A U.S. steel producer recently announced the completion of the acquisition of substantially all of the assets of a manufacturer of special bar quality (SBQ) alloy and carbon steel bar flats.
Glenn Pushis, Senior Vice President, Long Products Steel Group
The assets of Kentucky Electric Steel acquired by Steel Dynamics are located outside of Ashland, Kentucky, and are comprised of a rolling mill with an annual capacity of 250,000 tons. The operations were closed earlier this year by the prior owner, and Steel Dynamics plans to reopen the rolling mill in November 2018. The facility will be operated as part of Steel Dynamics’ Steel of West Virginia (“SWVA”) operations, which is located within 20 miles of Ashland. The acquisition will provide product diversification for SWVA through the addition of flats and specialty alloy bars.
“KES has been a loyal customer of our SWVA and Roanoke Bar divisions,” said Glenn Pushis, Senior Vice President, Long Products Steel Group. “We believe that the complementary product offerings will provide value to our customers. We currently anticipate that roughly 100,000 to 150,000 tons of billets will be shipped each year from our long products steel mills to be further processed at Ashland, providing additional value-added capability and higher through-cycle utilization for our steel mills.”
This is the second of three articles by metallurgist Marc Glasser on three individual heat resistant alloys. This article will feature RA330®. Please submit your questions about heat-resistant alloys for Marc to editor@heattreattoday.com.
RA330® is a nickel alloy containing 35% nickel, 19% chromium, and 1.2% silicon. Over the years, it has become one of the most widely used wrought heat-resistant alloys due to the combination of its versatility, availability, properties, and cost-effectiveness.
The Chemistry of RA330
The chemistry of RA330 is shown below in Table 1.
There are several important benefits to this alloy including:
Oxidation resistance up to 2100°F
Usable creep resistance up to 1850°F
Utility up to 2100°F when there are no loads applied and some deflection can be tolerated
Resistance to many heat treating atmospheres including carburizing and nitriding
Sufficient nickel content to prevent sigma phase formation and embrittlement
The oxidation resistance of various alloys is shown in Table 2 below¹.
Table 2: Oxidation limits of various materials.
The oxidation limit for RA330 is higher than that of any stainless steel, comparable to alloy 600, and only exceeded by nickel alloys with much higher nickel content.
RA330 Creep Strength
Table 3² shows the creep strength required to produce 1% strain in 10,000 hrs.
The creep strength of RA330 is better than all heat-resistant stainless steel grades except RA 253 MA. It is comparable to alloy 600 but less than the higher nickel alloys 601, RA333, and RA 602 CA. When comparing the economics of RA330 with those of the more expensive nickel alloys, RA330 often has enough creep strength for many heat treating applications and is often the most economical option. There are companies who use RA330 above 1800°F and sometimes as high as the 2100°F oxidation limit. They compensate for the very low creep strength at these temperatures by using braces such as gussets or supports. These supports may be made of ceramic or a different alloy with significantly higher creep strength at this temperature.
Strength Variables and Value
One of the excellent attributes of RA330 is its ability to resist the various atmospheres used in surface or case hardening operations. Thermodynamically, the formation of nickel carbides and nitrides are not favored. With 35% nickel, RA330 has sufficient nickel content to resist carburization, nitriding, and combinations of both. The alloy is not immune to surface hardening, just resistant. The length of resistance time is a function of the process and process variables. For example, field experience shows that 310 muffles used in carburizing atmospheres can completely carburize in as little as 1 month, especially at high temperatures. After that, the material is brittle and can rupture easily. Often, the usable life will be between 1 and 3 months depending on process temperature. A corresponding RA330 muffle under the same atmosphere will last up to 1 year.
Stainless steels are subject to sigma phase formation and embrittlement. Sigma phase is an intermetallic phase that consists of iron and chromium. It precipitates between approximately 1100 and 1600°F. Sigma phase does not embrittle materials at these relatively high temperatures, but at room temperature, sigma phase can reduce charpy impact values to single digits. One sudden impact can cause catastrophic failure. RA330, with 35% nickel, has enough nickel to prevent sigma phase formation.
Applications of RA330
RA330 is available from stock in many product forms. In addition to the traditional plate, sheet, and round bar, RA330 is also available in expanded metal, pipe, and hexagonal nuts. Round bar can quickly be turned into threaded bar. The ability to draw on all these items from stock make RA330 the ideal alloy for maintenance and repair.
