Butt-Weld Pipe

C

C
Chemical symbol for Carbon.

Ca
Chemical symbol for Calcium.

Cake
A copper ingot rectangular in cross section intended for rolling.

Calcium (Ca)
In the form of calcium silicate acts as a deoxidizer and degasifier when added to steel. Recent developments have found that carbon and alloy steels modified with small amounts of calcium show improved machinability and longer tool life. Transverse ductility and toughness are also enhanced.

Call Option
A contract that gives the holder the right, but not the obligation, to buy metal futures at a set price (the strike price) on a given date.

Camber
Edgewise curvature. A lateral departure of a side edge of sheet or strip metal from a straight line.

Camera Shutter Steel
Hardened, tempered and bright polished extra flat and extra precision rolled. Carbon content 1.25 - Chromium .15.

Canning
A dished distortion in a flat or nearly flat surface, sometimes referred to as oil canning.

Capacity
Normal ability to produce steel in a given time period. This rating should include maintenance requirements, but because such service is scheduled to match the needs of the machinery (not those of the calendar), a mill might run at more than 100% of capacity one month and then fall well below rated capacity as maintenance is performed.

• ENGINEERED CAPACITY The theoretical volume of a mill, given its constraints of raw material supply and normal working speed.
   
• "TRUE" CAPACITY Volume at full utilization, allowing for the maintenance of equipment and reflecting current material constraints. (Bottlenecks of supply and distribution can change over time, capacity will expand or reduce.)

Capped Steel
Semiskilled steel cast in a bottle-top mold and covered with a cap fitting into the neck of the mold. The cap causes to top metal to solidify. Pressure is built up in the sealed-in molten metal and results in a surface condition much like that of rimmed steel.

Carbide
A compound of carbon with one or more metallic elements.

Carbon ( C )
(Chemical symbol C) - Element No. 6 of the periodic system; atomic weight 12.01; has three allotropic modifications, all non-metallic. Carbon is preset in practically all ferrous alloys, and has tremendous effect on the properties of the resultant metal. Carbon is also an essential compound of the cemented carbides. Its metallurgical use, in the form of coke, for reduction of oxides, is very extensive.

Carbon-arc welding
Arc welding using a carbon electrode or electrodes.

Carbon Free
Metals and alloys which are practically free from carbon.

Carbon Range
In steel specifications, the carbon range is the difference between the minimum and maximum amount of carbon acceptable.

Carbon Steel
A steel containing only residual quantities of elements other than carbon, except those added for deoxidization or to counter the deleterious effects of residual sulfur. Silicon is usually limited to about 0.60% and manganese to about 1,65%. Also termed plain carbon steel, ordinary steel, straight carbon steel.

Carbo-Nitriding
A case-hardening process in which steel components are heated in an atmosphere containing both carbon and nitrogen.

Carburizing
(Cementation) Adding carbon to the surface of iron-base alloys by absorption through heating the metal at a temperature below its melting point in contact with carbonaceous solids, liquids or gasses. The oldest method of case hardening.

Case Hardening
A generic term covering several processes applicable to steel that change the chemical composition of the surface layer by absorption of carbon or nitrogen, or a mixture of the two, and, by diffusion, create a concentration gradient, so that the outer portion, or case, is made substantially harder than the inner portion, or core. Typical processes used for case hardening are carburizing, cyaniding, Carbo-nitriding, nitriding, induction hardening, and flame hardening.

Cash Price
The current price in the market for cash/spot contracts. LME cash contracts are for delivery two days forward from the trading day.

Cash Today
An LME trade that is carried out after the normal period for a 'cash' trade (i.e. for delivery two business days later) A cash today trade between brokers can only be done prior to the commencement of the official rings at 12.30 and is for delivery on the next business day. Customers' cash today trades must be completed by 12.20 on the trading day before the delivery day. Also referred to as '"tom next"'.

Casing
Casing is the structural retainer for the walls of oil and gas wells, and accounts for 75% (by weight) of OCTG shipments. Casing is used to prevent contamination of both the surrounding water table and the well itself. Casing lasts the life of a well and is not usually removed when a well is closed.

Cast
(1) A term indicating in the annealed state as Cast Spring Steel Wire.
(2) In reference to Bright or Polished Strip Steel or Wire, the word cast implies discoloration as a shadow.
(3) A term implying a lack of straightness as in a coil set.

Cast Iron
Iron containing more carbon than the solubility limit in austenite (about 2%).

Cast Steel
Steel in the form of castings, usually containing less than 2% carbon.

Casting
(1) An object at or near finished shape obtained by solidification of a substance in a mold. (2) Pouring molten metal into a mold to produce an object of desired shape.

Cathodic Corrosion
Corrosion caused by a reaction of an amphoteric metal with the alkaline products of electrolysis.

Cathodic Inhibitor
A chemical substance that prevents or slows a cathodic or reduction reaction.

Cathodic Protection
Reducing the corrosion of a metal by making the particular surface a cathode of an electrochemical cell.

Cavitation
The rapid formation and depletion of air bubbles that can damage the material at the solid/liquid interface under conditions of severe turbulent flow.

