Agglomeration, Processes of: process the fine particles into larger pieces.
Annealing: generically, it consists in heating a part until a given temperature and keep it at this temperature, after what occurs a slow cooling, mainly to diminish its hardness or change grain structure.
Blank: small-sized plates or several shaped such as a trapeze, a triangle or other.
Blanker: Equipment for cut of plates in the shape of blanks.
Blast Furnace: cylindrical tower lined with refractory bricks heat-resistant used to melt iron, producing pig iron, from the iron ore and coal, in a reduction process
Box Annealing: Thermal treatment of the cold rolled coil, in an atmosphere slightly reducing, applied to the material in order to re-cristallize its grains and give them the required mechanical properties.
Bundle: packaging comprising a raised platform, the sheets.
Burr: Metal residue above the surface plan of the strip resulting from the cutting tool action.
Camber: coil deviation in the length sense, so that the side edge forms a cord.
Capacity: Maximum possible production volume in a given period of time. E.g.: ton/year.
Carbon Steels: steels where the structure is based on the carbon content. They have a low content of alloy and chemical composition defined into wide ranges.
Center buckled: a vertical wave seen in the sheet or coil when placed on a flat and horizontal surface.
Chrome plated sheet: steel sheets or coils with low carbon content, electrolitically treated to produce on both faces a film of metallic chromium adjacent to the steel surface with a superior layer of al hydrated oxides or chromium hydrate.
Coil: coil is the most efficient shape to store and transport steel. After rolling process, steel blades are wound into coils.
Coke: Coal agglomerate. It is the main fuel used in Blast Furnace.
Coke plant: furnace turning coal into coke.
Cold Reduction: roll the hot rolled steel so that it becomes finer, softer and stronger by means of pressure process, rather than the heat.
Continuous annealing: thermal treatment of cold rolled coil in continuous furnace, in reducing atmosphere applied to the material to recristalyze its grains and give them the required mechanical properties.
Continuous casting: It turns the steel from its melt form in the steelworks into plates in a continuous way.
Corrosion: Stepwise degradation undergone by steel, caused by atmospheric conditions, moisture and other agents.
Delivery (order): quantity of material of a same specification manufactured for shipment one only time.
Dolomite: calcium carbonate and magnesium CaMg(CO3)2. Rock called dolomite is mainly constituted by the mineral, containing a big amount of calcite.
Double reduction: term used to describe those products where the steel substrate, after annealing, was submitted to a second reduction higher than 5%, using lubricant.
Finishing: The superficial appearance of rolled products is defined by superficial characteristics of base steel, together with coating conditions, which, in the case of metallic sheets, can be shiny, mate or stone.
Flat Rolled Steel: Final product of the flat steel industry. There are several tipes of this steel, such as hot rolled, cold rolled, galvanized rolled, metallic sheets, among others. They have as a characteristic the width extremely higher than the thickness.
Galvanized steel: Steel covered with zinc to provide resistance to corrosion. This steel must be cold rolled before the galvanization stage.
Galvanized steel with Al-Zn coating: it is a product coated with an aluminum-zinc alloy that have three main advantages: The resistance against oxidation, the aluminum beauty and the steel strength.
General purpose steels: They are the ones intended to the simple formation and its main applications are in civil construction, pipes, components, parts, applications where there is no need of an enhanced level of mechanical properties.
Hardening Rolling: rolling process where the reduction is smaller or equal to 5%, generally dry processed. It defines the flatness, the superficial finishing and the inhibition of outflow line formation in annealed low carbon steel sheets/coils.
Hot-rolled steel: steel rolled in a hot strip mill. This steel can be sold to clients or be processed later in another kind of final product.
Hot Strip Mill: it converts plates into hot rolled coils. It presses the plates between horizontal rolls to produce a rolled flat steel coil.
Ingot: semi-finished steel. The melt steel is poured into molds, where it solidifies. After those molds are taken, the ingots are ready for later rolling. The casting process can be conventional, as described above, or continuous, a more efficient production method.
Iron Ore: ore containing enough iron to be a feasible source for use in steel production.
ISO 9002/94: Quality Management International Certification.
Laboratory: department responsible for evaluating the quality of commercialized materials; there, mechanical, physical and metallographic tests are performed.
Long Steel: steel industrial product, resulting from a rolling process, which transverse sections have a polygonal shape and its length is extremely superior to the larger section dimension. They are offered in carbon steels and special steels. They include bar, rod and structural products.
Longitudinal Cut/ Slitter: equipment for cutting rolls or smaller coils, also known as slitter cuts.
Longitudinal warp: residual curvature in the rolling direction strips.
