold. Belt conveyors can be used to transport products in a straight line or through changes in elevation or direction. For conveying bulk materials, over gentle slopes or gentle curvatures,

7144-552: The styles of the artists Michelangelo , Auguste Rodin , Käthe Kollwitz , Kōtarō Takamura and Augusta Savage . The statue is made of stainless steel , weighs 500 kg, is 1.5 meters tall and is manufactured to a precision of 0.03 mm. It was exhibited at the Swedish National Museum of Science and Technology . Bessemer process The Bessemer process was the first inexpensive industrial process for

7238-470: The terrain. Dedicated vehicles were designed for the maintenance of the conveyor, which is always at a minimum height of 5 metres (16 ft) above the ground to avoid being flooded during monsoon periods. Conveyors used in industrial settings include tripping mechanisms such as trip cords along the length of the conveyor. This allows for workers to immediately shut down the conveyor when a problem arises. Warning alarms are included to notify employees that

7332-477: The time, steel was used to make only small items like cutlery and tools, but was too expensive for cannons. Starting in January 1855, he began working on a way to produce steel in the massive quantities required for artillery and by October he filed his first patent related to the Bessemer process. He patented the method a year later in 1856. William Kelley was awarded priority patent in 1857. Bessemer licensed

7426-621: Was Andrew Carnegie , who saw great promise in the new steel technology after a visit to Bessemer in 1872, and saw it as a useful adjunct to his existing businesses, the Keystone Bridge Company and the Union Iron Works. Holley built the new steel mill for Carnegie, and continued to improve and refine the process. The new mill, known as the Edgar Thomson Steel Works , opened in 1875, and started

7520-547: Was burnt for each ton of steel produced. Such steel when rolled into bars was sold at £50 to £60 (approximately £3,390 to £4,070 in 2008) a long ton . The most difficult and work-intensive part of the process, however, was the production of wrought iron done in finery forges in Sweden. This process was refined in the 18th century with the introduction of Benjamin Huntsman 's crucible steel -making techniques, which added an additional three hours firing time and required additional large quantities of coke. In making crucible steel,

7614-417: Was far too small for the industrial-scale production needed. In 1862 Göransson built a new factory for his Högbo Iron and Steel Works company on the shore of Lake Storsjön, where the town of Sandviken was founded. The company was renamed Sandviken's Ironworks, continued to grow and eventually became Sandvik in the 1970s. Alexander Lyman Holley contributed significantly to the success of Bessemer steel in

7708-461: Was first described by the prolific scholar and polymath government official Shen Kuo (1031–1095) in 1075, when he visited Cizhou. Hartwell states that perhaps the earliest center where this was practiced was the great iron-production district along the Henan – Hebei border during the 11th century. In the 15th century, the finery process , another process which shares the air-blowing principle with

7802-617: Was first used by the company at the Centennial International Exhibition of 1876 in Philadelphia . The following year, sales to the United States began. In 1889, the company became the first Swedish manufacturer of seamless rolled tubes , and over the following decade, it made substantial investments in methodology development and production facilities for seamless tubes. Sandvikens Jernverk

7896-519: Was focused on tungsten production, from mining to cemented-carbide powder. In 2017, Sandvik divested its Process Systems and Mining Systems operations, both of which were related to conveyor technology. In 2022, Sandvik bought the Australian mine planning software provider Deswik . In August 2022, the business area Sandvik materials technology , which included tubes, strip steel , medical wires and Kanthal-brand heating technology products,

7990-482: Was inexpensive. Use of electric arc furnace technology competed favourably with the Bessemer process resulting in its obsolescence. Basic oxygen steelmaking is essentially an improved version of the Bessemer process (decarburization by blowing oxygen as gas into the heat rather than burning the excess carbon away by adding oxygen carrying substances into the heat). The advantages of pure oxygen blast over air blast were known to Henry Bessemer, but 19th-century technology

8084-414: Was inspired by a conversation with Napoleon III in 1854 pertaining to the steel required for better artillery. Bessemer claimed that it "was the spark which kindled one of the greatest revolutions that the present century had to record, for during my solitary ride in a cab that night from Vincennes to Paris, I made up my mind to try what I could to improve the quality of iron in the manufacture of guns." At

8178-407: Was installed by Siemens and commissioned in 2008, and has a combination of traditional belt conveyors and tray conveyors. Boddington Bauxite Mine in Western Australia is officially recognized as having the world's longest single flight conveyor. Single flight means the load is not transferred, it is a single continuous system for the entire length. This conveyor is a cable belt conveyor system with

8272-653: Was listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange in 1901. In 1907, production of hollow rock drill steels began, and by the 1920s, the company was considered internationally leading in that product area. In 1914, the company established its first sales subsidiary outside of Sweden, in Birmingham , UK. Further foreign subsidiaries were opened 1919 in the United States, 1923 in France, and 1926 in Canada . In

8366-449: Was made by the reverse process of adding carbon to carbon-free wrought iron , usually imported from Sweden . The manufacturing process, called the cementation process , consisted of heating bars of wrought iron together with charcoal for periods of up to a week in a long stone box. This produced blister steel . The blister steel was put in a crucible with wrought iron and melted, producing crucible steel . Up to 3 tons of expensive coke

8460-416: Was not advanced enough to allow for the production of the large quantities of pure oxygen necessary to make it economical. Conveyor belt A conveyor belt is the carrying medium of a belt conveyor system (often shortened to belt conveyor). A belt conveyor system is one of many types of conveyor systems . A belt conveyor system consists of two or more pulleys (sometimes referred to as drums), with

8554-565: Was observed by European travellers in the 17th century. The adventurer Johan Albrecht de Mandelslo describes the process in a book published in English in 1669. He writes, "They have, among others, particular invention for the melting of iron, without the using of fire, casting it into a tun done about on the inside without about half a foot of earth, where they keep it with continual blowing, take it out by ladles full, to give it what form they please." According to historian Donald Wagner, Mandelslo did not personally visit Japan, so his description of

8648-516: Was opened in the Västberga district of Stockholm . By then, rock drills had emerged as the most important cemented carbide product area for the company. In 1967, Sandvikens Jernverk had 40 subsidiaries and sales in 100 countries. The company changed its name to Sandvik AB in 1972. In 1979, Sandvik acquired the British company Osprey . Steel conveyor belts of various types had been part of

8742-418: Was so fast (10–20 minutes for a heat) that it allowed little time for chemical analysis or adjustment of the alloying elements in the steel. Bessemer converters did not remove phosphorus efficiently from the molten steel; as low-phosphorus ores became more expensive, conversion costs increased. The process permitted only limited amount of scrap steel to be charged, further increasing costs, especially when scrap

8836-495: Was spun off as a separate company, publicly listed at Nasdaq Stockholm. The new company was named Alleima , and its shares were distributed to the shareholders of Sandvik. In August 2023, Sandvik announced it had acquired the Cambridge, Ontario -headquartered software development company, Postability. In September 2023, Sandvik adopted a revised visual identity, with a new logotype that contains different graphical elements than

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