Burnham, John

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 The Knowledge Bank at The Ohio State University Ohio State Engineer Title:  Efficiency Plus in Steel Production Creators:  Burnham, John  Issue Date:  1944-05  Publisher:  Ohio State University, College of Engineering  Citation:  Ohio State Engineer, vol. 27, no. 6 (May, 1944), 10-11, 30, 32.  URI:  http://hdl.handle.net/1811/36079    Efficiency Plus in Steel ProductionBy JOHN BURNHAM, ENGR. ITHE Geneva Steel Works, located at Geneva,Utah, is one of the largest steel plants westof the Mississippi. The steel made in nine open-hearth furnaces and rolled on the 3750-foot con-tinuous plate mill is being used to supply theshipbuilding plants of the West Coast.The plant, built at a cost of $180,000,000 forthe Defense Plant Corporation, has a capacity ofapproximately 3300 tons of pig iron per day fromits three blast furnaces. Coke is produced forthe furnaces in more than 250 by-product cokeovens.An urgent need was felt for a steel plant in thewest, when, after December 7, a huge shipbuild-ing program was necessitated on the west coast.The steel for use on the coast had then to beshipped from distant mills in the eastern third—Courtesy General Electric.Most powerful motor in the world for the largeststeel plant west of the Mississippi Riverof the United States, thus imposing a heavy loadon the nation's transportation line. The railwaysystems were already overburdened with wartimetraffic and the merchant marine, in constantdanger from subs, also had to take into accountthe possibility of the Panama Canal being closed.Such were the compelling reasons for the build-ing, in less than two years, of the plant whichcovers 1600 acres and is capable of producing1,280,000 tons of steel annually..The plant is perhaps unique in that all of theraw materials needed in the manufacture of itssteel are found within the state. Coal is suppliedfrom the new Geneva Mine opened at HorseCanyon, approximately 130 miles southeast ofthe plant. Iron ore is furnished from an openpit mine at Iron Mountain, Iron County, Utah,about 255 miles south-west of the works. Lime-stone and dolomite are secured from two newquarries near Payson, Utah, 25 miles from thesteel plant. Water is obtained from the adjacentWasatch Mountains and from artesian wells andflowing springs on the plant site.The plant includes four batteries of sixty-threeby-product coke ovens each, three 1100-ton blastfurnaces, nine 225-ton open-hearth furnaces, a45-inch slabbing and blooming mill, a 132-inchcontinuous plate mill, a 26-inch structural mill,and complementary facilities. The estimated an-nual capacity of the Geneva Works is 1,150,000net tons of iron, 1,280,000 net tons of steel in-gots, and 900,000 net tons of rolled steel.The Geneva Coal Mine is located in Book Cliffs,the strata of which are folded as the name sug-gests. Another mine is located in the same seamsome seven miles away.The outcrop of the mine seam in Book Cliff is6535 feet above sea level. Varying from 10 to16 feet in thickness, it has a downward pitch of11 percent. Openings have been made into theseam on both sides of the canyon about a halfmile from the mouth. On the north side the minehas been driven 3100 feet to the property line.The south mine is being driven into the cliff oneand one-half to two miles.The mines are modern in every detail and freefrom gas. No picks or shovels have been or areintended to be used. An elaborate system ofloaders, shakers and conveyors is used, with thedownward grade fully utilized. Finally, the coalis delivered by endless belt to the mouth of thecanyon, where it is sorted and loaded by gravityonto railroad cars.P a g e 1 0 T h e O h i o S t a t e E n g i n e e r—Courtesy General Electric.Giant coupling of the powerful electric motor of the Geneva Steel Mill being assembled in the factory.Rated at 7000 h.p. it is double-reversing and consists of two units in seriesAn interesting innovation is found in the caphouse and powder house, where care must betaken against explosion. Instead of having elec-tric or other lamps in these buildings, light isreflected into them through mirrors on the doors;sunlight in the daytime and artificial light atnight.The mines, located in Carbon County, are ex-pected to produce 8000 tons daily by the end ofthe year, although only about 5000 tons are nowbeing removed.Water for the Geneva Works is obtained fromthe Deer Creek Reservoir, a Federal Reclama-tion project on the Provo