West Steel Ltd.

, Boisar

2009 2009
Amit Dubey Hatim Mithaseth
Steel, the maximum used metal in 21st Century, has a very complex procedure of manufacturing, and processing, which makes the steel what we know it like. Since all steel is not Stainless Steel, there arises the need of some kind of protection, which can prevent the corrosion, i.e. oxidation of steel when it comes in contact with Oxygen. That precisely is what is done at JSW Steel Limiteds Boisar Plant, extending the life of such necessary an alloy by many folds.

SBST, CEPT Uni. Kasturbhai Lalbhai Campus, Ahmedabad.

Page |2 The Boisar unit of JSW Steel Limited processes Hot Rolled Steel sheets, which includes Galvanizing and Colour Coating. This is the final processing of Rolled Sheets, preparing them as per the orders from different clients. The manufacturing is done at Bellary in Karnataka.

An Overview of Steel Manufacturing:

After Concrete the maximum produced manmade material on this planet is steel. Today, steel is incorporated in each and every aspect of our life weather we realize it or not. Steel is basically an alloy of Iron with Carbon in varying proportions ranging from 0.02% to 1.4%. Steel now-a-days is produced by the basic Oxygen Steel Making Process. The oxygen steelmaking process rapidly refines a charge of molten pig Iron and ambient scrap into steel of a desired carbon and temperature using high purity Oxygen. Steel is made in discrete batches called heats. The furnace or converter is a barrel shaped, open topped, refractory lined vessel that can rotate on a horizontal trunnion axis. The basic operational steps are shown in the figure A. The pig Iron used in the Oxygen Steel Furnaces is obtained from blast furnaces. The basic materials used for the manufacture of pig iron are iron ore, coke, and limestone. The coke is the reducing agent and is partly burnt as a fuel to heat the furnace; but to reduce consumption of this expensive commodity, additional fuels such as natural gas, fuel oil, and pulverized coal are added to the air blast injected near the bottom of the furnace. By doing this, coke consumption has been halved since the 1980s to an average 500 kg (1,100 lb) per tonne of metal produced. The air reacts with the carbon in the coke to produce carbon monoxide, which combines with the iron oxides in the ore, reducing them to metallic iron. This is the basic chemical reaction in the blast furnace; it has the equation Fe2O3 + 3CO = 3CO2 + 2Fe The limestone in the furnace charge acts as a flux to combine with the infusible silica present in the ore to form fusible calcium

Page |3 silicate slag. Without the limestone, iron silicate would be formed, with a resulting loss of metallic iron. Calcium silicate and other impurities form a slag that floats on top of the molten metal at the bottom of the furnace. Ordinary pig iron as produced by blast furnaces has the composition: iron, about 92 per cent; carbon, 3 to 4 per cent; silicon, 0.5 to 3 per cent; manganese, 0.25 to 2.5 per cent; phosphorus, 0.04 to 2 per cent; with a trace of sulphur. A typical blast furnace consists of a cylindrical steel shell lined with a refractory, which is any non-metallic substance such as firebrick. The shell is tapered at the top and at the bottom and is widest at a point about one quarter of the distance from the bottom. The lower portion of the furnace, called the bosh, is equipped with several tubular openings or tuyres through which the air blast is forced. Near the bottom of the bosh is a hole through which the molten pig iron flows when the furnace is tapped, and above this hole, but below the tuyres, is another hole for draining the slag. The top of the furnace, which is about 27 m (90 ft) in height, contains vents for the escaping gases, which are collected, de-dusted, and then blended with natural gas for use as a fuel within the plant. The blast furnace top is fitted with a charging device such as a pair of round hoppers closed with bell-shaped valves through which the charge is introduced into the furnace, or a movable chute that is continuously adjusted to direct the charge to the required spot in the top of the furnace. The materials are brought up to the top of the furnace by conveyor or in small dump cars or skips that are hauled up an inclined external skip hoist. Blast furnaces operate continuously. The raw material to be fed into the furnace is divided into a number of small charges that are introduced into the furnace at 10- to 15-minute intervals. Slag is drawn off from the top of the melt about once every 2 hours, and the iron itself is drawn off or tapped about five times a day. The air used to supply the blast in a blast furnace is preheated to temperatures between approximately 1350 and 1400 C (2450 and 2550 F). The heating is performed in stoves, cylinders containing networks of firebrick. The bricks in the stoves are heated for several hours by burning blast-furnace gas, the waste gases from the top of the furnace. Then the flame is turned off and the air for the blast is blown through the stove. The weight of

