How It Works - Steel Production — Transcript

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1. 0:01[Music]
2. 0:03steel dynamics is a leader in the mini
3. 0:06mill steelmaking industry with a focus
4. 0:09on value-added products with demanding
5. 0:11quality requirements and at the heart of
6. 0:14the mini mill process a more
7. 0:16environmentally friendly way of making
8. 0:18steel his scrap steel lots and lots of
9. 0:22scrap steel in fact about 75% of the
10. 0:25material SDI uses to make new prime
11. 0:28steel consists of scrap steel that is
12. 0:31often left to rust in junkyards or
13. 0:33litter the countryside SDI also owns
14. 0:37omni source a second largest scrap
15. 0:40recycling company in north america and
16. 0:42that's where our story begins at an omni
17. 0:45source facility in indianapolis omni
18. 0:50source collects and processes ferrous
19. 0:52scrap and non ferrous grout at more than
20. 0:5570 facilities around the country here at
21. 0:59one of omni sources five facilities in
22. 1:01indianapolis a gigantic shredder reduces
23. 1:04entire automobiles and other large
24. 1:06pieces of scrap into smaller sections
25. 1:08that will fit into the flat role
26. 1:11divisions electric arc furnaces after
27. 1:14the scrap is shredded giant magnets
28. 1:16separate the ferrous materials from the
29. 1:18non ferrous non ferrous scrap is
30. 1:22conveyed away for further sorting just
31. 1:25as in the mini mill steelmaking process
32. 1:27nothing goes to waste at a visual
33. 1:30inspection checkpoint employees remove
34. 1:33any non ferrous crap that's hung up with
35. 1:35the ferrous material
36. 1:40next the scrap is shipped to the flat
37. 1:43Lowell divisions mill at Butler in
38. 1:45northeast Indiana the mill campus
39. 1:49includes 15 miles of railroad track
40. 1:52capable of handling 700 rail cars at one
41. 1:55time for incoming scrap and outgoing
42. 1:58steel shipments the mill also receives
43. 2:01200 to 300 truckloads of scrap and other
44. 2:04raw materials every day it's a 24/7
45. 2:07operation that runs 365 days a year
46. 2:11330 tonnes scrap cranes and large front
47. 2:14loaders facilitate moving the scrap
48. 2:16around in and out of rail cars and
49. 2:18trucks and to the scrap Bay at the edge
50. 2:21of the milk shop where large magnets
51. 2:23lift up the scrap and place it into a
52. 2:25charging bucket scrap is loaded into the
53. 2:29charging bucket according to grade to
54. 2:31achieve the exact chemistry necessary
55. 2:33for our steel products each furnace heat
56. 2:38consists of 175 tons with at least 75%
57. 2:43of its ground and about 10 percent
58. 2:46liquid pig iron from iron dynamics a
59. 2:48division of SDI on the flat roll mill
60. 2:51campus SDI is also making iron rich
61. 2:55units with a pioneering process at
62. 2:57Mesabi nugget in Minnesota
63. 2:59both IDI and Mesabi use iron making
64. 3:02methods that are far more eco-friendly
65. 3:04than
66. 3:05additional blast furnaces mini males use
67. 3:08electric arc furnaces or IAF's which
68. 3:12required much less in the way of Natural
69. 3:14Resources versus traditional blast
70. 3:16furnaces for every tonne of Steel
71. 3:18produced by SDI we eliminate the need
72. 3:22for 2,500 pounds of iron or 1400 pounds
73. 3:26of coal and a hundred and twenty pounds
74. 3:29of limestone and we use significantly
75. 3:32less energy in the process the eaf
76. 3:35process also produces 67% less carbon
77. 3:39equivalent emissions in addition 95% of
78. 3:42our scrap comes from within 250 miles of
79. 3:46our plants the charging bucket is moved
80. 3:50to a position directly above one of the
81. 3:53mills to twin shale IAF's
82. 3:55the scrap is then released into the
83. 3:57furnace creating some real fireworks the
84. 4:01reason for the explosion is that a
85. 4:03portion about 40 tons of each heat of
86. 4:06molten steel is left in the furnace to
87. 4:08keep it hot for the next heat saving
88. 4:11time and money
89. 4:12once the scrap and pig-iron are loaded
90. 4:15the loof of the furnace is closed and
91. 4:17three large carbon electrodes are
92. 4:20lowered through an opening in the roof
93. 4:21then it's Showtime
94. 4:27and it's loud very very loud the rods
95. 4:31circulate our arc up to a hundred and
96. 4:34fifteen million watts of electricity to
97. 4:36melt the scrap at a temperature reaching
98. 4:39three thousand degrees Fahrenheit the
99. 4:41power is on for about 35 minutes to
100. 4:44complete the melting of each heat which
101. 4:46is a good reason why our monthly
102. 4:47electric bill is about seven to eight
103. 4:50million dollars once a heat is
104. 4:53completely melted the furnace is tipped
105. 4:55to pour off the slag a collection of
106. 4:58impurities that rises to the top of the
107. 5:00heat the molten steel is then tapped
108. 5:03through the bottom of the furnace and
109. 5:04into a ladle the steel then goes to the
110. 5:08ladle metallurgy furnace or lmf where a
111. 5:11variety of processes can be accomplished
112. 5:14including desulphurization and
113. 5:16deoxidation the temperature of the steel
114. 5:19can be adjusted with carbon electrodes
115. 5:21and the chemistry of the steel can be
116. 5:23changed by reducing some alloy elements
117. 5:26and the introduction of others from the
118. 5:29ladle metallurgy furnace the steel goes
119. 5:31to the thin slab caster x' on the caster
120. 5:35deck the turret rotates to exchange an
121. 5:38empty ladle with another ladle filled
122. 5:40with molten metal as it goes through the
