Misplaced Pages

#14985

83-563: Stelco Holdings Inc. (known as U.S. Steel Canada from 2007 to 2016) is a Canadian steel company based in Hamilton, Ontario . Stelco was founded in 1910 by the amalgamation of several smaller firms. It continued on for almost 100 years until it filed for bankruptcy in 2007 and was bought by U.S. Steel . In 2016, the company was sold to Bedrock Industries of the United States, which took the company public. The company made its debut on

166-561: A Canadian ore mine. Dofasco's Canadian management initially didn't want to be taken over. After Arcelor initially presented a hostile bid of $ 56 per share, ThyssenKrupp and Dofasco signalled their intentions to enter into a friendly merger . Under that plan, Dofasco would have retained its employee profit-sharing plan and placed in charge of all of ThyssenKrupp's North American operations. Arcelor raised its offer significantly, causing ThyssenKrupp to pull out, as further bidding would have downgraded its credit rating. Dofasco paid ThyssenKrupp

249-412: A BOS process is manufactured in one-twelfth the time. Today, electric arc furnaces (EAF) are a common method of reprocessing scrap metal to create new steel. They can also be used for converting pig iron to steel, but they use a lot of electrical energy (about 440 kWh per metric ton), and are thus generally only economical when there is a plentiful supply of cheap electricity. The steel industry

332-406: A breakup fee of $ 215 million. Dofasco's board recommended the latest Arcelor offer of $ 71 per share in cash, worth an estimated $ 5.5 billion. While the breakup fee was criticized by some as excessive, most analysts otherwise praised President and CEO Donald A. Pether and the board of directors for their successful handling of the bidding situation. Arcelor was itself three months later taken over by

415-531: A brittle alloy commonly called pig iron . Alloy steel is steel to which other alloying elements have been intentionally added to modify the characteristics of steel. Common alloying elements include: manganese , nickel , chromium , molybdenum , boron , titanium , vanadium , tungsten , cobalt , and niobium . Additional elements, most frequently considered undesirable, are also important in steel: phosphorus , sulphur , silicon , and traces of oxygen , nitrogen , and copper . Plain carbon-iron alloys with

498-713: A carbon-intermediate steel by the 1st century AD. There is evidence that carbon steel was made in Western Tanzania by the ancestors of the Haya people as early as 2,000 years ago by a complex process of "pre-heating" allowing temperatures inside a furnace to reach 1300 to 1400 °C. Evidence of the earliest production of high carbon steel in South Asia is found in Kodumanal in Tamil Nadu ,

581-444: A change of volume. In this case, expansion occurs. Internal stresses from this expansion generally take the form of compression on the crystals of martensite and tension on the remaining ferrite, with a fair amount of shear on both constituents. If quenching is done improperly, the internal stresses can cause a part to shatter as it cools. At the very least, they cause internal work hardening and other microscopic imperfections. It

664-597: A defined contribution pension plan for many of its employees. While several unsuccessful attempts have been made to organize by the United Steelworkers of America , union negotiations at Stelco may have influenced wages and benefits at Dofasco. In 2007, Dofasco was named one of Canada's Top 100 Employers , as published in Maclean's magazine, the only steelmaker to receive this honour. The most recent win came in 2020. Since 1937, Dofasco has annually held

747-428: A ferrite BCC crystal form, but at higher carbon content it takes a body-centred tetragonal (BCT) structure. There is no thermal activation energy for the transformation from austenite to martensite. There is no compositional change so the atoms generally retain their same neighbours. Martensite has a lower density (it expands during the cooling) than does austenite, so that the transformation between them results in

830-583: A hard oxide forms on the metal surface; this is known as stainless steel . Tungsten slows the formation of cementite , keeping carbon in the iron matrix and allowing martensite to preferentially form at slower quench rates, resulting in high-speed steel . The addition of lead and sulphur decrease grain size, thereby making the steel easier to turn , but also more brittle and prone to corrosion. Such alloys are nevertheless frequently used for components such as nuts, bolts, and washers in applications where toughness and corrosion resistance are not paramount. For