Page |4 air used in the operation of a blast furnace exceeds the total weight of the other raw materials employed. An important development in blast-furnace technology, the pressurizing of furnaces, was introduced after World War II. By throttling the flow of gas from the furnace vents, the pressure within the furnace may be built up to 1.7 atmosphere or more. The pressurizing technique makes possible better combustion of the coke and higher output of pig iron. The output of many blast furnaces can be increased by 25 per cent in this way. Experimental installations have also shown that the output of blast furnaces can be increased by enriching the air blast with oxygen, a level of 2.5 to 5 per cent being common. The process of tapping consists of knocking out a clay plug from the iron hole near the bottom of the bosh and allowing the molten metal to flow into a clay-lined runner and then into a large, bricklined metal container, which may be either a ladle or a rail car capable of holding as much as 100 tonnes or more of metal. Any slag that may flow from the furnace with the metal is skimmed off before it reaches the container. The molten pig iron is then transported to the steel-making shop. Modern blast furnaces are operated in conjunction with basic oxygen furnaces and occasionally an electric arc furnace, or in a few countries the older open-hearth furnaces, as part of a single steel-producing plant. In such plants the molten pig iron is used to charge the steel furnaces. The molten metal from several blast furnaces may be mixed in a large mixer vessel before it is converted to steel, to minimize any irregularities in the composition of the individual melts. The Steel thus produced is Shaped in two different manners. 1. Continuous casting (right, red arrows) is a method of working steel that conveys the metal from its molten state to blooms, ingots, or slabs. The white-hot metal is poured into openended moulds and continues on through rollers cooled by water. A series of guide rollers further shapes the steel into the desired form. 2. Hot rolling (left, blue arrows), the primary means of milling steel. This process begins with pre-shaped steel slabs, which are

Page |5 reheated in a soaking pit. The steel passes through a series of mills: the blooming mill, the roughing mill, and the finishing mill, which make it progressively thinner. Finally, the steel is wound into coils and transported elsewhere for further processing.

Methods of Steel Shaping

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Figure A: Schematic figure of Operational Steps in Oxygen Steel Making Processes.

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Steel Processing:
The whole process is carried out in 5 different stages once the Coils are procured. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Hard Roll Slitting Pickling Rewinding Thinning Galvanizing/ Colour Coating

Slitting:
The Hard rolled sheets procured from JSWs Bellary unit, in Karnataka, are of width and thickness as per the requirements of orders. Now, once these are brought here, the sheets are Slit, cut from the sides, decreasing called Slitting, and the portion of the Factory performing this exercise is known as the Hard Roll Slitting Section. The factory has two such Slitting machines, placed adjacent to each other.

Pickling:
Once the Steel sheets are slit to proper width, they are cleaned to remove the rust and dust, developed and adhered respectively on their surface, thus preparing the sheets for Galvanizing. This is done by applying Hydrochloric Acid of about 4% to 6% initially, then 6% to 8%, and finally 8% to 16% concentration on the Strips, by submerging the strips in tanks filled with it. Once the acid wash is complete, the sheets are rinsed in Distilled water. This whole process is carried out in the pickling line, which has three different initial tanks having Hydrochloric Acid of the above stated concentration and in the above stated order and finally a fourth tank having the Distilled water. There are two such Pickling lines in the Factory.