Cb
Chemical symbol for Columbium

Ce
Chemical symbol for Cerium.

Cementite
A compound of iron and carbon, known chemically as iron carbide and having the approximate chemical formula Fe3C. It is characterized by an orthorhombic crystal structure. When it occurs as a phase in steel, the chemical composition will be altered by the presence of manganese and other carbide-forming elements.

Cermet
A powder metallurgy product consisting of ceramic particles bonded with a metal.

Chain intermittent weld
An intermittent weld on each side of a joint (usually fillet welds in T and lap joints) arranged so that the welds lie opposite to one another along the joint.

Charcoal Tin Plate
Tin Plate with a relatively heavy coating of tin (higher than the “Coke Tin Plate” grades).

Charge
The act of loading material into a vessel. For example, iron ore, coke and limestone are charged into a Blast Furnace; a Basic Oxygen Furnace is charged with scrap and hot metal.

Charpy Test
A pendulum-type single-blow impact test in which the specimen usually notched, is supported at both ends as a simple beam and broken by a falling pendulum. The energy absorbed, as determined by the subsequent rise of the pendulum, is a measure of impact strength or notch toughness.

Charpy Test
A test to measure the impact properties of steel. A prepared test piece, usually notched, is broken by a swinging pendulum. The energy consumed in breaking the test piece is measured in Joules. The more brittle the steel the lower the impact strength. Izod is a similar and more widely used impact test in this country. Both are quoted in the current edition of BS 970.

Chipping
A method for removing seams and surface defects with chisel or gouge so that such defects will not be working into the finished product. Chipping is often employed to remove metal that is excessive but not defective. Removal of defects by gas cutting is known as “deseaming” or “scarfing.”

Chloride Stress Corrosion Cracking
Cracking due to the combination of tensile stress and corrosion in the presence of water and chlorides.

Chromium (Cr)
An alloying element that is the essential stainless steel raw material for conferring corrosion resistance. A film that naturally forms on the surface of stainless steel self-repairs in the presence of oxygen if the steel is damaged mechanically or chemically, and thus prevents corrosion from occurring.

Chromium-Nickel Steel
Steel usually made by the electric furnace process in which chromium and nickel participate as alloying elements. The stainless steel of 18% chromium and 8% nickel are the better known of the chromium-nickel types.

Cigarette Knife Steel
Hardened, tempered and bright polished, 1.25 Carbon content- Chromium .15. Accurate flatness necessary and a high hardness with Rockwell C 51 to 53. Usual sizes are 4 3/4 wide and 6 wide x .004 to .010.

• WHAT A gas-based process developed by Lurgi Metallurgie in Germany to produce DRI or HBI (see Direct Reduced Iron and Hot Briquetted Iron).
   
• HOW The two-stage method yields fines with a 93% iron content. Iron ore fines pass first through a circulating fluidized-bed reactor, and subsequently through a bubbling fluidized-bed reactor.

Cladding

• WHAT
  Method of applying a stainless steel coating to carbon steel or lower-alloy steel (i.e., steel with alloying element content below 5%).
   
• WHY
  To increase corrosion resistance at lower initial cost than exclusive use of stainless steel.
   
• HOW
  By (1) welding stainless steel onto carbon steel, (2) pouring melted stainless steel around a solid carbon steel slab in a mold, or (3) placing a slab of carbon steel between two plates of stainless steel and bonding them by rolling at high temperature on a plate mill.

Clad Metal
A composite metal containing two or three layers that have been bonded together. The bonding may have been accomplished by co-rolling, welding, heavy chemical deposition or heavy electroplating.

Cleavage
Fracture of a crystal by crack propagation across a crystallographic plane of low index.

Cleavage Fracture
Fracture of a grain, or most of the grains, in a polycrystalline metal by cleavage, resulting in bright reflecting facets.

Cleavage Plane
A characteristic crystallographic plane or set of planes in a crystal on which cleavage fracture occurs easily.
 
Cluster Mill
A rolling mill where each of the two working rolls of small diameter is supported by two or more back-up rolls.

Co
Chemical symbol for Cobalt.

CO2 flux welding
Metal-arc welding in which a flux-coated or flux containing electrode is deposited under a shield of carbon dioxide.

CO2 welding
Metal-arc welding in which a bare wire electrode is used the arc and molten pool being shielded with carbon dioxide

Cobalt (Co)
(Chemical symbol Co.) Element No. 27 of the periodic system; atomic weight 58.94. A gray magnetic metal of medium hardness; it resists corrosion like nickel, which it resembles closely; melting point 2696°F.; boiling point about 5250°F.; specific gravity 8.9. It is used as the matrix metal in most cemented carbides and is occasionally electroplated instead of nickel, the sulfate being used as electrolyte. Its principal function as an alloy in tool steel; it contributes to red hardness by hardening ferrite.

Coefficient of Expansion
The ratio of change in length, area, or volume per degree to the corresponding value at a standard temperature.

Cogging
An intermediate rolling process when a hot ingot is reduced to a bloom or slab in a cogging mill.

Coil or Longitudinal Curl
A lengthwise curve or set found in coiled strip metals following its coil pattern. A departure from longitudinal flatness. It can be removed by roller or stretcher leveling from metals in the softer temper ranges.

