Concept in Definition ABC

The steel industry is an industry that focuses on the transformation of a mineral, the iron. This mineral is normally transformed in a blast furnace, an industrial facility where iron is melted into a cylindrical capsule in which the fuel The solid of the coke undergoes chemical reactions that turn it into iron.

Obtaining iron in the steel industry is destined to another metal, steel. However, there are steel mills that obtain steel directly from ferrous scrap.

Hierra, the piece of the puzzle with which the process begins

All the products obtained from iron make up the steel industry, a heavy industry that produces a whole series of metals with great strategic value (tungsten, nickel, chromium or manganese). From these metals it is possible to manufacture very diverse utensils related to all kinds of economic activities (the building housing, automobile industry, naval industry, heavy machinery).

The history of the steel industry

Until the eighteenth century, iron was obtained by heating layers of charcoal ore in furnaces several meters high. The resulting product was a mass of iron that had to be worked red-hot in the forge and subsequently subjected to intense hammering. This is how wrought iron was achieved. The ovens consumed so much coal that wood became scarce. Due to this, the need arose to look for another type of fuel. In Great Britain there were deposits of coal mineral coal, but it burned with difficulty.

Finding an answer

At the beginning of the eighteenth century a solution: use in blast furnaces a derivative of mineral coal, coke, which was obtained by distilling coal. To activate combustion in coke ovens it was necessary to inject a stream of air intense, which was achieved from the steam engine. Since then, the steel industry began to manufacture tubes, beams and barrels, basic elements in the different heavy industries. This industrial process was the basis of a new era, known as the Industrial Revolution.

In the 19th century, industrial development spread from Great Britain to the rest of the Western European countries. The procedures They were quite expensive to convert iron to steel, but around 1850 a converter was invented that transformed iron into steel. This change in the steel industry had consequences in the metallurgical industries, in the textile industry, in machinery agricultural and in the manufacturing of all kinds of tools.