913-445: A hard but brittle martensitic structure. The steel is then tempered, which is just a specialized type of annealing, to reduce brittleness. In this application the annealing (tempering) process transforms some of the martensite into cementite, or spheroidite and hence it reduces the internal stresses and defects. The result is a more ductile and fracture-resistant steel. When iron is smelted from its ore, it contains more carbon than

SECTION 10

#1732779853015

996-434: A higher than 2.1% carbon content are known as cast iron . With modern steelmaking techniques such as powder metal forming, it is possible to make very high-carbon (and other alloy material) steels, but such are not common. Cast iron is not malleable even when hot, but it can be formed by casting as it has a lower melting point than steel and good castability properties. Certain compositions of cast iron, while retaining

1079-491: A large Christmas party, typically featuring 30,000 guests and a 30-foot (9 m) tree. During the early years, the party was held in one of the large mill buildings on Gage Ave . From 1993 to 2009, the party was held at Copps Coliseum . In 2010, the company moved the party to the company-owned recreation park. Steelmaking in Canada has long been associated with pollution. For example, in 1989, Dofasco and Stelco were listed among

1162-412: A narrow range of concentrations of mixtures of carbon and iron that make steel, several different metallurgical structures, with very different properties can form. Understanding such properties is essential to making quality steel. At room temperature , the most stable form of pure iron is the body-centred cubic (BCC) structure called alpha iron or α-iron. It is a fairly soft metal that can dissolve only

1245-534: A small concentration of carbon, no more than 0.005% at 0 °C (32 °F) and 0.021 wt% at 723 °C (1,333 °F). The inclusion of carbon in alpha iron is called ferrite . At 910 °C, pure iron transforms into a face-centred cubic (FCC) structure, called gamma iron or γ-iron. The inclusion of carbon in gamma iron is called austenite. The more open FCC structure of austenite can dissolve considerably more carbon, as much as 2.1%, (38 times that of ferrite) carbon at 1,148 °C (2,098 °F), which reflects

1328-453: A steel's final rolling, it is heat treated for strength; however, this is relatively rare. Steel was known in antiquity and was produced in bloomeries and crucibles . The earliest known production of steel is seen in pieces of ironware excavated from an archaeological site in Anatolia ( Kaman-Kalehöyük ) which are nearly 4,000 years old, dating from 1800 BC. Wootz steel

1411-477: A subsequent step. Other materials are often added to the iron/carbon mixture to produce steel with the desired properties. Nickel and manganese in steel add to its tensile strength and make the austenite form of the iron-carbon solution more stable, chromium increases hardness and melting temperature, and vanadium also increases hardness while making it less prone to metal fatigue . To inhibit corrosion, at least 11% chromium can be added to steel so that

1494-672: Is continuously cast into long slabs, cut and shaped into bars and extrusions and heat treated to produce a final product. Today, approximately 96% of steel is continuously cast, while only 4% is produced as ingots. The ingots are then heated in a soaking pit and hot rolled into slabs, billets , or blooms . Slabs are hot or cold rolled into sheet metal or plates. Billets are hot or cold rolled into bars, rods, and wire. Blooms are hot or cold rolled into structural steel , such as I-beams and rails . In modern steel mills these processes often occur in one assembly line , with ore coming in and finished steel products coming out. Sometimes after

1577-636: Is also very reusable: it is one of the world's most-recycled materials, with a recycling rate of over 60% globally . The noun steel originates from the Proto-Germanic adjective * * stahliją or * * stakhlijan 'made of steel', which is related to * * stahlaz or * * stahliją 'standing firm'. The carbon content of steel is between 0.02% and 2.14% by weight for plain carbon steel ( iron - carbon alloys ). Too little carbon content leaves (pure) iron quite soft, ductile, and weak. Carbon contents higher than those of steel make

1660-416: Is always the main element in steel, but many other elements may be present or added. Stainless steels , which are resistant to corrosion and oxidation , typically need an additional 11% chromium . Iron is the base metal of steel. Depending on the temperature, it can take two crystalline forms (allotropic forms): body-centred cubic and face-centred cubic . The interaction of the allotropes of iron with

