Technology

Production of coke
The facilities for production of coke and chemical by-products include:
- Coke shop №1 with four coke-oven batteries № 1–4 (with 20 m3 chambers).
- Coke shop №2 with coke-oven batteries № 5 and 6 (with 30.3 m3 chambers).
- Recovery shop.
- Coal preparation shop.
- Service departments.

Wet and dry quenched coal coke made in the integrated works is produced from low sulfur coals (0.3–1.0% content) found in Kuznetsk, Pechersk and Yakutsk coal fields with high level of stability of coke quality indices by ash content — 84.9%, sulfur — 100%, moisture — 87.2%, volatile matter — 94.3% and strength coefficient — 99.2%.

Recovered from the coke-oven gases are coal tar, ammonia sulfate and benzol.

Production of sinter
The Sinter Shop operates four modernized sintering machines with sintering area extended to 84 m3. Iron ore supplied by ore mining and processing enterprises of the Kursk Magnetic Anomaly and the Urals is the initial materials for sinter production.  Limestone received from the Akkerman deposit and conveyer calcining machine of charge preparation plant in sinter shop is used as flux additives. The fuel is finer coke grade, for lack of it lean coal may be used.

Today the automated batching of the charge components is introduced in the sinter shop and the technology of fluxed sinter production is mastered and that greatly increased blast furnace output and improved pig iron quality.

Blast Furnaces
The blast furnace shop includes:
- Four blast furnaces of effective volume 1,007 m3,
1,033 m3, 1,513 m3 and 2,002 m3 respectively.
- Two pig casting machines with the annual capacity of 400,000 tons each.
- Two pig iron storage yards.
- Slag processing plant with annual capacity of 1.1 million tons of granulated slag.

Four blast furnaces produce steelmaking pig iron, foundry pig iron, chromium-nickel pig iron and blast furnace ferromanganese. The main initial product for pig iron production is the integrated works’ own sinter, pellets from ore mining and concentration plants of Kursk Magnetic Anomaly and from the Urals and local chromium-nickel ores. The initial product for ferromanganese melting is manganese ore and concentrates of Kazakhstan deposits.

Steel making industry
At “Ural Steel” the production of steel is performed in the Open Hearth Furnace Shop and Electric Arc Furnace shop.

Open Hearth Furnace Shop (OHF-Shop)
The OHF Shop includes:
- Main building that includes furnace and casting bays.
- Mixers departments №1 and 2.
- Raw materials area.

There are four one-type open hearth furnaces with nominal charge of 450 tons and two tandem furnaces with charge of 2X250 tons. All the furnaces are fixed basic furnaces and operate using scrap ore process with hot metal. There are four casting platforms in the casting bay where steel top casting into slab molds (ingot weight is 11.7, 13 and 14.5 tons) and bottom casting into bloom ingots (ingot weigh is 8.3 tons) are performed. Mixers departments №1 and 2 accommodate two mixers with capacity of 1,300 tons each for steelmaking pig iron storage.

A specific feature of the “Ural Steel”’s product range is that with the huge production volumes it melts exclusively killed steel, including quality carbon, low alloyed and alloyed steels. Steel containing less than 0.025 % sulfur by mass accounts for more than one half of the total output.

Such technologies as slag cut off when steel is tapped from the furnace into ladles with basic lining, inert gas (argon or nitrogen) stirring in the ladle, aluminum wire feeding to alloy steel and casting with inert gas shielding of the metal stream against oxidation are widely used in OHF Shop to improve the quality of steel. Implementation of this integrated secondary treatment technology has ensured steel homogeneity in chemistry, improved the quality of melted steel and finally has provided high quality rolled products to be produced.

Electric Arc Furnace Shop (EAF Shop)
The EAF Shop is equipped with:
- Two 100-tons Electric arc furnaces with 80 and 95 MVA transformers.
- Two ladle furnaces.
- One-strand (190–270) x 1,200 mm slab continuous casting machine.
 - Four-strand combined continuous casting machine for production of 330 х 470 mm rectangular billets and round billets of the following diameters 430, 540 and 600 mm.
- Area for pouring steel into ingot moulds.
- Raw material area.
- Lime kiln area.

Technological procedure used in EAF Shop provides for the production of clean steel with sulfur mass content less than 0.005% and phosphor less than 0.015%; as well as steel cleanliness is high in relation to nonmetallic inclusions.

This technology guarantees production of rolled steel products with mechanical properties which exceed the requirements of Russian and International standards.

Rolling mills
Blooming mill
Blooming mill includes:
- Soaking pit area.
- 1,250-mm rolling mill.
- Scrap metal bay.
- Adjustage.

1,250 mm mill rolls ingots weighing 8.3–13.0 tons into 300 x 320, 330 x 510 mm blooms and slabs 130–300 mm thick, 600–1,150 mm wide and 1,300–6,000 mm long. The adjustage bays accommodate unheated and heated pits for slow cooling of blooms and slabs made of alloyed and high-alloyed steel grades.

Depending on alloying degree the metal is subject to slow cooling in unheated pits or special thermal treatment in heated pits to avoid flake and crack formation.

