Nostalgia & History > ore to pig iron to steel

In the 1950s, how was this process handled? Iron ore was mined, turned into pig iron and then turned to steel. Would the pig iron furnace and the steel mill ever be located on different sites or were they usually in the same place. I am asking because I'm building a model railroad and I'm looking for more interesting movements and how they would have been handled.

steam290 Wrote:
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> In the 1950s, how was this process handled? Iron
> ore was mined, turned into pig iron and then
> turned to steel. Would the pig iron furnace and
> the steel mill ever be located on different sites
> or were they usually in the same place. I am
> asking because I'm building a model railroad and
> I'm looking for more interesting movements and how
> they would have been handled.

Do a search on 'Sloss Furnace'. I think it just produced the pig iron, so that product had to go elsewhere to be made into steel.

You've heard of bottle cars? Those
eight?-axle cars carried the molton
pig iron, didn't they?

US Steel's Homestead Works at Pittsburgh
didn't have blast furnaces, did it? It
got its pig iron from across the river?
Think at lots of steel plants the pig
iron made a short trip to get to the
open hearths.

These processes were carried out on one site, known as an integrated steel mill. The iron ore, coke and limestone were dumped into a blast furnace. The heat and gasses generated by the coke reduced the iron oxide (the ore) into molten iron. The iron was high carbon (around 4%) because of the carbon picked up from the coke. The hot metal went to either an open hearth furnace or basic oxygen furnace where the carbon was burned out of the blast furnace iron to make steel. Blast furnace iron could be diverted and cast into ingots, known as "pigs". Thus the term "pig iron".

What part did the limestone play in the process?

Frisco1522 Wrote:
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> What part did the limestone play in the process?

As a flux to remove impurities. The process creates slag.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/14/17 16:40 by BCHellman.

There were also stand alone blast furnaces that produced pig iron for the open market for castings such as engine blocks. Interlake Iron's Toledo Furnace was one such facility. There were a couple of furnaces in Jackson, OH that were stand alone plants as well. Hanna Furnace in Buffalo, NY is another. Also, as noted above, Sloss Furnace in Birmingham, AL is a restored site in which you can walk around freely. Recently, it was announced that one of the blast furnaces in Lorain, OH is going to restart to produce pig iron. I will wait to see if that one actually happens, but I hope that it does.

Frisco1522 Wrote:
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> What part did the limestone play in the process?

Limestone also serves as a flux, to lower the melting point of the mix.

MThopper Wrote:
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> These processes were carried out on one site,
> known as an integrated steel mill. The iron ore,
> coke and limestone were dumped into a blast
> furnace. The heat and gasses generated by the coke
> reduced the iron oxide (the ore) into molten iron.
> The iron was high carbon (around 4%) because of
> the carbon picked up from the coke. The hot metal
> went to either an open hearth furnace or basic
> oxygen furnace where the carbon was burned out of
> the blast furnace iron to make steel. Blast
> furnace iron could be diverted and cast into
> ingots, known as "pigs". Thus the term "pig iron".

Great explanation, and altogether true. However, one notable exception to everything being carried out on one site is AM Riverdale, the former ACME Steel plant. AM sends hot metal from Indiana Harbor or Burns Harbor over to Riverdale to process and cast as steel, which creates an interesting but potentially dangerous rail move to get the iron over to the steel plant, and why the vast majority of steelmaking occurs on one site.

JG

That's interesting!

Did Burns Harbor ever have blast furnaces?
(Yup, it seems the first one opened 1969.)

In 1928 Railway Age had an article about
a short branch that B&O built to carry
hot metal (pig iron?) from Hamilton to
Middletown-- in eight-axle cars grossing
685,000 lb. So the new bridge over the
Miami River had to be E-90.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/20/17 11:51 by timz.

Wow, Thanks. I need to check that out. So, was pig iron always molten or would it still be considered big iron when it cooled down? Most here are making it sound like it was always moved in a molten state. So interesting.

Thank you all, for your answers!