The aim of this work is to produce metallic coatings onto a steel substrate type E335 in order to hardening and improving the tribological properties of contact surfaces. In this study, two different coatings of stainless steel 18/8 and molybdenum realized with and without bond coat in Ni-Al were sprayed using a thermal flame spray technique. The microstructures of the two deposits are obtained using an optical microscope (OM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS). Measures microhardness under a load of 200 g, are performed on the polished surfaces of these two types of deposits. The wear and the determination of the coefficients of friction of the two deposits tests were performed in dry conditions. A pin on disc configuration on a tribometer type TE 91 was used with different normal loads and a sliding speed of 0.5 m/s. The results showed that the microstructures obtained by OM and SEM of stainless steel present a dense and compact microstructure. It contains a low porosity and unmelted particles in comparison with the coatings of Mo. In addition, it was found that the spray-coated stainless steel 18/8 exhibited higher microhardness, higher wear resistance and significantly low friction coefficient in comparison with those of Mo coatings.

The coefficient of friction is one of the tribological factors that characterizethe process of multi pass hot rolling. Friction is strongly dependenton inter-pass and in-pass rolling and cooling processingparameters. It can be improved by application of hot lubricationunder specific conditions. This paper builds upon previous studies onthe application of a Coulomb-Norton friction mathematical model, tostudy the influence of hot lubrication for a range of rolling conditions,with a view to define conditions where lubrication is most effective.

A closed-loop blast furnace automation system was jointly developed by VOEST-ALPINE Industrieanlagenbau (VAI) and VOEST-ALPINE Stahl Linz (VASL). The system, with the tradename VAiron, makes not only the operation of the blast furnace entirely transparent, but stabilizes it also, and permits therefore significant improvements in the regularity of hot metal quality and substantial reductions in production costs. The final goal of the development is the "fully automatic blast furnace" .

The challenges of sustainable urban development are tremendous. More than half of the earth’s population lives in cities and there is an upward trend. On a global scale, the cities are the greatest greenhouse gas producers and the biggest consumers of water and energy. Urbanisation, climate change and demographic change are forcing metropolises to make their infrastructure more efficient, be environmentally friendlier, keep the high standard of living and if possible save costs. One of the keys is the selection of materials. Buildings are responsible for 40% of the energy consumption and approx. 21% of produced CO2 worldwide. Scientists and researchers from all over the world are looking into new technologies, so that energy could be used efficiently and CO2 emissions reduced, without having to pass on comfort or “lifestyle habits” [http://www.siemens.de/nachhaltige-stadtentwicklung/nachhaltige-stadtentwicklung.html?stc=deccc020187 (accessed 27.04.2012)]. Sustainability is a complex term, used in the last 2–3 decades. It involves more than just the environment and it concerns every one of mankind [cf. Schlussbericht der Enquete-Kommission Globalisierung der Weltwirtschaft – Herausfordeung-en und Antworten, Drucksache 14/9200, http://dipbt.bundestag.de/dip21/btd/14/092/1409200.pdf, p. 393]. This is why social and engineering scientists from RWTH Aachen University have joined in their efforts to figure out how used shipping containers, which are in abundant supply, can play their role in the future of sustainable construction. After they have been used several times, freight containers are considered disused and begin to accumulate in the surroundings of seaports and harbours. The energy to produce a container is significant and considered wasted if the steel box has completed only a few runs. The first association with containers can be a cold and uncomfortable cell, however, after a glance at the properly adapted shipping containers, converted into cosy, pretty and affordable habitable spaces, this preconception can soon be dismissed. Research has shown, in terms of environment and design, they are innovative and intelligent – building with cargo containers is cheaper, “greener”, faster and more flexible than traditional methods. With the increase of life expectancy and population continuing to grow, demand for housing will rise as well. Demographic change and the demand will contribute to rising construction prices. Habitation is one of the essential basic needs of all people. If one takes into account population growth and the timely provision of housing for all people, existing construction methods have to be adapted and new ones developed. Space in the social sense is an expression of the society and not its reflexion [cf. M. Castells, The Rise of Network Society, Wiley-Blackwell, 2010, p. 440f]. Bearing in mind the diversity in Europe’s population and the anxiety for environmental protection and sustainability, also the contrariness in environmental awareness and behavior, likewise eco-friendly and polluting habits in our everyday life, which are linked together in a various and unconsidered way, validates having different levels of environmental awareness depending on the different segments of society. We speak here of the “patchwork” – character of lifestyles and values, which is illustrated and explained easily with the Sinus-Milieu-Model [Bundesministerium für Umwelt, Naturschutz und Reaktorsicherheit, Umweltbewusstsein in Deutschland 2010, Ergebnisse einer repräsentativen Bevölkerungsumfrage, 2010, p. 13]. This paper discusses the existing Sinus-Milieus® [http://www.sinus-institut.de/en/ (accessed 27.04.2012)] and their features and show hereupon the growing demand in the society on flexible living concepts and habitat designs. The theory supports, that building with steel containers could be a real solution for the social and environmental problems. A continuously availability of shippingcontainers as a building block is expected and therefore the construction business with steel containers has a great potential in terms of sustainability towards a sustainable construction in a sustainable city.

