Control of Scale During Steel Processing: Scale Control

This project involved collaborative and complementary contributions from Corus UK Limited, Swinden Technology Centre (UK), CSM (Italy), VDEh-BFI (Germany), Swerea MEFOS (Sweden), and The University of Oulu (Finland), and was co-ordinated by Corus. Complementary controlled atmosphere thermobalance tests were conducted in the laboratories of Corus, CSM, BFI and MEFOS under isothermal or continuous heating conditions. Factors affecting the formation of an irregular primary scale were identified, and oxidation parameters were derived. CSM concentrated on austenitic and ferritic stainless steels, Corus on diverse plate-grade steels, BFI on sections and MEFOS a range of carbon, low alloy and stainless steels. Related series of pilot plant descaling or descaling and rolling trials were conducted by Corus, CSM and MEFOS to extend laboratory tests to a larger scale. These tests have helped to identify the effects of steel type, slab surface condition, furnace atmosphere and primary and secondary hydraulic descaling parameters on surface condition with respect to scale defects.