Thinning:
The orders from Clients have many specifications, which also includes that of the thickness. Now the required thickness is

Page |8 mostly such that cannot be attained simply by Galvanizing the Pickled sheets as the Coating itself has its thickness, which is added up into the thickness of the sheet finally. So, the thickness of the sheet is reduced up to the extent from where the cumulative thickness of the sheet and the provided coating totals to the thickness required by the Client. This process is called thinning and is carried out in Horizontally Inserted Cold Rolling Mills. In these mills, loading the sheets with Hydraulic Pressure between two working rolls thins them.

Rewinding:
The rewinding unit is an assembly of an uncoiler and a recoiler unit, with a cutting and waste collection system attached in between. In these machines, the sheets once pickled and thinned, are again slit from the sides, decreasing their width, accurately, to that needed by the clients. This ensures minimum wastage and most efficient use of the coating material, be it Zinc, or any Colour Coat.

Coating:
Once the sheet exits the Rewinding Machine, it is fully prepared to undergo the final and the most important process of Galvanizing. The above stated is the most important process carried out in the whole of the Factory and also the continuous one going on 24 x 7, round the year, without any stop, until inevitable. The galvanizing takes place in the assembly known as the Galvanizing line, in the Factory or the CSDs, i.e. Coated Strip Divisions. The Galvanizing line consists of an assembly or series of many basic component machineries such as Pinch Rolls, Bridles, The Annealing Furnace, Melting Pot, Welders, Uncoilers, Coolers, Degreasing Unit, Accumulator, Coating Equipment, Steering Rolls, Quench Tank, Dryer etc. of which, the Furnace and the Melting Pot can be considered the core Setups, the others being the necessary Accessories and Utilities, which also include the many cranes.

Page |9 The Roll from the rewinding machine is installed on the Uncoiler and here from begins the process of Galvanizing. The Sheet from the Uncoiler passes into the pinch Roll, which pulls the sheet forward into the Welders. These welders are basically Plate welders, which are used to weld the beginning of one sheet to the tail of the previous one, so that the new sheet is set on the line properly. If this is not done, it becomes very much time consuming and challenging to put a sheet properly on the line such that it passes from each and every component in the manner it is supposed to, which eventually means a loss of a huge amount of money. From the welder, the sheet passes on into the Bridle, which, pulls the sheet and also applies tension to it. From here, the Sheet is passed on into the Entry Accumulator. There is another accumulator at the exit end of the line also. Both these accumulators collectively act when a roll is about to complete, in such a manner so as to provide enough time for welding the beginning end of the new roll to the tail of the one which is about to finish, carrying with it the new sheet across each component of the line. From the entry accumulator the sheet passes into the Degreasing Section. Here, oil and other organic matter, if adhered on the sheet, are removed by the help of solvents. From the Degreasing unit, the sheet goes into the Annealing furnace, passing through an intermediate dryer, which dries the sheet of any solvent adhering on its surface from the degreasing section. In the Annealing Furnace, the strip is heated to a temperature of about 1400 C in the initial Non Oxidation and RTF (Radium Tube Furnace) zones. The whole of the furnace has an inert atmosphere to prevent the Oxidation of Steel. In the furnace, care is taken to ensure no direct contact of the strip and the firing flame. From the RTF section the strip passes into the Soaking section of the furnace where its temperature is reduced to about 700 C 750 C. Then comes the Cooler section consisting of four Jet coolers, which cool down the strips further to about 440 C to 460 C, which is the same temperature as that of the zinc melting pot.

P a g e | 10 When the strip exits the Jet coolers, it is submerged into the Zinc Melting Pot. Here the Zinc adheres on the surface of the strip. The Thickness of the coat on either side of the strip is maintained by the help of two Nitrogen Jets one on each face of the strip, covering it with the needed amount of Zinc. The temperature of the molten Zinc and the Steel strip both being the same, once the Steel with the coating is cooled down, the different layers merge into one and this is what prevents the zinc from just getting peeled off the surface of the steel sheet. Once exiting the melting pot and the coat thickness maintainer, the strip is cooled with the help of a series of coolers and finally by quenching in a tank filled with water. Then again the Strip oases from the many accessories such as bridles and pinch rolls, then the exit accumulator and finally is rewound on the Recoiler. From the Re-coiler, the coil is uninstalled and with the help of a crane is removed and stacked for Packaging.

