Republic Steel Corporation

Gregory J McLean

Joseph E Franklin

Dionisyj W Demianczuk

Clifford E Rowden

Steel products having high strength or good drawing or magnetic or electrical properties, requiring levels of carbon or manganese, or both, that are too high to allow rimming action are produced to have the desired properties, in effect, but with a surface condition characteristic of rimmed steel. The method involves pouring an ingot mold 80 to 95% full of molten, rimming steel, then allowing the steel to stand and rim for several minutes while a shell freezes against the mold wall, and thereafter filling the mold while inserting into the molten steel stream additional carbon or manganese, plus any other elements such as P, Al, Cb, V, Cr, Ni, Si or others, so that the core of the ultimately solidified ingot is steel having the above-desired strength or other properties. An integral shell or skin of rimmed steel, essentially all ferrite, covers the principal surface of the ingot, and likewise of slab, plate, and hot rolled and cold rolled strip or the like that may be derived from the ingot, thereby affording products which are in effect of the desired internal composition but have the superior surface condition of rimmed steel.

Production of steel products with medium to high contents of carbon and

A rimmed steel product, in as-hot-rolled, or cold rolled and annealed form, is made essentially non-aging by inclusion of one or both of the aging-retardant elements vanadium and boron, while retaining an excellent, clear surface that is not adversely affected by the presence of such element or elements. To produce such articles, an ingot mold is poured 80 to 95% full of plain rimming steel, and the molten steel is allowed to rim, e.g. for several minutes, until a rimmed shell solidifies against the mold wall. Then pouring is completed with the same steel, while adding one or both of the aging-retardant elements to the teemed stream. Processed like rimmed steel, ultimate rolled (e.g. strip) products having a thin, truly rimmed skin over a main body of substantially non-aging steel, are found to exhibit no unwanted change of properties (e.g. as would be revealed by significant strain lines) such as usually characterizes the effect of aging in rimmed steel. There is some advantage in using the two elements together, or in the simultaneous inclusion of other, strength-promoting elements such as Cb, Zr, Si, and it has been noted that tensile properties are enhanced when V is added, as above, for aging-retardant function.

Growing community of inventors

Brecksville, OH, United States of America

Gregory J McLean