Coil Breaks
Creases or Ridges appearing in sheets as parallel lines transverse to the direction of rolling and generally extending across the width of the sheet.

Coil Weld
A joint between two lengths of metal within a coil - which is not always visible in the cold reduced product.

Coils
Steel sheet that has been wound. A slab, once rolled in a hot-strip mill, is more than one-quarter mile long; coils are the most efficient way to store and transport sheet steel.

Coining
A process of impressing images or characters of the die and punch onto a plane metal surface.

Coke (Tin) Plate
(Hot Dipped Tin Plate) Standard tin plate, with the lightest commercial tin coat, used for food containers, oil canning, etc. A higher grade is the best cokes, with special cokes representing the best of the coke tin variety. For high qualities and heavier coatings, see (Charcoal Tin Plate).

Coke

• WHAT
  The basic fuel consumed in blast furnaces in the smelting of iron. Coke is a processed form of coal. About 1,000 pounds of coke are needed to process a ton of pig iron, an amount which represents more than 50% of an integrated steel mill's total energy use.
   
• WHY
  Metallurgical coal burns sporadically and reduces into a sticky mass. Processed coke, however, burns steadily inside and out, and is not crushed by the weight of the iron ore in the blast furnace.
   
• HOW
  Inside the narrow confines of the coke oven, coal is heated without oxygen for 18 hours to drive off gases and impurities.

Coke Oven Battery
A set of ovens that process coal into coke. Coke ovens are constructed in batteries of 10‹100 ovens that are 20 feet tall, 40 feet long, and less than two feet wide. Coke batteries, because of the exhaust fumes emitted when coke is pushed from the ovens, often are the dirtiest area of a steel mill complex.

Cold Cracking
Develops in a weldment after solidification. It forms within hours or days after welding, depending on steel grade, residual stresses and hydrogen content. Proper processing will prevent this problem

Cold Drawing
The process of reducing the cross sectional area of wire, bar or tube by drawing the material through a die without any pre-heating. Cold drawing is used for the production of bright steel bar in round square, hexagonal and flat section. The process changes the mechanical properties of the steel and the finished product is accurate to size, free from scale with a bright surface finish.

Cold-Finished Steel bars
Hot-rolled carbon steel bars with a higher surface quality and strength produced from secondary cold-reduction.

Cold Reduced Strip
Metal strip, made from hot-rolled strip, by rolling on cold-reduction mills.

• WHAT
  Finishing mills roll cold coils of pickled hot-rolled sheet to make the steel thinner, smoother, and stronger, by applying pressure, rather heat.
   
• HOW
  Stands of rolls in a cold-reduction mill are set very close together and press a sheet of steel from one-quarter inch thick into less than an eighth of an inch, while more than doubling its length.

Cold Rolled Finish
Finish obtained by cold rolling plain pickled sheet or strip with a lubricant resulting in a relatively smooth appearance.

Cold-Rolled Strip (Sheet)
Sheet steel that has been pickled and run through a cold-reduction mill. Strip has a final product width of approximately 12 inches, while sheet may be more than 80 inches wide. Cold-rolled sheet is considerably thinner and stronger than hot-rolled sheet, so it will sell for a premium (see Sheet Steel ).

Cold Rolling
Rolling metal at a temperature below the softening point of the metal to create strain hardening (work-hardening). Same as cold reduction, except that the working method is limited to rolling. Cold rolling changes the mechanical properties of strip and produces certain useful combinations of hardness, strength, stiffness, ductility and other characteristics known as tempers.

Cold Short
The characteristics of metals that are brittle at ordinary or low temperatures.

Cold Shut
A defect produced during casting, causing an area in the metal where two portions of the metal in either a molten or plastic condition have come together but have failed to unite, fuse, or, blend into a solid mass. (See Lamination)

Cold treatment
Exposing steel to suitable subzero temperatures (-85 °C, or -120 °F) for the purpose of obtaining desired conditions or properties such as dimensional or microstructural stability. When the treatment involves the transformation of retained austenite, it is usually followed by tempering.

• WHAT
  Changes in the structure and shape of steel achieved through rolling, hammering, or stretching the steel at a low temperature (often room temperature).
   
• WHY
  To create a permanent increase in the hardness and strength of the steel.
   
• HOW
  The application of forces to the steel causes changes in the composition that enhance certain properties. In order for these improvements to be sustained, the temperature must be below a certain range, because the structural changes are eliminated by higher temperatures.

Columbium
(Chemical Symbol Cb) - Element No. 41 of the periodic system. Atomic weight 92.91. It is steel gray in color and brilliant luster. Specific gravity 8.57. Melting point at about 4379°F. It is used mainly in the production of stabilized austenitic chromium-nickel steels, also to reduce the air-hardening characteristics in plain chromium steels of the corrosion resistant type.

Commercial Bronze
A copper-zinc alloy (brass) containing 90% copper and 10% zinc; used for screws, wire, hardware, etc. Although termed “commercial-bronze” it contains no tin. It is somewhat stronger than copper and has equal or better ductility.