River, and is purchasedon lease from the Metropolitan Water Districtof Salt Lake City. The water from this sourceis supplemented by water from artesian wellsand springs located on the plant property.All water that can be reclaimed in the plantis returned to the reservoir where it is permittedto cool for re-use in plant operations. Hence theonly water loss is through evaporation or con-tamination. When the reservoir is filled, all thewater is treated to remove hardness, and all"make-up water" introduced is similarly treated.Thus all water that passes through the reser-voirs is freed from scale-forming salts.Nearly 220,000,000 gallons of water are pumpedthrough the plant daily, while actual consump-(Continued on page 30)May, 19 4 4 P a g e 1 12 "MUST" books for every artistHere are 2 books from the Higgins library guaranteedto give hours of creative entertainment and instructionto professionals and students alike. You can purchasethem at your nearestHiggins Ink dealer. . .or direct from us.TECHNIQUES: 37 pages.. .wel l over TOO illustra-tions. Gives you the groundwork and advanced tech-niques for all types ofHiggins Ink drawing.Each 50cARTS and CRAFTSPROJECTS: 10 separateprojects ranging from 4 to12 pages each—Map andChart Making, Paper Dec-orating, Spatter and Air-brush, Textile Dyeing, BookBinding, and many more,all in handsome portfoliocover Each $1.00H i G G i n s JJ\K co., IJVC.271 JVJJVTH S T . , HRfHJKJLYJV 17, JV. Y."PEERLESS"ONE OF THEUFKIN CHROME CLADSTEEL TAPES• Easy to Read Markings that Are Durable.(Jet black on satin chrome white surface.)• Line Resists Rust, Being Chrome Plated.(Has hard, smooth surface, easily kept clean.)• Line is Extra Strong.(Being built up by platings.)Write lor Catalog No. 12 and See Your Dealer.UFK/NP R E C I S I O N T O O L S - T A P E S - R U L E SSAGINAW, MICHIGAN NEW YORK CITYSTEEL PRODUCTION(Continued from, page 11)tion is only 9,000,000 gallons of critical waterand 20,000,000 gallons of drainage and artesianwell water.The iron ore handling of the Geneva Worksreflects local conditions of supply. Since themines operate all year long, it is unnecessaryfor huge stock piles of ore to be built up. How-ever, since the different ores are of differentcontent and a uniform mixture must be fed tothe furnaces, some system had to be devised forblending the ores.This is accomplished by what is called a beddingsystem. Incoming cars of ore are dischargedby an underground conveyor, which delivers to aseries of parallel conveyors, each of which emptiesinto a traveling ore stacker. The stacker dis-tributes the ore at right angles to long parallelbeds, spreading a layer the length of the bed.Then when more ore is needed in the blast fur-naces, a traveling ore reclaimer slices crosswiseof the beds, thus getting an average of the ores.The ore bedding system has sufficient capacityto provide ore to operate the furnaces for aboutten days in case of a stoppage of supply fromthe mine.Air for the furnaces is supplied by four turbo-blowers, one to each furnace with one as a spare.The blowers, same as those at eastern plantsexcept for change due to higher altitude and con-sequent lower atmospheric pressure, deliver ap-proximately 95,000 cubic feet of free air perminute.The nine open-hearth furnaces are designed touse a large proportion of molten iron to keep thescrap charge to a minimum. The furnaces arefired with a mixture of tar and coke oven gasand are equipped with waste heat boilers, whichreclaim heat from furnace waste gases and pro-duce steam to augment the power supply.The ingot molds are supplied by the ingot moldfoundry where they are cast either from moltenmetal taken directly from the blast furnaces orfrom pig iron remelted in cupolas.Ingots poured in the open-hearth plant aretransported to the mill where they are stripped,placed in soaking pits, and then clrried by ingotdelivery car to the slabbing mill entry.At the slabbing mill, the slabs are squaredand sheared, either to be sent immediately tothe plate mill, or to be delivered to a storageand reheating pile. About one-third of the platesare direct-rolled, thus saving considerable time.The 132-inch plate mill consists of three slabreheating furnaces of the continuous type, ascale breaking stand, a broadside stand, a revers-(Continued on page 32)P a g e 3 0 T h e O h i o S t a t e E n g i n e e rOWl Photo by Palmer, in an Allegheny Ludlum planta. TO KEEP THE ELECTRIC FURNACES MELTINGALL of us, men or women—onthe job or off