Process and Plant Capabilities

The Primary function is to efficiently produce a quality stainless steel slab on a timely basis. Products include stainless steel in the austenitic, ferritic, martensitic and duplex families. The major operations that make up the Primary Department are:

• Scrap Management – Receives scrap by rail and by truck and prepares the charge for the Electric Furnaces.
• Ultra High Powered Electric Furnaces – Two UHP furnaces melt scrap to produce heats from 120 to 130 tons.
• Argon Oxygen Decarburization Vessel (AOD) – The AOD is used to refine the steel melted in the UHP furnaces.
• Continuous Slab Caster – Converts the liquid melt into high quality slabs at the proper size to meet a customer’s coil size requirements. Cold width capacity is 26” to 63”. On-line (during casting) width change capability allows for more accurately produced ordered slab widths and improved quality and yield.
• Conditioning – This area is responsible for slab grinding, slab storage, and shipment of slabs to the hot rolling mills or customer destinations.