How Steel is Made: a Summary of a Blast

Furnace:
There are two types of metals, ferrous & non-ferrous. Ferrous comes from, or
contains iron, while Non-Ferrous does not contain iron.

Some examples of ferrous metals would be mild steel, cast iron, high strength
steel, and tool steels.

Examples of non-ferrous metals would be copper, aluminum, magnesium,

titanium, etc.

To make steel, iron ore is first mined from the ground. It is then smelted in blast
furnaces where the impurities are removed and carbon is added. In fact, a very
simple definition of steel is "iron alloyed with carbon, usually less than 1%."

The following text is taken from the Structural Manual For Ironworkers Manual
V-Volume I.

Blast furnaces require many auxiliary facilities to support their operations.

However, in simplest terms, the furnace itself is a huge steel shell almost
cylindrical in shape and lined with heat-resistant brick. Once started, or
"blown-in," the furnace operates continuously until the refractory lining needs
renewal or until demand for iron drops to the point where the furnace is closed
down. The duration of furnace operations from start to finish is referred to as a
"campaign" and may last several years.

Iron ore and other iron bearing materials, coke and limestone are charged into
the furnace from the top and work their way down, becoming hotter as they
sink in the body of the furnace which is called the stack. In the top half of the
furnace, gas from burning coke removes a great deal of oxygen from the iron
ore. About halfway down, limestone begins to react with impurities in the ore
and the coke to form a slag.

Ash from the coke is absorbed by the slag. Some silica in the ore is reduced to
silicon and dissolves in the iron as does some carbon in the coke. At the bottom
of the furnace where temperatures rise well over 3000 Fahrenheit, molten slag
floats on a pool of molten iron which is four or five feet deep. Because the slag
floats on top of the iron it is possible to drain it off through a slag notch in the
furnace. The molten iron is released from the hearth of the furnace through a
tap hole. The tapping of iron and slag is the major factor permitting additional
materials to be charged at the furnace top.

This brief summary of the complex operations of a blast furnace is presented

here to provide a point of reference for the actual flow of operations. Very often,
several blast furnaces may be arranged in a single plant so that the most
efficient possible use can be made of fuels, internal rail facilities, etc.