Steel
Completion requirements
Read this article, which explains the history of steel production and the processes involved in its manufacture. Pay attention to the definitions and scientific descriptions.
Production methods
Historical methods
- bloomery
- pattern welding
- catalan forge
- wootz steel: developed in India, used in the Middle East where it was known as Damascus steel
- Cementation process: used to convert bars of wrought iron into blister steel; this was the main process used in England from the early seventeenth century
- crucible technique, similar to the wootz steel: independently redeveloped in Sheffield by Benjamin Huntsman around 1740, and Pavel Anosov in Russia in 1837; Huntsman's raw material was blister steel
- Puddling
Modern methods
- Electric arc furnace: a form of secondary steelmaking from scrap, steel is hard as a resultant of this, though the process can also use direct-reduced iron
- Production of pig iron using a blast furnace
- Converters (steel from pig iron):
- Bessemer process, the first large-scale steel production process for mild steel
- The Siemens-Martin process, using an open hearth furnace
- Basic oxygen steelmaking