RA330 is resistant to thermal fatigue. This property lends RA330 to be the wrought alloy of choice for alloy fixtures and baskets that require quenching a least once a day.
For all of these reasons, RA330 is often an excellent choice for heat treating applications. It has good oxidation resistance, good resistance to case hardening atmospheres, no sigma phase formation, and thermal fatigue resistance. It is available from stock in many forms and sizes. RA330 may not always be the best solution, but often it is the solution that works best.
One of the few atmospheres in which RA330 is not a good choice is sulfur. Like other nickel alloys, the nickel forms a nickel-sulfur intermetallic at a low temperature. In such environments, a lower nickel stainless steel such as 309 or 310 is often a better choice.
RA330® is a trademark of Rolled Alloys.
1. Glasser, Marc, “Selecting an Appropriate Heat-Resistant Alloy,” Industrial Heating. September 2014: 59-65.
2. Condensed from “High-Temperature Environments: Alloy Properties,” https://www.rolledalloys.com/technical-resources/environments/high-temperature/
Marc Glasser is Director of Metallurgical Services at Rolled Alloys and is Heat TreatToday‘s resident expert in process metallurgy, heat treatment, materials of construction, and materials science and testing.
As we reported last week in the News Chatter edition of September 21, 2018, a Wisconsin-based, heat treating company recently broke ground on an addition to its operations in order to accommodate newly purchased equipment.
ThermTech of Waukesha expects to construction to be completed on the 13,000-sq-ft facility in December 2018 with an opening soon after.
In plans submitted to the city, the company “had to make a quick decision on the purchase” of a large heat-treating furnace. “We are incredibly busy, and need the capacity. That said, we also realized that the equipment would not fit in any of our current locations.”
ThermTech provided Heat Treat Today photos of the groundbreaking ceremony, prompting this follow-up post.
A woman-owned metal stamping company with heat treating capabilities serving a broad range of industries, including automotive, aerospace, energy, medical and general manufacturing, has recently launched as a new entity following a limited asset purchase of a 50-year-old manufacturing company in Downers Grove, Illinois.
Cheryl Wellman, company owner and president, Integrity Manufacturing Inc.
Integrity Manufacturing Inc., which also provides a job shop and assembly work for multiple industries obtained a great limited asset/limited liability agreement with Lindy Manufacturing. Integrity opens its doors with an established customer base and expanded services, two additional plants in Chicago and one in Los Angeles.
"The trend of women in manufacturing is growing, and it reflects on the fact that women are at the forefront of how the market is changing," said Cheryl Wellman, company owner and president, originally a key player at Lindy Manufacturing. "Manufacturers are more than providers of goods: we also advise and support our customers, and that allows for long-term relationships and the development of customized solutions."
Both Wellman and Integrity's vice president, Holly Barajas, held multiple positions within Lindy Manufacturing and worked closely on projects from beginning to end. She oversaw all aspects of production, shipping, and customer service, in addition to marketing and plant management. The decision to create the new company included joining forces with another Lindy Manufacturing employee, Sean Stack, who currently serves as Integrity's General Manager.
"Our goal for Integrity is to take American manufacturing to a new level," says Wellman. "That means putting a priority on quality and innovation, giving our employees the training and support they need and working collaboratively with both them and our clients."
Integrity Manufacturing Inc's management team: Holly Barajas, vice-president; Cheryl Wellman, president and owner; Sean Stack, general manager
It’s frustrating enough for furnace operators to encounter downtime due to failure or faulty equipment, but more so when it can be avoided adhering to basic maintenance procedures and adopting habits of diligence and quick thinking.
Andrew Alborghetti of TAV Vacuum Furnaces offers “5 tips for preventing faults caused by the process water in the cooling system [of a vacuum furnace or by] the use of unsuitable equipment.” In addition, he suggests steps to take when an emergency develops.
In a nutshell,
Maintain specific purity standards of the process water.
Prevent dangerous enrichment by maintaining valves.
Keep an eye on your process water temperature.
Avoid damage from external cold temperatures.
Consider investing in a closed circuit adiabaticwater cooling system.
An excerpt:
“For the vacuum furnace to meet the considerable need for water it must have sufficient capacity (tub or tank) to quickly transfer heat from the furnace and from the load. The capacity of the tank determines the size of the system for cooling the water contained in it. Of course, the bigger the tank, the smaller the water cooling system it contains. When there are numerous furnaces, the size of the tank is calculated based on averaged values for behavior in the respective heat cycles.” ~ TAV Vacuum Furnaces
Click below for more on the 5 tips as well as steps you can take should your shop face an emergency such as a power outage that affects the water cooling system
A corporation based in Richmond, Virginia, that produces metals equipment for a broad range of manufacturing applications recently announced that it was awarded an $8 million tubing order.