1743-403: Is common for quench cracks to form when steel is water quenched, although they may not always be visible. There are many types of heat treating processes available to steel. The most common are annealing , quenching , and tempering . Annealing is the process of heating the steel to a sufficiently high temperature to relieve local internal stresses. It does not create a general softening of

SECTION 20

#1732779853015

1826-403: Is desirable. To become steel, it must be reprocessed to reduce the carbon to the correct amount, at which point other elements can be added. In the past, steel facilities would cast the raw steel product into ingots which would be stored until use in further refinement processes that resulted in the finished product. In modern facilities, the initial product is close to the final composition and

1909-405: Is extracted from iron ore by removing the oxygen through its combination with a preferred chemical partner such as carbon which is then lost to the atmosphere as carbon dioxide. This process, known as smelting , was first applied to metals with lower melting points, such as tin , which melts at about 250 °C (482 °F), and copper , which melts at about 1,100 °C (2,010 °F), and

1992-408: Is heat treated to contain both a ferritic and martensitic microstructure to produce a formable, high strength steel. Transformation Induced Plasticity (TRIP) steel involves special alloying and heat treatments to stabilize amounts of austenite at room temperature in normally austenite-free low-alloy ferritic steels. By applying strain, the austenite undergoes a phase transition to martensite without

2075-691: Is often considered an indicator of economic progress, because of the critical role played by steel in infrastructural and overall economic development . In 1980, there were more than 500,000 U.S. steelworkers. By 2000, the number of steelworkers had fallen to 224,000. The economic boom in China and India caused a massive increase in the demand for steel. Between 2000 and 2005, world steel demand increased by 6%. Since 2000, several Indian and Chinese steel firms have expanded to meet demand, such as Tata Steel (which bought Corus Group in 2007), Baosteel Group and Shagang Group . As of 2017 , though, ArcelorMittal

2158-488: Is one of the world's most-recycled materials, with a recycling rate of over 60% globally; in the United States alone, over 82,000,000 metric tons (81,000,000 long tons; 90,000,000 short tons) were recycled in the year 2008, for an overall recycling rate of 83%. As more steel is produced than is scrapped, the amount of recycled raw materials is about 40% of the total of steel produced - in 2016, 1,628,000,000 tonnes (1.602 × 10 long tons; 1.795 × 10 short tons) of crude steel

2241-418: Is steel. Our strength is people."—to create what Marketing Magazine has called "one of the most clearly defined corporate images in the country." The slogan was created by Hamilton-based Kelly Advertising, which has been the company's advertising agency since 1927. The slogan can also be seen as recognizing the importance of its workforce, as the company says it has a good relationship with its employees. For

2324-547: Is the world's largest steel producer . In 2005, the British Geological Survey stated China was the top steel producer with about one-third of the world share; Japan , Russia , and the United States were second, third, and fourth, respectively, according to the survey. The large production capacity of steel results also in a significant amount of carbon dioxide emissions inherent related to

2407-655: The Golconda area in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka , regions of India , as well as in Samanalawewa and Dehigaha Alakanda, regions of Sri Lanka . This came to be known as wootz steel , produced in South India by about the sixth century BC and exported globally. The steel technology existed prior to 326 BC in the region as they are mentioned in literature of Sangam Tamil , Arabic, and Latin as

2490-618: The Great Depression of the 1930s. Dofasco has won awards for being the "most sustainable manufacturing company" in North America . In January 2006, Luxembourg -based Arcelor, then the world's second-largest steel producer by volume, outbid rival German steel producer, ThyssenKrupp AG , to purchase Dofasco. Analysts cited the strengths of Dofasco, including its non-unionized workforce, strong automotive customer base, unique thin, high-strength steel product, and ownership of

2573-597: The Toronto Stock Exchange on Nov. 3, 2017. The Hamilton plant has not produced steel since 2011, but its coke ovens and cold rolling finishing works remain in operation. The company employs about 750 people in the Hamilton plant and 1,400 in Nanticoke, Ontario at its greenfield facility Stelco Lake Erie Works . The Steel Company of Canada was established in 1910. It was founded after the merging of

