M&T
Roundup
The fall
series of meetings of Manufacturing Committees started with
the Committee on Metallic Coated Sheet Practice. The
first meeting of the season, held September 13-15 and hosted
by Nucor Steel, Indiana in Indianapolis, drew 54 participants
from various plants—an encouraging
showing that the committee has become accustomed to in the
last few years. Benchmarking surveys were a highlight of the
meeting, covering coated steel passivation, furnace atmosphere
control and adherence testing. The committee also deliberated
upon safety and improvements in operating performance. BASF
made a presentation on organic based hexavalent chrome alternatives
for passivation. The meeting ended with a tour of the Crawfordsville
Plant.
Another
meeting that took place, Committee on Rod and Bar Mills,
was held in Puebla, Mexico, September 20-22, 2006 and was
hosted by Ternium Hylsa. The roundtable discussion on safety
and operating issues was quite extensive and the participants
benefited to a great extent. The Committee also discussed
operating reports, benchmarking and involvement of members
in the Q&A database system. The committee finalized issues
concerning two training modules. Participants toured the facilities
of Ternium Hylsa and reportedly "appreciated the excellent
housekeeping."
M&T's
Manufacturing Committees have a "full slate" for
the month of October.
The Coke
Oven and Coke Oven By-Products group will meet October
4-6 at Burns Harbor. The agenda includes a variety of issues
including a new work plan on "Energy Conservation Issues."
They will tour the Burns Harbor battery. Oxygen Steelmaking
and Refractories will meet jointly October 11-12. The
subject will be slag splashing and Kent Peaslee of the University
of Rolla will speak on the subject. They will tour Mittal
Steel's #4 Steel Producing Shop which has gone over 60,000
heats without a reline. Ironmaking and the Subcommittee
on Sintering meet October 26-27 to discuss their
upcoming exchanges with their European counterparts at VDEh.
They will tour Mittal #5 and #6 Blast Furnaces and the #3
Sinter Plant. AISI will describe its construction market program
for all of the committees.
Packaging,
Shipping and Transportation Methods group will meet October
4-6 in Washington, DC. The agenda includes guest presentations
by the Association of American Railroads and RailInc Corp
on several rail issues. Also, a presentation will be given
by the U.S. Department of Agriculture on "Phytosanitary
Wood Packaging Materials." Hot Strip Mills group
will meet October 12-13 in Toronto. The agenda includes discussions
on health, safety, environmental and reliability issues. They
will tour Dofasco's hot strip mill.
Other
activities include:
Sheet Mill meeting with VDEh in Merrillville on October
10-12, 2006 is being hosted by Mittal Steel and US Steel.
Strand
Casting joint with AIST committees on Casting and Refractories
on October 10-11, 2006 and is being hosted by WCI Steel.
Metallurgy
of Steelmaking and Casting on October 18-19, 2006 and
is being hosted by US Steel, Alabama.
Tin
Mill Practices on October 24-25, 2006 and being hosted
by US Steel Midwest.
For
additional articles in this issue, click here
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