The operation of blast furnace No. 2 started in July 1998, raising the CST yearly hot metal production from 3.6 Mt to the present level of 5.0 Mt. In July 2004, after a 6 years long operation, blast furnace No. 2 cumulated a production of 8.16 Mt, moreover ensuring good performance. The paper presents the actions that have been taken to control hearth wear, while sustaining high productivity and low fuel consumption. The results obtained are submitted to a detailed analysis with appropriate reference to the approach that has been followed and the controls that have been implemented.

The mechanism of cleanness improvement with bubbles isreviewed. Bubbling through the down-leg snorkel of a RHhas been modelled. This process was then experimented ona RH in POSCO, allowing a significant reduction of theinclusion content of slabs.

The 4th Daughter Directive to the Air Quality Directive sets, for year 2012, a target value of 1 ng/m3 for the concentration of benzo(a)pyrene in ambient air. This target cannot be met at present in the ambient air of numerous coke plants. Operators are thus requested to take every reasonable measure in order to come closest to the desired air quality standard. Technical measures for minimizing benzo(a)pyrene emissions will focus on optimizing the pressure conditions in the oven chamber as well as on improving the sealing capabilities of coke oven closure facilities. The techniques for reduction of benzo(a)pyrene emissions, developed by Deutsche Montan Technologie GmbH, are presented.

After the desciption of the Perrin process in the first part of the paper, the second part deals with the socio-technical and enterprise aspects of the history of this process. The development block concept is used to analyse the different phenomena explaining the fate of this technical invention. The critical role played by Perrin himself is emphasized. The reasons why, despite favourable enterpreneurial conditions, the process was not more widely used are discussed.

A quantitative method is described for the measurememnt of displacements and strains by high-resolution electron microscopy. The image is considered to be composed of periodic sets characterized by Fourier analysis. The local amplitude and geometric phase of lattice fringes can be determined in this way. The analysis of the phase distribution leads to the determination of the local lattice configuration. The method is illustrated by different examples and its application conditions are discussed.

Ce travail est dédié à l’étude de l’endommagement en fatigue polycyclique soussollicitations multiaxiales de matériaux métalliques, suivant deux objectifs. Le premierest la caractérisation expérimentale de cet endommagement, pour des sollicitations simples(traction et torsion), mais également pour des blocs de sollicitations différentes. Lesecond objectif est la modélisation des phénomènes observés incluant l’usage de lamécanique de l’endommagement.

Cette modélisation est établie dans un cadrethermodynamique, suivant une description mésoscopique de la plasticité cyclique, avec uncouplage fort des variables décrivant le dommage cristallin. La version isotrope présentéeici utilise deux variables distinctes pour décrire l’endommagement du cristal. La premièrevariable permet de considérer les effets de la dégradation du cristal sur ses propriétésplastiques, alors que la seconde est une mesure équivalente de l’usure du cristal.L’évolution relative de ces deux variables dépend en premier lieu de la part hydrostatiquedu tenseur mésoscopique des contraintes.

In order to extend the RH lower vessel campaign life and to recycle used retractories, MgO-C bricks were applied for the RH lower vessel. As a result, the campaign life of the lower vessel has been extended by approximately 15 % , compared with magnesia- chromite bricks normally used. It was further ensured that it was possible to refine ultra-low carbon steel under these conditions.

Online detection and monitoring of phase transformation using non-destructiveelectromagnetic system in industrial hot strip mill processing of steels are reported. Thesystem renders wide range of possibilities for advanced control and fine tuning of the hotrolling and run-out table cooling parameters. These in turn allow for processmodifications to better control the microstructure of hot rolled bands. In particular,such modifications can attenuate the adverse effects of uncontrollable cooling of hot bandcoils that leads to severely non-homogeneous hot band microstructure. An example ofapplication is given demonstrating how reducing the non-homogeneity of hot bandmicrostructure with the aid of online hot strip mill electromagnetic system can helpeliminating the off-thickness defects in advanced high strength steel full hard stripsthus contributing to lowering the production costs and increasing the yield.