Stelco - Misplaced Pages Continue

2656-465: The Toronto Stock Exchange . In an effort to streamline operations, U.S. Steel announced on March 3, 2009, that it would be temporarily shutting down its Hamilton plant and most of its Lake Erie plant, putting more than 2,000 people out of work. This announcement came four months after U.S. Steel laid off 700 employees at the Hamilton plant when it shut down its blast furnace. Market conditions and declining customer orders prompted U.S. Steel to shut down

2739-599: The cementation process was described in a treatise published in Prague in 1574 and was in use in Nuremberg from 1601. A similar process for case hardening armour and files was described in a book published in Naples in 1589. The process was introduced to England in about 1614 and used to produce such steel by Sir Basil Brooke at Coalbrookdale during the 1610s. The raw material for this process were bars of iron. During

2822-419: The hardness , quenching behaviour , need for annealing , tempering behaviour , yield strength , and tensile strength of the resulting steel. The increase in steel's strength compared to pure iron is possible only by reducing iron's ductility. Steel was produced in bloomery furnaces for thousands of years, but its large-scale, industrial use began only after more efficient production methods were devised in

2905-482: The "dirty dozen" polluters in Ontario: "For many years Steeltown's two giants pumped liquid discharges that contained cyanide , phosphorus , ammonia , solvents and phenols straight into Hamilton Harbour .... But both firms have been cleaning up to meet the terms of a pollution control order imposed on them by Queen's Park [and] the harbour is getting cleaner and supports 58 known species of fish." In 2014,

2988-445: The 17th century, it was realized that the best steel came from oregrounds iron of a region north of Stockholm , Sweden. This was still the usual raw material source in the 19th century, almost as long as the process was used. Crucible steel is steel that has been melted in a crucible rather than having been forged , with the result that it is more homogeneous. Most previous furnaces could not reach high enough temperatures to melt

3071-475: The 17th century, the first step in European steel production has been the smelting of iron ore into pig iron in a blast furnace . Originally employing charcoal, modern methods use coke , which has proven more economical. In these processes, pig iron made from raw iron ore was refined (fined) in a finery forge to produce bar iron , which was then used in steel-making. The production of steel by

3154-626: The 17th century, with the introduction of the blast furnace and production of crucible steel . This was followed by the Bessemer process in England in the mid-19th century, and then by the open-hearth furnace . With the invention of the Bessemer process, a new era of mass-produced steel began. Mild steel replaced wrought iron . The German states were the major steel producers in Europe in

3237-481: The 19th century. American steel production was centred in Pittsburgh , Bethlehem, Pennsylvania , and Cleveland until the late 20th century. Currently, world steel production is centered in China, which produced 54% of the world's steel in 2023. Further refinements in the process, such as basic oxygen steelmaking (BOS), largely replaced earlier methods by further lowering the cost of production and increasing

3320-608: The Arabs from Persia, who took it from India. It was originally created from several different materials including various trace elements , apparently ultimately from the writings of Zosimos of Panopolis . In 327 BC, Alexander the Great was rewarded by the defeated King Porus , not with gold or silver but with 30 pounds of steel. A recent study has speculated that carbon nanotubes were included in its structure, which might explain some of its legendary qualities, though, given

3403-709: The Hamilton Steel and Iron Company (1900) with the Canada Screw Company (1866), Montreal Rolling Mills (1868), the Dominion Wire Manufacturing Company (1883) and the Canada Bolt and Nut Company. Charles S. Wilcox, president of the Hamilton Steel and Iron Company at the time of the consolidation, was appointed the first president of Stelco. He held the position until 1916, continuing on with the company as chairman of

Stelco - Misplaced Pages Continue

3486-701: The Hamilton Works on October 1, 2010. 100 jobs were restored when the German Max Aicher steel company bought two steel mills from US Steel and opened them as "Max Aicher North America." More jobs are expected to be created when the mills are in full production. The Hamilton steel-making and iron-making operations were permanently closed on December 31, 2013. On September 16, 2014, U.S. Steel Canada announced that it would apply for court protection from its creditors. US Steel then stated that it intended to sell all of its remaining operations in Hamilton in

