STEEL & METALLURGY :: Abstract for February 2009 Issue

View of February' 2009 Issue
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CASTING CONTINUOUSLY WITH PASSION SINCE 1954
By our news bureau

ABSTRACT
The philosophy of Steelmaking has been continuously consolidated by Concast. Continuous casting of steel has been refined to a coveted dimension by CONCAST and what we see in continuous steel casting in different countries in the world are either engineered or assembled by the Concast Group to a considerable extent.
Founded in 1954 in Zurich by Irving Rossi, CONCAST Group became the leading supplier of continuous casting of steel and its success of the CC-Process is best demonstrated by the reduction of the different processes and steps. Consequently the company has developed a passion for processes, that enriched the steelmaking at a large.
The metallurgy of the steelmaking has been continuously redefined by the Group as it has been driving the solidification process of liquid steel which has been found favour with steelmakers worldwide.

High Speed Video Becomes Mainstream
By Nick Osborne, Imatek Ltd. -

ABSTRACT
High-rate testing applications benefit from integrating recorded signals with video imagery

Integrated high speed video capture can be extremely useful when testing complex materials and structures

Impact testing and in particular instrumented impact testing, has become widely used as a method of investigating the properties of materials and structures. As technology moves forward, so does the quality of the instrumentation, with gradual improvements in all areas: accuracy, dynamic range, bandwidth and sometimes cost. The quantities most commonly measured during an impact event are force and acceleration, and the technologies for doing so are relatively mature. Sample deflection is also an important value that often needs to be determined, but this is not so easily done at the high rates of deformation typically encountered.
High speed photography has historically been one method used to determine the behaviour of specimens under very high rates of deformation, but the high costs involved and the technical difficulty of getting good results has limited its uptake to a relatively small number of users.

Non-destructive Inspection Techniques for Pipeline Corrosion Monitoring- A Review
By Bharat Bhushan Jha, Institute of Minerals and Materials Technology, Bhubaneswar

ABSTRACT
High pressure steel pipeline have become strategically placed in our country as a means of energy transportation. At present, the country has over 10,000 kms of pipeline for transportation of petroleum products, investment cost being around 12,000 Cores in today’s pricing basis. Capable of handling enormous volumes of gas and oil products, these pipelines are a significant factor in our economy and there is a growing awareness to maintain the integrity of such a strategic asset during its operational life. This realization is reinforced by considering both the financial and the environmental consequences of failures.
The rate of deterioration of these pipelines will depend upon many factors including their method of construction, the product carried and the external environment. Even when these are amenable to analysis and calculation at the design stage, they are subjected to the vagaries of nature and to chance, once the pipeline is in the service and aggravated by the fact that even a single, isolated defect can cause a failure of the pipeline. Thus, however good the construction and subsequent care of a pipeline, there remains some concern about its deterioration even at some isolated location. This concern can only be addressed by reproving the integrity of the steel structure.
In general, pipeline operators adopt the maxim that “prevention is better than cure” and as a result impart various preventive measures to maintain the integrity of this important structure. These measures include extra wall thickness allowance at the designed stage , use of inhibitors and coatings to prevent or reduce the internal corrosion of pipelines, inspection of installed coupons and probes during shut down to know the true condition of pipeline etc. These preventive measures, though have limited success, are taken by most of the pipeline operators viz. IOC, OIL, GAIL, HPCL, ONGC and hence it will not be out of place to review them.

Roll Defect Management System
By Giovanni Bavestrelli, Pomini Tenova

ABSTRACT
Advances in software and hardware technology, as well as strict cooperation with customers, has made it possible for Pomini Tenova to design systems that move from automating operations to automating decisions with regard to roll disposition and repair in the roll shop, decisions that previously were left to skilled operators. This is a big step forward, as skilled operators are not always available, and an automatic system can improve the consistency of the results and therefore the quality of the end product. One such example is the Roll Defect Management System (RDMS), which was designed as a joint initiative by ArcelorMittal Dofasco and Pomini Tenova to turn the ArcelorMittal Dofasco patented Roll Defect Management Process (RDMP) into an automatic software system.

Selection of Mould Fluxes For Production of High Quality Steel Ingots
By B.V.R. RAJA, Alloy Steels Plant, SAIL, DURGAPUR

ABSTRACT
Ingot products account for 8.3% of the total crude steel produced in the world. It is produced either by top pouring or bottom pouring of the liquid in the moulds. The increasing demand for quality steels led to the evolution of bottom pouring technology for casting of steel ingots. This process constitutes of a set up involving pouring sprue and runner system to deliver liquid steel into the bottom of one or more cast iron moulds as shown in Fig.1.