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Steel is an alloy composed of between 0.2 and 2.0 percent carbon, with the balance being iron. From prehistory through the creation of the blast furnace, iron was produced from iron ore as wrought iron, 99.82–100 percent Fe, and the process of making steel involved adding carbon to iron, usually in a serendipitous manner, in the forge, or via the cementation process.
This produced blister steel. The blister steel was put in a crucible with wrought iron and melted, producing crucible steel. Up to 3 tons of (then expensive) coke was burnt for each ton of steel produced. When rolled into bars such steel was sold at £50 to £60 (approximately £3,390 to £4,070 in 2008) [11] a long ton.
In 1945, the US produced 67% of the world's pig iron, and 72% of the steel. By comparison, 2014 percentages were 2.4% of the pig iron, and 5.3% of the steel production. Although US iron and steel output continued to grow overall through the 1950s and 1960s, the world steel industry grew much faster, and the US share of world production shrank.
The Bessemer process was the first inexpensive industrial process for the mass production of steel from molten pig iron before the development of the open hearth furnace. The key principle is removal of impurities from the iron by oxidation with air being blown through the molten iron. The oxidation also raises the temperature of the iron mass ...
The United States is also a major importer of iron and steel, as well as iron and steel products. Employment as of 2014 was 149,000 people employed in iron and steel mills, and 69,000 in foundries. The value of iron and steel produced in 2014 was $113 billion. [2] About 0.3% of the US population is employed by the steel industry. [3]
Getty/Sean-Gallup. 1,200 BCE. Wrought iron first started to be produced en masse by the Hittites around 1,400 BCE, and by 1,200 BCE the technology behind the creation of iron started to spread out ...
Integrated steel mill in the Netherlands.The two large towers are blast furnaces.. A steel mill or steelworks is an industrial plant for the manufacture of steel.It may be an integrated steel works carrying out all steps of steelmaking from smelting iron ore to rolled product, but may also be a plant where steel semi-finished casting products are made from molten pig iron or from scrap.
Steel was produced from circa 800 BC as part of the production of swords, [62] and swords made entirely of high-carbon steel are known from pre-Roman period. [63] Evidence for iron metallurgy in Britain dates from the 10th century BC, [ 64 ] with the beginning of the Iron Age dated to the 8th century BC. [ 65 ]