3569-470: The Linz-Donawitz process of basic oxygen steelmaking (BOS), developed in 1952, and other oxygen steel making methods. Basic oxygen steelmaking is superior to previous steelmaking methods because the oxygen pumped into the furnace limited impurities, primarily nitrogen, that previously had entered from the air used, and because, with respect to the open hearth process, the same quantity of steel from

3652-672: The Stelco's archives are held at Library and Archives Canada , Brock University , and the Canadian Centre for Architecture . In January 2021 Stelco added pig iron production capability to its Lake Erie blast furnace. Stelco purchased a minority stake in the Hamilton Tiger-Cats professional football team in January 2022. In July 2024, it was publicly announced that Cleveland-Cliffs , an American steel manufacturer,

3735-565: The addition of heat. Twinning Induced Plasticity (TWIP) steel uses a specific type of strain to increase the effectiveness of work hardening on the alloy. Dofasco Clifton and Frank A. Sherman founded Dominion Foundries and Steel in 1912, creating a giant that would bring prosperity and identity to the city of Hamilton, Ontario . Dofasco was incorporated as Dominion Steel Castings Company Limited in 1912, becoming Dominion Foundries and Steel Company in 1917. Sherman Mine opened in 1968 and closed in 1990. Its longtime nickname, "Dofasco,"

3818-401: The alloying elements, primarily carbon, gives steel and cast iron their range of unique properties. In pure iron, the crystal structure has relatively little resistance to the iron atoms slipping past one another, and so pure iron is quite ductile , or soft and easily formed. In steel, small amounts of carbon, other elements, and inclusions within the iron act as hardening agents that prevent

3901-436: The austenite grain boundaries until the percentage of carbon in the grains has decreased to the eutectoid composition (0.8% carbon), at which point the pearlite structure forms. For steels that have less than 0.8% carbon (hypoeutectoid), ferrite will first form within the grains until the remaining composition rises to 0.8% of carbon, at which point the pearlite structure will form. No large inclusions of cementite will form at

3984-471: The austenite is for it to precipitate out of solution as cementite , leaving behind a surrounding phase of BCC iron called ferrite with a small percentage of carbon in solution. The two, cementite and ferrite, precipitate simultaneously producing a layered structure called pearlite , named for its resemblance to mother of pearl . In a hypereutectoid composition (greater than 0.8% carbon), the carbon will first precipitate out as large inclusions of cementite at

4067-615: The board until his death in 1938. Several union drives at the plant were unsuccessful until the founding strike of Local 1005 of the United Steelworkers of America in 1946. In 2004, Stelco had financial difficulties and went under court-ordered protection from its creditors, including the Deutsche Bank . Stelco exited Companies' Creditors Arrangements Act (CCAA) protection on March 31, 2006. Several non-core operations were divested, including Stelwire, Norambar (formerly Stelco McMaster Works) and Welland Pipe. The CCAA exit has seen

4150-494: The boundaries in hypoeutectoid steel. The above assumes that the cooling process is very slow, allowing enough time for the carbon to migrate. As the rate of cooling is increased the carbon will have less time to migrate to form carbide at the grain boundaries but will have increasingly large amounts of pearlite of a finer and finer structure within the grains; hence the carbide is more widely dispersed and acts to prevent slip of defects within those grains, resulting in hardening of

4233-455: The combination, bronze, which has a melting point lower than 1,083 °C (1,981 °F). In comparison, cast iron melts at about 1,375 °C (2,507 °F). Small quantities of iron were smelted in ancient times, in the solid-state, by heating the ore in a charcoal fire and then welding the clumps together with a hammer and in the process squeezing out the impurities. With care, the carbon content could be controlled by moving it around in

SECTION 50

#1732779853015

4316-475: The company are: Steel Steel is an alloy of iron and carbon with improved strength and fracture resistance compared to other forms of iron. Because of its high tensile strength and low cost, steel is one of the most commonly manufactured materials in the world. Steel is used in buildings, as concrete reinforcing rods, in bridges, infrastructure, tools, ships, trains, cars, bicycles, machines, electrical appliances, furniture, and weapons. Iron

