Steel
Read this article, which explains the history of steel production and the processes involved in its manufacture. Pay attention to the definitions and scientific descriptions.
Production methods
Historical methods
- bloomery
- pattern welding
- catalan forge
- wootz steel: developed in India, used in the Middle East where it was known as Damascus steel
- Cementation process: used to convert bars of wrought iron into blister steel; this was the main process used in England from the early seventeenth century
- crucible technique, similar to the wootz steel: independently redeveloped in Sheffield by Benjamin Huntsman around 1740, and Pavel Anosov in Russia in 1837; Huntsman's raw material was blister steel
- Puddling
Modern methods
- Electric arc furnace: a form of secondary steelmaking from scrap, steel is hard as a resultant of this, though the process can also use direct-reduced iron
- Production of pig iron using a blast furnace
- Converters (steel from pig iron):
- Bessemer process, the first large-scale steel production process for mild steel
- The Siemens-Martin process, using an open hearth furnace
- Basic oxygen steelmaking