Quality Check:
The quality check of the finished materials, i.e. the galvanized sheets is done for each and every single roll. The Zinc coating per square metre is measured. Respective to the thickness of the sheet, the hardness is also checked. Moreover bending test is done on the coated sheet to assure that the Zinc coat doesnt chip off the surface of the steel when bent to the maximum possible extent. If the product fails in any of the above tests, the whole roll, about 20 metric tonnes of steel, is put for auction. Moreover, the Yield Strength, the Tensile Strength and the Elongation of the sheet are also checked.

P a g e | 11 Apart from these, the various materials used for processing at different stages are also checked at regular intervals to ensure their quality. The Oil in Water emulsion, used in thinning Mills as coolant and lubricant, is checked for its emulsification parameters. The composition of the zinc pot is checked whenever a new batch is switched on to ensure the needed quality of coating. The melting pot has the following elements in the given respective traces, which are the safe limits for these elements. Element Alluminium Iron Antimony Tin Permissible limit 0.15% to 0.2% 0.3% to 0.4% 0.1% 0.1%

And the rest is to be Zinc. Lead is also present in traces and the size of the spangles is directly proportionate to the quantity of that.

Packing:
There are two types of packing done here, one is the Import Packing and the other is Domestic Packing. Import Packing has three Layers for Corrugated Sheets. The innermost layer is of Paper. Above the paper is a layer of High Density Polyethylene (HDPE), and finally, all this is packed into steel sheets, leaving no polyethylene exposed. For Rolled Coils too, the layers are the same as that for the corrugated sheet bundles. Domestic packing, on the other hand has steel covered on just one side of the bundle, leaving the other exposed. In case of Rolls, the Steel covering is not done, instead the HDPE covering is considered sufficient. The packaging is done this way because the consignments for Import take a very long time, actually months to get delivered to the clients from the time of packing. Hence, it becomes very necessary to ensure that no degradation of the goods takes place during transport and the goods are delivered in a Factory Fresh

P a g e | 12 Condition. Whereas the domestic deliveries are met with within very short period of time, hence no need for too much protection arises.

Safety:
Like any other large scale industry, JSW also has a very massive stationary and non-stationary infrastructure, with a very large man-power working at the factory, which obviously gives rise to a very important issue of SAFETY. At the factory, in any of the massive sheds, there are many Bridge Cranes, moving at the height of about 7 to 8 metres. From this height, even if a small bolt falls down on a human, itll cause enough damage to put the person in a critical situation. Apart from this, there are many blowers, many rolling mills, all producing sound of very high intensity, enough to deafen ones years. Then there is the Zinc melting pot on the Galvanizing line, where splashes of Zinc are experienced when solid ingots are added into the molten mass. These droplets, being about 450 Celsius hot, are enough to give serious burns and if they come into contact with the eye, can also depart them of Vision. Hence, many safety equipments such as helmets, protective coverings for the face, earplugs, Safety shoes, etc are very necessary for ensuring self safety. The company does maintain a safety code and takes care that every employee abides to it but finally it is a matter of how concerned is an individual about his or her own safety. Many employees, mostly the engineers an the other educated officers, who do understand the effectiveness of the safety equipments do use them, but those who arent sufficiently educated dont understand the worth of the Personal Protection Equipments and mostly dont use them either, simply exposing themselves to fatal injuries.

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Acknowledgements:
We both are highly grateful to Mr. Nitin Tekade, HOD, HR, and Miss Shweta Bhalekar for giving us such a wonderful opportunity to expand our practical knowledge, by permitting us for our summer training, and guiding us when the need evolved, and for their very appreciable understanding. We are also thankful to our Institute, which encourages us to go out into the field and have an experience of the real working patterns in the industry rather than just providing us with textual theoretical knowledge. We consider it our good luck to have met and learned from Mr. Paresh Shah, Mr. Deepak Sharma and Mr. Dilip Pawar all of whom encouraged us to go and explore the plant and learn things to our hearts content, and helped us out when we got entangled somewhere.