4399-408: The company pleaded guilty to violating air quality standards in 2012 and paid violation and victim surcharge fines of approximately half a million dollars. In 2015, there was an accidental release of a large plume of iron oxide dust at the plant due to an instrument failure and Dofasco has been working to address air pollution Since 1970, the company has used the same corporate slogan—"Our product

4482-558: The company. In 1990, the world economy entered into recession. Dofasco lost $ 900 million in three years from 1991, in addition to the write-off of $ 700 million when it sold Algoma. Dofasco was the owner of the Adams and Sherman iron ore mines in Northeastern Ontario until 1990 when Dofasco announced that they would be closing the mines. During the recession of the early 1990s, Dofasco made its first permanent layoffs since

4565-452: The economies of melting and casting, can be heat treated after casting to make malleable iron or ductile iron objects. Steel is distinguishable from wrought iron (now largely obsolete), which may contain a small amount of carbon but large amounts of slag . Iron is commonly found in the Earth's crust in the form of an ore , usually an iron oxide, such as magnetite or hematite . Iron

4648-648: The finest steel in the world exported to the Roman, Egyptian, Chinese and Arab worlds at that time – what they called Seric Iron . A 200 BC Tamil trade guild in Tissamaharama , in the South East of Sri Lanka, brought with them some of the oldest iron and steel artifacts and production processes to the island from the classical period . The Chinese and locals in Anuradhapura , Sri Lanka had also adopted

4731-579: The fire. Unlike copper and tin, liquid or solid iron dissolves carbon quite readily. All of these temperatures could be reached with ancient methods used since the Bronze Age . Since the oxidation rate of iron increases rapidly beyond 800 °C (1,470 °F), it is important that smelting take place in a low-oxygen environment. Smelting, using carbon to reduce iron oxides, results in an alloy ( pig iron ) that retains too much carbon to be called steel. The excess carbon and other impurities are removed in

4814-513: The form of charcoal) in a crucible, was produced in Merv by the 9th to 10th century AD. In the 11th century, there is evidence of the production of steel in Song China using two techniques: a "berganesque" method that produced inferior, inhomogeneous steel, and a precursor to the modern Bessemer process that used partial decarburization via repeated forging under a cold blast . Since

4897-599: The hardenability of thick sections. High strength low alloy steel has small additions (usually < 2% by weight) of other elements, typically 1.5% manganese, to provide additional strength for a modest price increase. Recent corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) regulations have given rise to a new variety of steel known as Advanced High Strength Steel (AHSS). This material is both strong and ductile so that vehicle structures can maintain their current safety levels while using less material. There are several commercially available grades of AHSS, such as dual-phase steel , which

4980-627: The main Hilton Works in Hamilton, named after the late company president Hugh Hilton, and the Lake Erie Works in Nanticoke on Lake Erie . Until the 2006 restructuring, Stelco's operations also included Stelco McMaster Works in Contrecœur, Quebec and Stelwire (both acquired by ArcelorMittal in 2006 and now operates as ArcelorMittal Long Products Canada - Hamilton-East Complex and Mittal Canada Contrecoeur-Ouest Inc.). The Nanticoke plant

5063-439: The main production route. At the end of 2008, the steel industry faced a sharp downturn that led to many cut-backs. In 2021, it was estimated that around 7% of the global greenhouse gas emissions resulted from the steel industry. Reduction of these emissions are expected to come from a shift in the main production route using cokes, more recycling of steel and the application of carbon capture and storage technology. Steel

SECTION 60

#1732779853015

5146-450: The most part, however, p-block elements such as sulphur, nitrogen , phosphorus , and lead are considered contaminants that make steel more brittle and are therefore removed from steel during the melting processing. The density of steel varies based on the alloying constituents but usually ranges between 7,750 and 8,050 kg/m (484 and 503 lb/cu ft), or 7.75 and 8.05 g/cm (4.48 and 4.65 oz/cu in). Even in