it—are peoplewith a mission these days. The warmakes common cause for every oneand spares no one.This maintenance man's job,atop an Allegheny Ludlum electricfurnace, is no less essential thanthat of the crew who operate thefurnace, nor than that of the menin the factories who use the stain-less, tool, valve or electrical steelit produces. Total war requiresmaximum cooperation on the sup-ply fronts as well as the fightingfronts, and it asks also that evervlast bit of manpower and materialsbe used to the maximum advantage.Boiled down to a very few wordsthat simply means: no waste—every-body help. It means, in terms ofyour everyday life, using everythingwisely to secure the most wear;reducing expenditures to a mini-mum; saving materials; buying WarBonds and stamps to the limit.It also points up a responsibilitythat falls upon you as one of thenext generation of business menand technicians. War is the ultimatewaster of men and materials, but itbrings about enormous technicalprogress and development. Thathas been very true in the specialsteel fields. It will be yours to trans-late these advances into terms ofbetter living.AffeqUeny Lad fun?STEEL CORPORATIONW&D A-9317May, 19 4 4 P a g e 31STEEL PRODUCTION(Continued from page 30)ing roughing mill, a secondary scale breakingstand, and four stands of continuous finishingmills. Plates leaving the finishing stand are con-veyed by roller tables to hot beds, roller levelers,and end and side shearing equipment and platepilers. From the pilers the plates are deliveredby transfer car to the plate shipping depart-ment.The rolling mills are served by a common rollshop equipped for dressing and turning all typesof rolls.The most powerful electric motor in the worldis being used at the Geneva Works on the platemill. The motor, rated at 7000 horsepower andwith a shaft speed of only 25 revolutions perminute, will drive a reversing rougher. Operat-ing on direct current, the motor weighs onemillion pounds, stands 13 feet above the floorlevel and has an over-all length of 44 feet.Power for the plant is furnished by five boilers,rated at a total of 1,200,000 pounds of steam perhour, fired with blast furnace gas, coke oven gas,powdered coal, and coke breeze. The principaluses of the steam are to operate the turbines ofthe power plant, blowers, and for general plantprocess use.The electric power is generated by one 5000kilowatt turbo-generator, at 13,800 volts and 60cycles. In event of failure of this single gen-erator, electricity will be drawn from publicutility sources.The history of iron and steel production inUtah is longer than one might think. It wason September 30, 1852, that the first pig iron wasproduced at Cedar City, Utah, the first ever pro-duced west of the Mississippi. It was the hopeof Brigham Young, leader of the Mormons whofirst settled in the territory, that his state ofDeseret might become self-sufficient, and to thisend an exploring party was sent out which lo-cated iron ore deposits some 300 miles south ofSale Lake City.After the furnace had been tapped at CedarCity it was purchased and enlarged by theDeseret Iron Company, which had raised $16,000by selling stock to the Mormons in England, butthe enterprise soon needed to be subsidized.Despite the subsidy the works closed perma-nently in 1858. The next venture in iron pro-duction in the district was undertaken in 1868by the Great Western Iron Manufacturing Co.at Ironton, about four miles southwest of IronMountain, where the ore mines were situated.In 1873 the furnace was blown in, with an outputof 2400 pounds of pig iron every day, but theenterprise was not a financial success, and ceasedoperations in 1883.Since 1924, a blast furnace blown at Provo,Utah, successfully used coke made from Utahcoals in by-product coke ovens on the premises.The location at Geneva provides for good coal,iron ore, and a sufficient water supply, eachwithin a 300-mile radius of the plant. Such aset-up is rare. All our eastern works must haulone or the other of the raw materials for somedistance. In addition to having raw materialsclose, the Utah plant is much nearer to the areait supplies than any other works, as the platesmade here will go to help our war effort in build-ing ships on the West-coast yards.P a g e 3 2 T h e O h i o S t a t e E n g i n e e r

Efficiency Plus in Steel Production

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Efficiency Plus in Steel Production

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