|
|
|
Alloy 200, Alloy 400, Alloy 600, Alloy 625, Alloy 800, Alloy 825, Alloy C276, Alloy B2 ,Alloy B3, Alloy 904L, Alloy X750, Alloy 17/7, Alloy 20 , Stainless Steel 316L, Stainless Steel 304, Stainless Steel 304L, Stainless Steel 321, Stainless Steel 316Ti |
Steel for gaskets; construction and automotive; super alloy is an un-sung hero in Britain's industry, its corrosion resistance and ability to be highly polished makes it an excellent finishing product for both interiors and facades. We see it used as a cladding in the motor industry too and despite its reputation as a victim of rust as a result of corrosion, today's steel can be protected against rust. We only need to look at the extended warranties that are offered by automotive manufacturers on the steel car body panels. Hidden inside our cars engines are gaskets made from steel, rolled so thin yet strong enough to seal in high compression. When you think that surgical knives for keyhole and ophthalmic operations are made from stainless steel and are only 4 mm long and 0.09 mm thick - less than the thickness of a human hair. Although here are more than
3,500 different grades of steel with many different properties 75% of
those have been developed only in the last two decades. The steel industry
divide steel into two basic types; Flat
and Long. A flat steel product is a sheet or plate, also a hot rolled
strip product. The typical end use these steel applications are steel
gaskets, automotive body panels and domestic 'white goods' such as fridges,
freezers, washing machines etc. Despite the modern examples here, English
poll tax records in Sheffield refer to Robert the Cutler as being a
maker of knives in 1297 - Sheffield has always been famous for Steel. A long product is a rod, a bar and typical steel rod products are those such as reinforcing rods for concrete; engineering products, gears, tools etc. and large rolled steel joists (RSJ) that are used in building construction projects. Apart from steels living uses, Steel can be recycled and used again ... and again. Back in 2001 we recycled more than 435 million tons of steel. In fact steel is the worlds most recycled material, 65% of new steel comes recycled steel. Steel from six recycled cars can frame a house that would require timber FROM forty trees
The Steel
Industry Today Strong demand for steel led, EU steel mills to enjoy healthy levels of export business in the first months of 2003. In the first four months EU exports of rolled steel products, excluding semis totalled 6.52 million tonnes. Representing an increase of almost 20 percent of the 5.47 million tonnes that EU steel mills supplied to foreign clients in the previous January-April period. This rise was due entirely to a surge of over 1 million tonnes of flat rolled steel products despatched during that time. The rise in the value of the euro has effected the British steel market with estimates for the first half of 2003 year showing EU steel exports at only 9 percent ahead of 2002. EU mills may have lost some market share to the USA, because of the decline in the value of the dollar which has rendered American made steel more competitive. International Iron & Steel Institute statistics for steel shipments in the first half of 2003 show the EU just 0.1 percent ahead of last year. June 2003 showed EU steel shipments down by more than 8 percent compared with the same period in 2002 and figures for the whole world in January to June showed steel shipments up by 3.2 percent over last year. Eurofer's quarterly market report published in early July suggested that EU steel exports will show no growth in the second half of 2003 compared with the 2002 period and is likely that EU steel exports in July-December 2003 will show a fall. This is based on the assumption that the euro does not lose too much value against the US dollar. Steel imported to the EU market will continue to grow according to Eurofer. In the first four months of this year, finished steel imports were 5.84 million tonnes against the 5.55 million tonnes for January-April 2002. Eurofer estimates imports rose by more than 11 percent in the first half of the year, and it believes this growth rate should slacken in the second half of 2003 but this would still leave imports nearly 8 percent higher for the year as a whole. The EU's traditional positive
balance of steel trade did fall into a deficit in 2001, however it returned
to a surplus of just over 1 million tonnes in 2002. If Eurofer's prophecy
for the rest of 2003 is fulfilled, the EU's balance of trade in steel
products will acutely deteriorate and the full year's surplus would
be less than 500,000 tonnes, this may even be over optimistic if the
euro/dollar exchange rate continues to erode the EU's competitiveness. A
potted history of steel
A British inventor called Henry Bessemer is credited for the invention of the steelmaking process. He was born on January 19, 1813 in Charlton, Hertfordshire, England. Sir Bessemer developed the first process for mass-producing steel in an inexpensive manner. Although malleable iron products had been around for more than 2,000 years, our steel is still produced today using technology based upon the Bessemer Process of blowing air through molten pig iron to oxidise the material and separate the impurities. Bessimer's industrial process was indeed very similar to the Chinese method to refine iron into steel, developed in the second century BC. They called this process the "hundred refinings method" because they repeated the process 100 times. In October of 1855, Bessemer took out a patent for his process of rendering cast iron malleable by the introduction of air into the fluid metal to remove carbon. During the Crimean War the Generals reported that the cast-iron cannons used at that time were not strong enough to deal with the forces of the more powerful shell that Bessemer had invented, so he rose to the challenge and developed an improved iron smelting process that produced large quantities of ingots of superior quality. Modern steel is made using technology based on Bessemer's process. Henry Bessemer made his first real fortune selling "gold" powder made from brass as a paint additive. The secret formula was used widely throughout Britain and Europe to adorn much of the gilded decoration of his time. How would our life be without
steel? Did you know that: There is a steel fence that stretches from South Australia to Queensland - 5,530 km long to keep dingoes away from sheep.
.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
News Release By
www.puremarketing.co.uk Peter Yexley
Telephone 01727 821998
|