5229-446: The movement of dislocations . The carbon in typical steel alloys may contribute up to 2.14% of its weight. Varying the amount of carbon and many other alloying elements, as well as controlling their chemical and physical makeup in the final steel (either as solute elements, or as precipitated phases), impedes the movement of the dislocations that make pure iron ductile, and thus controls and enhances its qualities. These qualities include

5312-406: The next two months. U.S. Steel Canada was severed from U.S. Steel Corporation in 2015 after it entered Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act protection in 2014. In November 2016, a deal was struck to sell U.S. Steel Canada to Bedrock Industries. On December 2, 2016, the company took the "Stelco" name again. In 2017, an initial public offering raised CA$ 200 million for the company. Portions of

5395-486: The oxygen pumped into the furnace limited impurities, primarily nitrogen, that previously had entered from the air used. Dofasco's head office in Hamilton was built in 1964 and was designed by Prack & Prack. Dofasco owned and operated a number of subsidiaries, including National Steel Car , a Hamilton-based railway freight car manufacturer, from 1962 to 1994, and Algoma Steel , from 1988 to 1991, until union and financial difficulties ultimately forced Dofasco to divest

5478-449: The product but only locally relieves strains and stresses locked up within the material. Annealing goes through three phases: recovery , recrystallization , and grain growth . The temperature required to anneal a particular steel depends on the type of annealing to be achieved and the alloying constituents. Quenching involves heating the steel to create the austenite phase then quenching it in water or oil . This rapid cooling results in

5561-759: The production methods of creating wootz steel from the Chera Dynasty Tamils of South India by the 5th century AD. In Sri Lanka, this early steel-making method employed a unique wind furnace, driven by the monsoon winds, capable of producing high-carbon steel. Since the technology was acquired from the Tamilians from South India, the origin of steel technology in India can be conservatively estimated at 400–500 BC. The manufacture of wootz steel and Damascus steel , famous for its durability and ability to hold an edge, may have been taken by

5644-426: The quality of the final product. Today more than 1.6 billion tons of steel is produced annually. Modern steel is generally identified by various grades defined by assorted standards organizations . The modern steel industry is one of the largest manufacturing industries in the world, but also one of the most energy and greenhouse gas emission intense industries, contributing 8% of global emissions. However, steel

5727-429: The remaining operations restructured into nine separate operating businesses held by the corporate entity of Stelco. On August 27, 2007, U.S. Steel purchased Stelco for $ 1.9 billion – $ 1.1 billion in cash and assuming $ 800 million in debt. The company was renamed Hamilton Works – US Steel Canada. The deal closed on October 31, 2007. The company was renamed U.S. Steel Canada Inc., and its shares were delisted from

5810-401: The steel. At the very high cooling rates produced by quenching, the carbon has no time to migrate but is locked within the face-centred austenite and forms martensite . Martensite is a highly strained and stressed, supersaturated form of carbon and iron and is exceedingly hard but brittle. Depending on the carbon content, the martensitic phase takes different forms. Below 0.2% carbon, it takes on

5893-561: The steel. The early modern crucible steel industry resulted from the invention of Benjamin Huntsman in the 1740s. Blister steel (made as above) was melted in a crucible or in a furnace, and cast (usually) into ingots. The modern era in steelmaking began with the introduction of Henry Bessemer 's process in 1855, the raw material for which was pig iron. His method let him produce steel in large quantities cheaply, thus mild steel came to be used for most purposes for which wrought iron

5976-424: The strikes and work stoppages which have plagued its cross-town rival. Some investors complained that the profits should have been distributed to shareholders as a special dividend rather than giving workers larger bonuses, which was a factor in the underperforming stock price despite strong results. As of January 1, 2013, Dofasco (now a standalone subsidiary) reduced the benefits for both drug and dental and changed to

6059-561: The technology of that time, such qualities were produced by chance rather than by design. Natural wind was used where the soil containing iron was heated by the use of wood. The ancient Sinhalese managed to extract a ton of steel for every 2 tons of soil, a remarkable feat at the time. One such furnace was found in Samanalawewa and archaeologists were able to produce steel as the ancients did. Crucible steel , formed by slowly heating and cooling pure iron and carbon (typically in

