Production process and figures
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Production processedit
Most of the world's stainless steel production is produced by the following processes:
- Electric arc furnace (EAF): stainless steel scrap, other ferrous scrap, and ferrous alloys (Fe Cr, Fe Ni, Fe Mo, Fe Si) are melted together. The molten metal is then poured into a ladle and transferred into the AOD process (see below).
- Argon oxygen decarburization (AOD): carbon in the molten steel is removed (by turning it into carbon monoxide gas) and other compositional adjustments are made to achieve the desired chemical composition.
- Continuous casting (CC): the molten metal is solidified into slabs for flat products (a typical section is 20 centimetres (8 in) thick and 2 metres (6.6 ft) wide) or blooms (sections vary widely but 25 by 25 centimetres (9.8 in × 9.8 in) is the average size).
- Hot rolling (HR): slabs and blooms are reheated in a furnace and hot-rolled. Hot rolling reduces the thickness of the slabs to produce about 3 mm (0.12 in)-thick coils. Blooms, on the other hand, are hot-rolled into bars, which are cut into lengths at the exit of the rolling mill, or wire rod, which is coiled.
- Cold finishing (CF) depends on the type of product being finished:
- Hot-rolled coils are pickled in acid solutions to remove the oxide scale on the surface, then subsequently cold rolled in Sendzimir rolling mills and annealed in a protective atmosphere until the desired thickness and surface finish is obtained. Further operations such as slitting and tube forming can be performed in downstream facilities.
- Hot-rolled bars are straightened, then machined to the required tolerance and finish.
- Wire rod coils are subsequently processed to produce cold-finished bars on drawing benches, fasteners on boltmaking machines, and wire on single or multipass drawing machines.
Production figuresedit
World stainless steel production figures are published yearly by the International Stainless Steel Forum.
| Year | World | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 6805 | 2593 | 29400 | 7894 | 5525 | 52218 |
| 2018 | 7386 | 2808 | 26706 | 8195 | 5635 | 50729 |
| 2017 | 7377 | 2754 | 25774 | 8030 | 4146 | 48081 |
| 2016 | 7280 | 2931 | 24938 | 9956 | 672 | 45778 |
| 2015 | 7169 | 2747 | 21562 | 9462 | 609 | 41548 |
| 2014 | 7252 | 2813 | 21692 | 9333 | 595 | 41686 |
| 2013 | 7147 | 2454 | 18984 | 9276 | 644 | 38506 |
Breakdown of production by stainless steels families in 2017:
- Austenitic stainless steels Cr-Ni (also called 300-series, see "Grades" section above): 54%
- Austenitic stainless steels Cr-Mn (also called 200-series): 21%
- Ferritic and martensitic stainless steels (also called 400-series): 23%
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