Commercial Finish
(See Finishes)

Commercial Quality Steel Sheet
Normally to a ladle analysis of carbon limited at 0.15 max. A Standard Quality Carbon Steel Sheet.

Contango
Market situation when a nearby price is lower than a further forward price.

Consumption
Measures the physical use of steel by end users. Steel consumption estimates, unlike steel demand figures, account for changes in inventories.

Apparent Supply
Derived demand for steel using AISI reported steel mill shipments plus Census Bureau reported imports, less Census Bureau reported exports. Domestic market share percentages are based on this figure, which does not take into account any changes in inventory.

• WHAT
   A method of pouring steel directly from the furnace into a billet, bloom, or slab directly from its molten form.
   
• WHY
  Continuous casting avoids the need for large, expensive mills for rolling ingots into slabs. Continuous cast slabs also solidify in a few minutes versus several hours for an ingot. Because of this, the chemical composition and mechanical properties are more uniform.
   
• HOW
  Steel from the BOF or electric furnace is poured into a tundish (a shallow vessel that looks like a bathtub) atop the continuous caster. As steel carefully flows from the tundish down into the water-cooled copper mold of the caster, it solidifies into a ribbon of red-hot steel. At the bottom of the caster, torches cut the continuously flowing steel to form slabs or blooms.

Continuous Furnace
Furnace, in which the material being heated moves steadily through the furnace.

Continuous Picking
Passing sheet or strip metal continuously through a series of pickling and washing tanks.

Continuous Strip Mill
A series of synchronized rolling mill stands in which coiled flat rolled metal entering the first pass (or stand) moves in a straight line and is continuously reduced in thickness (not width) at each subsequent pass. The finished strip is recoiled upon leaving the final or finishing pass.

Controlled Atmosphere
A gas or mixture of gases in which steel is heated to produce or maintain a specific surface condition. Controlled atmosphere furnaces are widely used in the heat treatment of steel as scaling and decarburization of components is minimized by this process.

Controlled Atmosphere Furnaces
A furnace used for bright annealing into which specially prepared gases are introduced for the purposes of maintaining a neutral atmosphere so that no oxidizing reaction between metal and atmosphere takes place.

Controlled Cooling
A process by which steel is cooled from an elevated temperature in a predetermined manner to avoid hardening, cracking or internal damage, or to produce desired microstructure or mechanical properties.

Controlled Rolling
A hot rolling process in which the temperature of the steel is closely controlled, particularly during the final rolling passes, to produce a fine-grain microstructure.

Conversion Cost
Resources spent to process material in a single stage, from one type to another. The costs of converting iron ore to hot metal or pickling hot-rolled coil can be isolated for analysis.

Converter
A furnace in which air is blown through the molten bath of crude metal or matte for the purpose of oxidizing impurities.

Converter/Processor
Demand from steel customers such as re-rollers and tube makers, which process steel into a more finished state, such as pipe, tubing and cold-rolled strip, before selling it to end users. Such steel generally is not sold on contract, making the converter segment of the mills' revenues more price sensitive than their supply contracts to the auto manufacturers.

Convex fillet weld
A fillet weld in which the weld face is convex (bulbous).

Cooling Stresses
Stresses develop by uneven contraction or external constraint of metal during cooling; also those stresses resulting from localized plastic deformation during cooling and retained.

Copper (Cu)
(Chemical symbol Cu) - Element No. 29 of the periodic system, atomic weight 63.57. A characteristically reddish metal of bright luster, highly malleable and ductile and having high electrical and heat conductivity; melting point 1981°F.; boiling point 4237°F.; specific gravity 8.94. Universally used in the pure state as sheet, tube, rod and wire and also as alloyed by other elements (See Brass and Bronze), as an alloy with other metals.

Core
In the case of steel this refers to a component that has been case-hardened where the centre is softer than the hard surface layer or case. It can also be applied to the central part of a rolled rimming steel.

Core Wound Flat Wire
(See Oscillated Wound Coils)

Corex

• WHAT
  Corex is a coal-based smelting process that yields hot metal or pig iron. Integrated mills or EAF mills can use the output.
   
• HOW
  The process gasifies non-coking coal in a smelting reactor, which also produces liquid iron. The gasified coal is fed into a shaft furnace, where it removes oxygen from iron ore lumps, pellets or sinter; the reduced iron is then fed to the smelting reactor.

Coring
A variation of composition between the center and surface of a unit of structure (such as a dendrite, a grain or a carbide particle) resulting from non-equilibrium growth over a range of temperature.

Corrosion
The gradual degradation or alteration of steel caused by atmosphere, moisture, or other agents.

If mild steel is exposed to an aerated neutral aqueous solution, for example a dilute solution of sodium chloride in water, then corrosive attack will begin at defects in the oxide film on the steel. These defects may be present as a result of mechanical damage such as scratches, or may be due to natural discontinuities in the film, i.e. inclusions, grain boundaries or dislocation networks at the surface of the steel.
At each defect the steel is exposed to the solution (electrolyte) and an anodic reaction occurs, resulting in the formation of iron ions and free electrons. These electrons are then conducted through the oxide film to take part in a cathodic reaction at the surface of the film. This reaction requires the presence of dissolved oxygen in the electrolyte and results in the formation of hydroxyl ions.