6142-525: The upper carbon content of steel, beyond which is cast iron. When carbon moves out of solution with iron, it forms a very hard, but brittle material called cementite (Fe 3 C). When steels with exactly 0.8% carbon (known as a eutectoid steel), are cooled, the austenitic phase (FCC) of the mixture attempts to revert to the ferrite phase (BCC). The carbon no longer fits within the FCC austenite structure, resulting in an excess of carbon. One way for carbon to leave

6225-477: The world's largest steel producer, Mittal . However, in an effort to prevent Dofasco from falling into ThyssenKrupp's hands, Arcelor management locked Dofasco into an independent trust based in the Netherlands. Dofasco is now part of the combined ArcelorMittal and has been integrated into their international operations. Unlike rival Stelco , Dofasco is not unionized. As a result, Dofasco has avoided many of

6308-467: Was acquiring Stelco for approximately US$ 2.5 billion. The purchase was completed four months later. Steelmaking in Canada has long been associated with pollution. For example, in 1989, Stelco and Dofasco were listed among the "dirty dozen" polluters in Ontario: "For many years Steeltown's two giants pumped liquid discharges that contained cyanide , phosphorus , ammonia , solvents and phenols straight into Hamilton Harbour . Stelco, in particular,

6391-434: Was adopted as its legal name in 1980. Frank H. Sherman (Frank A.'s son) introduced to Dofasco and North America in 1954 the method of steel production known as basic oxygen steelmaking (BOS), thus rendering former processes obsolete because, with respect to them, the same quantity of steel from a BOS process is manufactured in one-twelfth the time. Basic oxygen steelmaking is superior to previous steelmaking methods because

6474-718: Was developed in Southern India and Sri Lanka in the 1st millennium BCE. Metal production sites in Sri Lanka employed wind furnaces driven by the monsoon winds, capable of producing high-carbon steel. Large-scale wootz steel production in India using crucibles occurred by the sixth century BC, the pioneering precursor to modern steel production and metallurgy. High-carbon steel was produced in Britain at Broxmouth Hillfort from 490–375 BC, and ultrahigh-carbon steel

6557-509: Was formerly used. The Gilchrist-Thomas process (or basic Bessemer process ) was an improvement to the Bessemer process, made by lining the converter with a basic material to remove phosphorus. Another 19th-century steelmaking process was the Siemens-Martin process , which complemented the Bessemer process. It consisted of co-melting bar iron (or steel scrap) with pig iron. These methods of steel production were rendered obsolete by

6640-460: Was notable because it is of a relatively newer design, and uses far less water. Stelco Tower, now known as 100 King Street West and associated with Lloyd D. Jackson Square , is an office building in downtown Hamilton where the company's headquarters had been located since the 1970s, but has been completely vacated by Stelco. Stelco's current head office is co-located with their Hamilton Works location at 386 Wilcox Street in Hamilton. Presidents of

6723-438: Was produced globally, with 630,000,000 tonnes (620,000,000 long tons; 690,000,000 short tons) recycled. Modern steels are made with varying combinations of alloy metals to fulfil many purposes. Carbon steel , composed simply of iron and carbon, accounts for 90% of steel production. Low alloy steel is alloyed with other elements, usually molybdenum , manganese, chromium, or nickel, in amounts of up to 10% by weight to improve

6806-757: Was produced in the Netherlands from the 2nd-4th centuries AD. The Roman author Horace identifies steel weapons such as the falcata in the Iberian Peninsula , while Noric steel was used by the Roman military . The Chinese of the Warring States period (403–221 BC) had quench-hardened steel, while Chinese of the Han dynasty (202 BC—AD 220) created steel by melting together wrought iron with cast iron, thus producing

6889-413: Was still pumping more phenols and cyanide into the harbour than it was supposed to in early 1987. But both firms have been cleaning up to meet the terms of a pollution control order imposed on them by Queen's Park [and] the harbour is getting cleaner and supports 58 known species of fish." Since Stelco ceased steelmaking in 2011, it received less media attention regarding pollution. The company operates

#14985