Bristol Metals LLC, a subsidiary of Synalloy Corporation, has begun shipment of the product from its Bristol, Tennessee, and Munhall, Pennsylvania, facilities. The company stated that this is the single largest order of its type that Bristol Metals has received since being acquired by Synalloy.
Synalloyengages in a number of diverse business activities including the production of stainless steel pipe and tubing, galvanized pipe and tubing, fiberglass and steel storage tanks, specialty chemicals and the master distribution of seamless carbon pipe and tubing.
From an article provided by the Office of Technology Commercialization and Partnerships and published at Tech Briefs, heat treaters and other students of metal alloys can glean valuable information about hardface coating systems developed to protect from and build resistance to high wear deterioration, weak interfacial bonding, and corrosion.
In applications ranging from sports equipment to turbine blades, and power-generating surfaces to military hardware,
“Metal alloys, such as titanium alloys and steels, are known to have a good combination of mechanical properties for many structural applications, but these metal alloys do not meet the wear and corrosion resistance requirements for some structural applications. . . . To overcome these shortcomings and provide high wear- and corrosion-resistant surfaces on metal alloy substrates, surface alloying and reactive surface modification have been developed — depositing and post-heat-treating a unique combination of materials, selected based upon the substrate material and specific application environment.” ~ Tech Briefs
A Canadian commercial heat treater has expanded their heat treatment production capability with the purchase of two furnaces, installed at the company’s newly built manufacturing facility in Chateauguay (suburb Montreal) and to be used for general heat treating.
Tracy Dougherty, sales manager at AFC-Holcroft
Thermetco of Montreal, the largest commercial heat treater in Quebec, purchased a new UBQ (Universal Batch Quench) furnace and a new UBT (Universal Batch Temper) furnaces from Michigan-based industrial furnace manufacturer AFC-Holcroft to serve customers in the automotive, aerospace, energy and petrochemical industries. The equipment offers the capability of providing metallurgical processes such as carburizing, carbonitriding, annealing, tempering, stress relieving, and other processes.
“The Thermetco team has a history of building thermal processing equipment in the past and were able to quickly identify many of the key factors that make the UBQ an industry leader, including recovery rates, maintainability, Batchmaster™ controls, Remote Diagnostics™, energy saving high/low endo flow, multiple speed quench, etc.,” said Tracy Dougherty, sales manager at AFC-Holcroft. “This order marks the first purchase of AFCHolcroft equipment by Thermetco. We’re very excited about the opportunity to be a part of the Thermetco expansion plans.”
A Belgian stainless steel producer recently contracted with a plant supplier to the metallurgical industry to provide an annealing and pickling line for stainless steel cold strip.
SMS group will deliver the line to Aperam Stainless at its Genk plant in Belgium. Production start is scheduled for 2020. With this investment in state-of-the-art and future-oriented plant technology, Aperam will enlarge its product range by material grades for the most demanding applications and improve lead time and flexibility to meet the market demand.
The line will be equipped with a horizontal Drever annealing furnace and a multi-stage pickling section in addition to a four-high skin-pass mill stand and a side trimmer. The new annealing and pickling line will be the fourth one SMS group is going to install at Aperam’s Genk site.
The line will process both austenitic and ferritic grades.
Running a heat treat shop is more than just firing up a furnace to treat components; it’s doing so in a way that is both efficient and safe.
Today’s Technical Tuesday is a helpful article from Control Engineering about burners for gas-fired heat treating furnaces, their differences and how they are best utilized in different heat treating applications, technological advances in controls engineering, and combustion safety. The article draws on the skills and knowledge of several in the industry who have contributed to the advances and development in burner manufacturing, operation, and safety.
A couple of excerpts:
“With a careful engineering analysis, it often is possible to obtain more efficiency by optimizing either process or system control. As an added benefit, in many cases, such optimization does not require substantial physical hardware upgrades.” ~ Michael Cochran, marketing engineer, combustion systems at Bloom Engineering Company Inc.
“The goal of both regenerative and recuperative designs is to capture heat energy that would otherwise be wasted.” ~ Control Engineering