The hydroxyl ions react with the ferrous ions produced by the anodic reaction to form ferrous hydroxide, which is then converted into a hydrated oxide called, ?rust'. Gradually a scab of rust may form over the top of the pit, but this is too porous to completely block the anodic area. This allows the corrosion process to continue, resulting in deeper attack and widening of the anodic area as the surface oxide film breaks away.

If the pH of the solution in contact with the steel is low, for example a dilute acid, then the surface oxide film will be removed and the cathodic reaction will be different. Hydrogen gas will be liberated as gradual dissolution of the steel occurs. With oxidizing acids, a number of alternate cathodic reactions may take place.
In all cases of corrosion the anodic reaction cannot proceed in isolation from the cathodic reaction and if either reaction can be limited or stopped then less or no corrosion will occur.

Corrosion Embrittlement
The embrittlement caused in certain alloys by exposure to a corrosive environment. Such material is usually susceptible to the intergranular type of corrosion attack.

Corrosion Fatigue
Fatigue that arises when alternating or repeated stress combines with corrosion. The severity of the action depends on the range and frequency of the stress, the nature of the corroding condition and the time under stress.

Corrugated
As a defect. Alternate ridges and furrows. A series of deep short waves.

Coupon plate
A test piece made by adding plates to the end of a joint to give an extension of the weld for test purposes. (Note: this term is usually used in the shipbuilding industry.)

Covered Electrode
A filler-metal electrode, used in arc welding, consisting of a metal core vire with a relatively thick covering which provides protection for the molten metal form the atmosphere, improves the properties of the weld metal and stabilizes the arc. The covering is usually mineral or metal powders mixed with cellulose or other binder.

Cr
Chemical symbol for Chromium.

Crack
A longitudinal discontinuity produced by fracture. Cracks may be longitudinal, transverse, edge, crater, centre line, fusion zone underhead, weld metal or parent metal

Crater pipe
A depression due to shrinkage at the end of a run where the source of heat was removed.

Creep
The flow or plastic deformation of metals held for long periods of time at stresses lower than the normal yield strength. The effect is particularly important if the temperature of stressing is above the re-crystallization temperature of the metal.

Creep Limit
(1) The maximum stress that will cause less than a specified quantity of creep in a given time.
(2) The maximum nominal stress under which the creep strain rate decreases continuously with time under constant load and at constant temperature. Sometimes used synonymously with creep strength.

Creep Strength
(1) The constant nominal stress that will cause a specified quantity of creep in a given time at constant temperature.
(2) The constant nominal stress that will cause a specified creep react at constant temperature.

Crevice Corrosion
Corrosion of a metal surface that is fully shielded from the environment but corrodes because it is so close to the surface of another metal.

Critical Cooling Rate
The minimum rate of continuous cooling just sufficient to prevent undesired transformations. For steel, the slowest rate at which it can be cooled form above the upper critical temperature to prevent the decomposition of austenite at any temperature above the Ms.

Critical Point
(1) The temperature or pressure at which a change in crystal structure, phase or physical properties occurs; same as transformation temperature. (2) In an equilibrium diagram, that specific combination of composition, temperature and pressure at which the phases of an inhomogeneous system are in equilibrium.

Crown or Heavy Center
Increased thickness in the center of metal sheet or strip as compared with thickness at the edge.

Crucible
A ceramic pot or receptacle made of graphite and clay, or other refractory materials, and used in the melting of metal. The term is sometimes applied to pots made of cast iron, cast steel or wrought steel.

Crucible Steel
High-carbon steel produced by melting blister steel in a covered crucible. Crucible steel was developed by Benjamin Huntsman in about 1750 and remained in use until the late 1940's.

Cruciform test piece
A flat plate to which two other flat plates or two bars are welded at right angles and on the same axis.

Crude steel
Steel in the first solid state after melting, suitable for further processing or for sale. Synonymous to raw steel.

Cryogenic applications
Sub-zero temperature applications

Crystal
(1) A physically homogeneous solid, in which the atoms , ions, or molecules are arranged in a three-dimensional repetitive pattern.
(2) A coherent piece of matter, all parts of which have the same anisotropic arrangement of atoms; in metals, usually synonymous with “grain” and “crystallite.”

Crystalline
Composed of crystals.

Crystalline Fracture
A type of fracture that appears bright and glittering, it having formed along the cleavage planes of the individual crystals. Normally an indication that brittle fracture has occurred.

Crystallization
The formation of crystals by the atoms assuming definite positions in a crystal lattice. This is what happens when a liquid metal solidifies. (Fatigue, the failure of metals under repeated stresses, is sometimes falsely attributed to crystallization.)

Cu
Chemical symbol for Copper.

Cube-Centered
Metallography - (Concerning space lattices) - Body-centered cubic. Refers to crystal structure.

Cup Fracture
A type of fracture in a tensile test specimen which looks like a cup having the exterior portion extended with the interior slightly depressed.

Cupping
The fracture of severely worked rods or wire where one end has the appearance of a cup and the other that of a cone.

Cut Edge
Removal of the as-rolled hot mill edge. Coil ends are cropped back to gauge when cut edge is ordered.