Eko Stahl installed a roll gap lubrication system in stands F2-F4 of its HSM in 2001. The main objectives were energy saving, reduction of roll wear and vibration. The paper describes the equipment and its startup, the consequences of roll gap lubrication, looper angles and AGC, the cost saving results by energy saving and roll wear reduction. The influence on surface quality and environment is described as well as the ongoing optimization process.

This article presents the work carried out to define quality criteria of a new scrapsource for the steel industry: steel wires generated by grinding end-of-life tires. Thedefinition of this promising new secondary raw material source is perfectly in agreementwith the European Directives 75/442/CEE and 2000/53/EC, dealing with waste and recyclingof end-of-life vehicles, thus answering the environmental needs of our society.

Grindingtires generates an interesting secondary raw material (rubber granulates) but also twowastes, steel wires and textile fibers. We estimate that steel wires represent in Europe180 kt of steel every year which is not, or badly, valorized. This study showed that therecycling of these steel wires in steel mills was possible and viable, one necessarycondition being the determination of the non-metallic content remaining on the wires andkeeping it lower than 4%.

The Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control Directive (IPPC) published in the EU in 1996 is presented within an approach based on source-targeted measures. The Directive implementation is based on the granting of permits and it introduces new concepts like Best Available Technique (BAT), Best Reference Document (BREF) and Level Playing Field (LPF). The consequences for the EU steel industry are discussed.

This paper addresses several experimental techniques, which have been developed and validated with the aim of assessing the mechanical conditions of service-exposed primary plant components, particularly from the point of view of fracture toughness. Such techniques are based on the use of specimens of small or even miniaturized size, as an alternative to the "conventional" methodologies described by commonly used test standards.

Especially in OECD countries, the reduction of primary energy consumption is a major taskto avoid further increase in CO2 emissions. Since 37% of the annual energyconsumption is related to the building sector, it is a major challenge for the future todevelop methods for significant improvement of the energy efficiency of building design,construction and operation. It has to be noted that the development of sustainablebuildings addresses both engineering and social aspects. From an engineering viewpointmethods to improve the ecologic efficiency of buildings by increasing the lifetime have tobe provided. From a social viewpoint these new approaches must take the future needs ofsociety into consideration. In addition, also governance structures and the regulatoryframework for the construction and operation of buildings need to be modified in thedirection of sustainability. The article will initially identify the major research topicsfor the development of sustainable design principles for buildings. Afterwards, structuralrequirements will be defined and translated into required property profiles for buildingmaterials. Herein, both mechanical and functional properties are of importance, so thatapproaches will be presented how to combine these properties in composite buildingmaterials. With respect to mechanical properties, new steels will have to be developedwith an improved balance of strength and ductility, so that some promising steel designconcepts will be shown. Additionally, new approaches for the failure assessment of thesenew steel types will be presented to enhance the exploitation of the characteristics ofthe innovative materials.

Salzgitter AG has a crude steel production capacity of more than 8 million tons. Its subsidiary Salzgitter Flachstahl GmbH produces hot strip, thin sheets and surface finished products as well as input stock for heavy plates and sectional steel. In February 2003, Salzgitter Flachstahl GmbH awarded a contract to SMS Demag AG for the supply of a single-strand slab caster including the building portion and all ancillary equipment under SMS leadership. A range of as many as 400 steel grades is cast on the two already existing bow-type continuous casters. The new caster has enhanced the grade range by adding in particular phosphor-alloyed and high-tensile steel grades, including HIC resistant as well as IF and C steel. This caster had to be designed in such a way as to be suitable for taking over production of one of the two existing casters in the longer term. Other goals of constructing a new, third slab caster were to increase the annual production rate of all three casters to a total of 4.7 million tons, to cut production costs, to improve the product quality and to safeguard slab production during the standstill and scheduled maintenance of one of the existing casters.

This paper describes a model for the simulation of the process of direct reduction of iron ore for steel production. The model is implemented through stand-alone software and the simulation results have been compared with real experimental data. The very good agreement between the actual and simulated data proves that the model, despite its relative simplicity, takes into account all the fundamental phenomena of iron ore reduction.

An innovative modelling strategy has been developed and validatedto help the design of steel reheating furnaces. A set of complementarysimulation tools has been used to rethink the furnace concept,namely the Digit@l FurnaceTM, from the burners to the global energysystem optimisation. Several Digit@l FurnacesTM are now in operationon hot rolling mills. Advantages in terms of pollutant emissions,operation costs and flexibility have been demonstrated on site.