Semi-finished casting products are
intermediate casting
Casting is a manufacturing process in which a liquid material is usually poured into a mold, which contains a hollow cavity of the desired shape, and then allowed to solidify. The solidified part is also known as a ''casting'', which is ejecte ...
s produced in a
steel mill that need further processing before being
finished goods. There are four types: ''ingots'', ''blooms'', ''billets'', and ''slabs''.
Ingot
Ingots are large rough castings designed for storage and transportation. The shape usually resembles a rectangle or square with generous
fillets. They are tapered, usually with the big-end-down.
Bloom
In the era of commercial
wrought iron
Wrought iron is an iron alloy with a very low carbon content (less than 0.08%) in contrast to that of cast iron (2.1% to 4%). It is a semi-fused mass of iron with fibrous slag inclusions (up to 2% by weight), which give it a wood-like "grain" ...
, blooms were slag-riddled iron castings poured in a
bloomery
A bloomery is a type of metallurgical furnace once used widely for smelting iron from its oxides. The bloomery was the earliest form of smelter capable of smelting iron. Bloomeries produce a porous mass of iron and slag called a ''bloom' ...
before being worked into wrought iron. In the era of commercial
steel
Steel is an alloy made up of iron with added carbon to improve its strength and fracture resistance compared to other forms of iron. Many other elements may be present or added. Stainless steels that are corrosion- and oxidation-resistan ...
, blooms are intermediate-stage pieces of steel produced by a first pass of
rolling (in a blooming mill) that works the ingots down to a smaller cross-sectional area, but still greater than .
Blooms are usually further processed via
rotary piercing,
structural shape rolling and profile rolling. Common final products include
structural shapes,
rails, rods, and
seamless pipe
A pipe is a tubular section or hollow cylinder, usually but not necessarily of circular cross-section, used mainly to convey substances which can flow — liquids and gases (fluids), slurries, powders and masses of small solids. I ...
s.
Billet
A billet is a length of metal that has a round or square cross-section, with an area less than . Billets are created directly via
continuous casting or
extrusion
Extrusion is a process used to create objects of a fixed cross-sectional profile by pushing material through a die of the desired cross-section. Its two main advantages over other manufacturing processes are its ability to create very complex c ...
or indirectly via
hot rolling
In metalworking, rolling is a metal forming process in which metal stock is passed through one or more pairs of rolls to reduce the thickness, to make the thickness uniform, and/or to impart a desired mechanical property. The concept is simi ...
an ingot or bloom.
Billets are further processed via
profile rolling and
drawing
Drawing is a form of visual art in which an artist uses instruments to mark paper or other two-dimensional surface. Drawing instruments include graphite pencils, pen and ink, various kinds of paints, inked brushes, colored pencils, crayo ...
. Final products include
bar stock and
wire
Overhead power cabling. The conductor consists of seven strands of steel (centre, high tensile strength), surrounded by four outer layers of aluminium (high conductivity). Sample diameter 40 mm
A wire is a flexible strand of metal.
Wire is co ...
.
Centrifugal casting is also used to produce short circular tubes as billets, usually to achieve a precise metallurgical structure. They are commonly used as
cylinder sleeves where the inner and outer diameters are
ground
Ground may refer to:
Geology
* Land, the surface of the Earth not covered by water
* Soil, a mixture of clay, sand and organic matter present on the surface of the Earth
Electricity
* Ground (electricity), the reference point in an electrical c ...
and machined to length. Because their size is not modified significantly, they are not always classified as semi-finished casting products.
In copper production, a billet is a long, about diameter, of pure copper.
Slab
A slab is a length of metal that is rectangular in cross-section. The slab is created directly by
continuous casting or indirectly by rolling an ingot on a slabbing mill.
Slabs are usually further processed via
flat rolling,
skelping, and pipe rolling. Common final products include
sheet metal
Sheet metal is metal formed into thin, flat pieces, usually by an industrial process. Sheet metal is one of the fundamental forms used in metalworking, and it can be cut and bent into a variety of shapes.
Thicknesses can vary significantly; ex ...
, plates, strip metal,
pipes, and
tubes.
Slab are mainly produced through
blast furnace
A blast furnace is a type of metallurgical furnace used for smelting to produce industrial metals, generally pig iron, but also others such as lead or copper. ''Blast'' refers to the combustion air being "forced" or supplied above atmospheri ...
route. One of the reasons to preferably produce slab through BF route is to achieve high quality.
Global Steel Slab Market Outlook
''Commodity Inside''. 16-08-2018.
File:CC-OXY.jpg, An oxygen gas torch
Principle of burn cutting
Oxy-fuel welding (commonly called oxyacetylene welding, oxy welding, or gas welding in the United States) and oxy-fuel cutting are processes that use fuel gases (or liquid fuels such as gasoline or petrol, diesel, ...
cutting a slab
File:Slabs stack.jpg, Steel slabs
References
{{reflist
Casting (manufacturing)
Metalworking terminology