Cup Test
(See Olsen Ductility Test)

Culvert Pipe
Heavy gauge, galvanized steel that is spiral-formed or riveted into corrugated pipe, which is used for highway drainage applications.

Custom Smelter
A smelter that processes concentrates for customers rather than a feed from its own mining operation. For this service treatment charges or tolling charges are received.

Cut Wire Shot
is a product used for Shot Peening and Blasting. Provided in range from Dia 0.40mm to 2.00mm. Used by Manufacturers of Leaf Spring, etc. Available in materials like Steel, SS, Aluminium etc.,

Cut-to-Length
Process to uncoil sections of flat-rolled steel and cut them into a desired length. Product that is cut to length is normally shipped flat-stacked.

Cutting electrode
An electrode with a covering that aids the production of such an arc that molten metal is blown away to produce a groove or cut in the work.

Cutting oxygen
Oxygen used at a pressure suitable for cutting.

Cutting Speed
The linear or peripheral speed of relative motion between the tool and work piece in the principal direction of cutting.

Cyanide Hardening
A process of introducing carbon and nitrogen into the surface of steel by heating it to a suitable temperature in a molten bath of sodium cyanide, or a mixture of sodium and potassium cyanide, diluted with sodium carbonate and quenching in oil or water. This process is used where a thin case and high hardness are required.

Cyaniding
Surface hardening of an iron-base alloy article or portion of it by heating at a suitable temperature in contact with a cyanide salt, followed by quenching. 

D

Dip transfer
A method of metal-arc welding in which fused particles of the electrode wire in contact with the molten pool are detached from the electrode in rapid succession by the short circuit current, which develops every time the wire touches the molten pool

Dish
A concave surface departing from a straight line edge to edge. Indicates transverse or across the width.

See Dished Heads Glossary for more information.

Desulphurization Operation that injects a chemical mixture into a ladle full of hot metal to remove sulfur prior to its charging into the Basic Oxygen Furnace.
 

• WHAT
  
• WHY
   Sulfur enters the steel from the coke in the blast furnace smelting operation, and there is little the steelmaker can do to reduce its presence. Because excess sulfur in the steel impedes its welding and forming characteristics, the mill must add this step to the steelmaking process.

Direct Reduced Iron (DRI) Processed iron ore that is iron-rich enough to be used as a scrap substitute in electric furnace steelmaking.
 

• WHAT
  
• WHY
  As mini-mills expand their product abilities to sheet steel, they require much higher grades of scrap to approach integrated mill quality. Enabling the mini-mills to use iron ore without the blast furnace, DRI can serve as a low residual raw material and alleviate the mini-mills' dependence on cleaner, higher-priced scrap.
   
• HOW
  The impurities in the crushed iron ore are driven off through the use of massive amounts of natural gas. While the result is 97% pure iron (compared with blast furnace hot metal, which, because it is saturated with carbon, is only 93% iron), DRI is only economically feasible in regions where natural gas is attractively priced.

Doctor Blade Steel Strip
A hardened and tempered spring steel strip, usually blued, produced from approximately .85 carbon cold rolled spring steel strip specially selected for straightness and good edges. Sometimes hand straightened or straightened by grinding and cut to desired lengths. This product is used in the printing trade as a blade to uniformly remove excess ink (“dope”) from the rolls; hence its name.

Drag
The projected distance between the two ends of a drag line

Drag lines
Serrations left on the face of a cut made by thermal cutting.

Drawing
(See Tempering)

Drawing Back
Reheated after hardening to a temperature below the critical for the purpose of changing the hardness of the steel. (See Tempering)

Drawn-Over-Mandrel
A procedure for producing specialty tubing using a draw bench to pull tubing through a die and over a mandrel, giving excellent control over the inside diameter and wall thickness. Advantages of this technique are its inside and outside surface quality and gauge tolerance. Major markets include automotive applications and hydraulic cylinders.

Dressing of coil
Eliminating any damage or defects from the outer or inner diameter of the coil in preparation for shipping.

Drill Pipe
Pipe used in the drilling of an oil or gas well. Drill pipe is the conduit between the wellhead motor and the drill bit. Drilling mud is pumped down the center of the pipe during drilling, to lubricate the drill bit and transmit the drilled core to the surface. Because of the high stress, torque and temperature associated with well drilling, drill pipe is a seamless product.

Dry Rolled Finish
Finish obtained by cold rolling on polished rolls without the use of any coolant or metal lubricant, material previously plain pickled, giving a burnished appearance.

Ductility
Ability of steel to undergo permanent changes in shape without fracture at room temperature.

Dumping
Dumping occurs when imported merchandise is sold in, or for export to, the domestic market at less than the normal value of the merchandise, i.e., a price which is less than the price at which identical or similar merchandise is sold in the comparison market, the home market (market of exporting country) or third-country market (market used as proxy for home market in cases where home market cannot be used). The normal value of the merchandise cannot be below the cost of production.

Dumping Margin
The amount by which the normal value exceeds the export price or constructed export price of the subject merchandise.