123. 5:43casters the molten steel now about 2,800
124. 5:47degrees Fahrenheit is converted into a
125. 5:50continuous ribbon of steel approximately
126. 5:5260 millimeters thick and up to a hundred
127. 5:55and eighty feet
128. 5:56on these thin slabs can be rolled into
129. 5:59steel sheet much more quickly
130. 6:00efficiently and cost effectively than
131. 6:03the much thicker slabs produced a
132. 6:05traditional integrated steel mills
133. 6:08producing slabs up to 64 inches thick
134. 6:11the casters operate at maximum speed of
135. 6:14230 inches per minute and process 9,000
136. 6:18tons of steel in a 24 hour period going
137. 6:22through a 2,400 gallons per minute spray
138. 6:25of cooling water the slab is completely
139. 6:28solid in 24 seconds it has an exit
140. 6:31temperature of 2,100 degrees after being
141. 6:35sheared to length the slab goes through
142. 6:37one of two tunnel furnaces where the
143. 6:40steel is reheated to 2150 degrees before
144. 6:44going to the hot strip mill scale is
145. 6:48removed from the slab before it's rolled
146. 6:49with water jet spraying 4000 gallons per
147. 6:52minute at 3,500 pounds per square inch
148. 6:56slabs are reduced to meet customers
149. 6:59requirements on our seven stand hot
150. 7:01rolling mill seven 10,000 horsepower
151. 7:03motors drive the work rolls in the mill
152. 7:06stands and 4,000 tons of rolling force
153. 7:09per mill stand reduces the thickness of
154. 7:12the material to as little as one
155. 7:15or point zero for zero inches a new hot
156. 7:19band of Steel is automatically coiled on
157. 7:21average each coil weighs about 22 tons
158. 7:25or as much as 10 cars in the cold milk
159. 7:29complex coils are chemically cleaned
160. 7:32through the continuous pickle line
161. 7:34operating at 700 feet per minute the
162. 7:37pickle line has the capacity to process
163. 7:391.6 million tons of steel annually
164. 7:43pickled and oiled coils can be sold as
165. 7:46finished products galvanized on the hot
166. 7:49rolled galvanizing line and sold his
167. 7:51finished products or further processed
168. 7:53through the cold reversing mill hot band
169. 7:56is uncoiled on the reversing cold mill
170. 7:58where the gauge will be further reduced
171. 8:00to his light as eleven thousand seven
172. 8:03inch coils that have gone through the
173. 8:07reversing mill are usually galvanized or
174. 8:10annealed on one of our two galvanizing
175. 8:14lines at Butler an employee removes the
176. 8:16dross or impurities from the surface of
177. 8:19a zinc pot holding as much as 180 tons
178. 8:22of molten metal SDI's galvanizing lines
179. 8:26offer a variety of value-added services
180. 8:29such as inline temper passing tension
181. 8:32leveling chemical treatment acrylic
182. 8:35coating and oiling anneal coils go
183. 8:38through the temper mill and are sold or
184. 8:40painted on our coil coating lines here
185. 8:45we are on the banks of the Ohio River in
186. 8:47southern Indiana
187. 8:49Jeffersonville produces hot dipped
188. 8:51galvanized galvalume acrylic coated
189. 8:54galvan
190. 8:55and acrylic coated galvanized steel as
191. 8:58wide as 61 inches in fact SDI is the
192. 9:02only company in North America to make
193. 9:04galvalume and widths wider than 50
194. 9:06inches before being introduced into the
195. 9:09main pot containing galvalume coating an
196. 9:12aluminum zinc ingot is
197. 9:14melted in a pre melt pot that flows into
198. 9:16the main pond to maintain a more
199. 9:18consistent temperature here a coil of
200. 9:21galvalume is checked for surface defects
201. 9:26Jeffersonville is also home to one of
202. 9:28our two state-of-the-art coil coating
203. 9:31lines operated by the flat low division
204. 9:33the coil coating lines at Jeffersonville
205. 9:36and at Butler give the division a
206. 9:38capacity to paint approximately 500,000
207. 9:41tons of steel each year SDI's flat row
208. 9:45division is the only steel mill
209. 9:47operation in the United States that
210. 9:49paints its own steel the eight story
211. 9:53accumulator unwinds the coil allowing
212. 9:56faster continuous coating some coils of
213. 9:59thinner gauge steel would measure as
214. 10:01long as five miles have completely
215. 10:03unwound the coil coating line has three
216. 10:07coders one for primer and two for the
217. 10:10top and bottom finish coating making
218. 10:12quick color changes possible these lines
219. 10:14have the most state of the art equipment
220. 10:16in the industry including vision
221. 10:18technology producing the highest quality
222. 10:21pre painted coils available in the world
223. 10:24weather coils are coated at butler or at
224. 10:27Jeffersonville the highest standards of
225. 10:29quality are maintained through
226. 10:31continuous monitoring with leading edge
227. 10:33technology and equipment and
228. 10:35well-trained eyes we recently installed
229. 10:39equipment that allows coils to be placed
230. 10:41on pallets coils placed on pallets are
231. 10:44easier to handle for our customers who
232. 10:46depend on forklifts to move materials in
233. 10:49their facilities coated coils are staged
234. 10:52for shipment to our customers in a broad
235. 10:54range of industries who use our steel in
236. 10:57a wide variety of applications scrap
237. 11:00produced during processing at
238. 11:02Jeffersonville is loaded for shipment
239. 11:04back to the butler milk
240. 11:06you guessed it the scrap will be melted
241. 11:08and used begin to make new steel it's a
242. 11:11full circle