Plate rolling mill №1
Plate rolling mill №1 includes:
- Four reheating furnaces with injecting burners and bottom heating.
- 1,000mm vertical reversible stand.
- Two high horizontal reversible 2,800mm stand.
- Four high reversible 2,800mm stand.
- Two levelers, plate stackers, guillotine and disc shears.
- Four roller-hearth furnaces for heating rolled plates for hardening, normalizing and tempering.

The purpose of this shop is to roll slabs in 2,800mm mill into plates 8–50 mm thick, 1,500–2,500 mm wide and 4,500–12,000 mm long from low-alloyed and carbon steel grades, including high-strength steel grades for special applications.

The technology of plate rolling, developed at “Ural Steel”, ensures stable mechanical properties and high tensile properties of final products due to introduction of the following up-to-date techniques:
- Application of automated system of heating the slabs in continuous reheat furnaces which are equipped with riders for reduction of inhomogeneous metal heating.
- Switch of finishing stand to film lubrication bearings and an increase in stand rigidity by 30 %.
- Application of ultrasonic flaw detection unit to inspect metal discontinuity and semi automatic device for control of mechanical properties of rolled products.
- The mill is equipped with automation systems for plate thickness control.
- Plates are subject to heat treatment.

Reheating of slabs is done in four furnaces heated with the mix of blast furnace and natural gases; rolling is done in roughing two-high stand and finishing four-high stand. Heat treatment of metal is done in four heating furnaces with roller hearths. Ultrasonic inspection of rolled plates is performed in automated plants “Nukem” and “Sever-6-08-2800 VT” installed in flow line of the 2,800 rolling mill which provide 100% continuity control of rolled plates.

Plate rolling mill №2
The Plate rolling mill №2 includes:
- Two walking beam furnaces.
- 800-mm mill with universal two-high roughing stand and a group of continuous finishing stands.
- Two-section cooler.
- Cutting, stamping, stacking and packing areas.

The shop is designed to produce strip still of 5–25 mm thick, 200–600 mm width and 4,000–12,000 length out of low-alloyed and carbon steel on the 800 mill.

For heat treatment and pickling the strips are delivered to heat treatment and pickling department for normalizing, hardening with tempering and descaling the strips by mechanical means or pickling. Cut-to-length strips are stacked. Maximal weight of transported strips is 1,400 kg and maximal length is 2.0–12.0 m. Strips are stacked 150–500 mm high on piling tables.

The technology of strip rolling, developed at “Ural Steel” ensures stability of mechanical properties and high tensile properties of final products due to the introduction of the following up-to-date techniques:

- The rolling mill is equipped with modern walking-beam reheat furnaces with flat flame burners and non-impact billet discharge system.
- High-pressure descaling water (150 bars) is installed in mill’s line.
- Switch of finishing stand to film lubrication bearings and an increase in stand rigidity.
- Automated tracking system for temperature control at the end of rolling is used in mill’s flow line.
- Automated system for strip thickness control is installed at the mill.
- Accelerated cooling of rolled strips for higher mechanical properties is installed.

Metal reheating is performed in two continuous walking-beam furnaces heated with natural gas. Rolling is performed in universal roughing stand and in a group of four finishing stands: universal stands №1 and 2 and four-high stands №3 and 4.

The heat treatment and pickling department provides for heat treatment and strip pickling in the solution of hydrochloric acid. Strips reheating is performed in two through-type roller-hearth furnaces with multi-row charge. Pickling line includes four pickling baths located in sequence, two tanks for rinsing and neutralizing bath.

Section-rolling mill
The Section-rolling mill includes:
- Four five-zone continuous heating furnaces with end charge and discharge of blooms.
- Two-high reversible stand of 950mm.
- Two non-reversible stands of 800mm.
- 850mm non-reversible finishing stand.
- Hot-cut saws, shears and stamping machine installed in reversed product flow.
- Two three-zone heating furnaces with walking beams for rolled section heat treatment.

The shop is designed to produce square billets of 90 x 90 mm to 220 x 220 mm in cross-section, round billets 90 to 250 mm in diameter, I-beams of Standard №36, equal angles with flange widths from 200 to 230 mm and channel section №40 on the mill950/800.

The rolled stock heating is performed in four continuous heating furnaces. Then they are rolled in 950mm two-high stand, in two three-high non-reversible stands and 850mm two-high non-reversible stand.

Heat treatment is done in two walking beam furnaces.

Stamped profiles plant
Today, the Stamped profiles Plant produces strips for railway baseplates D65 and KB65, side members  for auto industry, track shoe Т500, Т330 for industrial tractors and road safety fence.

The following technological processes are applied in the plant: blanking in presses, hardening in through-type pusher furnaces and annealing in bell-type furnaces.  Low temperature annealing technology of rolled strip made of carbon quality steel grade has been developed and mastered in this plant, which is intended for finished blanking. “Ural Steel” is the only enterprise in Russian steel industry which has an experience in manufacture of track shoe strip and finished caterpillar tracks for 330, 500 and 800 h.p. heavy industrial caterpillar tractors working under extreme conditions at temperature from 50 °С to +50°С.