Duplex
A category of stainless steel with high amounts of chromium and moderate nickel content. The duplex class is so named because it is a mixture of austenitic (chromium-nickel stainless class) and ferritic (plain chromium stainless category) structures. This combination was originated to offer more strength than either of those stainless steels. Duplex stainless steels provide high resistance to stress corrosion cracking (formation of cracks caused by a combination of corrosion and stress) and are suitable for heat exchangers, desalination plants, and marine applications.

Duralumin
The trade name applied to the first aluminum-copper-magnesium type of age-hardenable alloy (17S), which contains nominally 4% Cu, ½ % Mg. The term is sometimes used to include the class of wrought aluminum-copper-magnesium alloys that harden during aging at room temperature. 

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Earing
Wavy projections formed at the opera end of a cup or shell in the course of deep drawing because of differences in directional properties. Also termed scallop. (See Non-Scalloping Quality Strip Steel)

Eddy-Current Testing
Nondestructive testing method in which eddy-curent flow is induced in the test object. Changes in the flow caused by variations in the object are reflected into a nearby coil or coils for subsequent analysis by suitable instrumentation and techniques.

Edges
Many types of edges can be produced in the manufacture of flat rolled metal products. Over the years the following types of edges have become recognized as standard in their respective fields.Slit, Slit and Edge Rolled, Sheared, Sawed, Machined or Drawn
  Mill Edge, Slit Edge or Sheared Edge.
  No.1  Edge - A smooth, uniform, round or square edge, either slit or filed or slit and edge rolled as specified, width tolerance +/-.005”. 

No.2  Edge - A natural round mill edge carried through from the hot rolled band. Has not been slit, filed, or edge rolled. Tolerances not closer than hot-rolled strip limits.

No.3  Edge - Square, produced by slitting only. Not filed. Width tolerance close.

No.4  Edge - A round edge produced by edge rolling either from a natural mill edge or from slit edge strip. Not as perfect as No. 1 edge. Width tolerances liberal.

No.5  Edge - An approximately square edge produced by slitting and filing or slitting and rolling to remove burr.

No.6  Edge - A square edge produced by square edge rolling, generally from square edge hot-rolled occasionally from slit strip. Width tolerances and finish not as exacting as No. 1 edge.

• Copper Base Alloys:
  
• Sheet Steels or Aluminium Sheet:
  
• Strip Steels and Stainless Strip

Edge Filing
A method whereby the raw or slit edges of strip metal are passed or drawn one or more times against a series of files, mounted at various angles. This method may be used for deburring only or filing to a specific contour including a completely rounded edge.

Edge Rolling (Edge Conditioning)
Rolling a strip of steel to smooth the edges. By removing the burr off the coil, it is safer for customers to manipulate.

Edge Strain or Edge Breaks
Creases extending in from the edge of the temper rolled sheet.

Edgewise Curvature
(See Camber)

Edging
The dressing of metal strip edges by rolling, filing or drawing.

Egg-Shaped Coils
Coil that is sagging at the center.

Elastic Limit
Maximum stress that a material will stand before permanent deformation occurs.

Electric Arc Furnace (EAF)
Steelmaking furnace where scrap is generally 100% of the charge. Heat is supplied from electricity that arcs from the graphite electrodes to the metal bath. Furnaces may be either an alternating current (AC) or direct current (DC). DC units consume less energy and fewer electrodes, but they are more expensive.

Electric Furnace Steel
Steel made in any furnace where heat is generated electrically, almost always by arc. Because of relatively high cost, only tool steels and other high-value steels are made by the electric furnace process.

Electric Resistance Welded (ERW) Pipe
Pipe made from strips of hot-rolled steel which are passed through forming rolls and welded. While seamless pipe is traditionally stronger and more expensive than comparable ERW pipe, ERW technology is improving and the technique now accounts for approximately 48% of OCTG shipments by tonnage.

Electrical Steel
(See Silicon Electrical Steel)

Electron-beam cutting
Thermal cutting in vacuum by melting and vaporizing a narrow section of the metal by the impact of a focused beam of electrons.

Electroplating
The production of a thin coating of one metal on another by electrodeposition. It is very extensively used in industry and is continuing to enlarge its useful functions. Various plated metals and combinations thereof are being used for different purpose to illustrate:

   1. Decoration and protection against corrosion….copper, nickel & chromium
   2. Protection against corrosion…………………...…………...cadmium or zinc
   3. Protection against wear…………………….......…………………..chromium
   4. Build-up of a part or parts undersize……………..……...chromium or nickel
   5. Plate for rubber adhesion……………………………………..............…brass
   6. Protection against carburization & for brazing operations......copper & nickel

Elongation
Increase in length which occurs before a metal is fractured, when subjected to stress. This is usually expressed as a percentage of the original length and is a measure of the ductility of the metal.

Elongation After Fracture
In tensile testing, the increase in the gauge length measured after fracture of the specimen within the gauge length and usually expressed as a percentage of the original gauge length.

Embossed sheet
An embossed sheet is one having a prominent, impressed texture or pattern on its surface(s). If the defined texture is applied to essentially on surface only, it is most properly termed a coined surface. If the texture or pattern carries through the entire body of the sheet and appears on both surfaces it is a true embossed surface.

Embossing
Raising or indenting a design in relief on a sheet or strip of metal by passing between rolls of desired pattern. (See Patterned or Embossed Sheet)

End-quench hardenability test (jominy test)
A method for determining the hardenability of steel by water-quenching one end of an austenitized cylindrical test specimen and measuring the resulting hardness at specified distances from the quench end.

Endurance Limit
Maximum alternating stress, which a given material will withstand for an indefinite number of times, without causing fatigue failure.

Environmental Cracking
The cracking and corroding of a normally ductile material due to environmental conditions.

Erichsen Test
Similar to the Olsen Test. Readings are in millimeters.

Erosion
The continuous depletion of a material due to mechanical interaction with a liquid, a multi-component fluid, or solid particles carried with the fluid.

Erosion-Corrosion
An accelerated loss of material concerning corrosion and erosion that results from corrosive material interacting with the material.

Etching
In metallography, the process of revealing structural details by the preferential attack of reagents on a metal surface.

Eutectoid Steel
Steel representing the eutectoid composition of the iron carbon system, with about 0.80% to 0.83% carbon, the eutectoid temperature being about 1333°F. Such steel in the annealed condition consists exclusively of pearlite. Steels with less than this quota of carbon are known as hypo-eutectoid and contain free ferrite in addition to the pearlite. When more carbon is present, the steel is known as hyper-eutectoid and contains free cementite. The presence of certain elements, such as nickel or chromium, lowers the eutectoid carbon content.

Excess penetration bead
Excessive metal protruding through the root of a fusion weld made from one side only.

Extra Hard Temper
In brass mill terminology, Extra Hard is six B & S numbers hard or 50.15% reduction from the previous annealing or soft stage.

Extra Spring Temper
In brass mill terminology, Extra Spring is ten numbers hard or 68.55% reduction in thickness from the previous annealing or soft stage.

Extra Smooth Galvanized
An Extra-Smooth finish is imparted to hot-dip metallic-coated steel sheet by temper rolling after coating to decrease the surface relief that occurs when the molten coating solidifies. The spangle pattern (grain pattern) is made distinctly less visible by the matte finish imparted by the rolling operation. Most Extra-Smooth sheet is intended for either pre-painted or post painted applications.

Extrusion
Shaping metal into a chosen continuous form by forcing it through a die of appropriate shape. 

Eye of Coil
The center of the coil as wound.

F

Fabricator
A producer of intermediate products that does not also produce primary metal. For example, a rebar (see Reinforcing Bar) fabricator purchases rebar and processes the material to the specifications of a particular construction project.

Face bend test
A bend test in which a specified side of the weld Normal bend test. (The side opposite that containing the root or )

Fastmet
A process to directly reduce iron ore to metallic iron pellets that can be fed into an electric arc furnace with an equal amount of scrap. This process is designed to bypass the coke oven-blast furnace route to produce hot metal from iron ore. It is also one of several methods that mini-mills might use to reduce their dependence on high-quality scrap inputs (see Direct Reduced Iron and Hot Briquetted Iron).

Fatigue
A condition leading to the eventual fracture of a material due to constant or repeated stresses that exert less pressure than the tensile strength of the material.

Feather
The carbon-rich zone, visible in a flame, extending around and beyond the cone when there is an excess of carbonaceous gas.

Ferrite
The room temperature form of alpha iron, one of the two major constituents of steel (cementite) in which it acts as the solvent to form solid solutions with such elements as manganese, nickel, silicon and, to a small degree, carbon

Ferritic
The second-largest class of stainless steel, constituting approximately 25% of stainless production.

Ferritic stainless steels are plain chromium steels with no significant nickel content; the lack of nickel results in lower corrosion resistance than the austenitic (chromium-nickel stainless steels). Ferritics are best suited for general and high-temperature corrosion applications rather than services requiring high strength. They are used in automotive trim and exhaust systems, interior architectural trim, and hot water tanks. Two of the most common grades are type 430 (general-purpose grade for many applications, including decorative ones) and type 409 (low-cost grade well suited to withstanding high temperatures).

Ferroalloy
A metal product commonly used as a raw material feed in steelmaking, usually containing iron and other metals, to aid various stages of the steelmaking process such as deoxidation, desulphurization, and adding strength. Examples: ferrochrome, ferromanganese, and ferrosilicon.

Ferrochrome
An alloy of iron and chromium with up to 72% chromium. Ferrochrome is commonly used as a raw material in the making of stainless steel.

Ferro-Manganese
An alloy of iron and manganese (80% manganese) used in making additions of manganese to steel or cast-iron. Ferroalloy, An alloy of iron with a sufficient amount of some element or elements such as manganese, chromium, or vanadium for use as a means in adding these elements into molten steel.

Ferrous
Metals that consist primarily of iron.

Filed Edges
Finished edges, the final contours of which are produced by drawing the strip over a series of small steel files. This is the usual and accepted method of dressing the edges of annealed spring steel strip after slitting in cases where edgewise slitting cracks are objectionable or slitting burr is to be removed.

Filler Metal
A third material that is melted concurrently with the parent metal during fusion or braze welding. It is usually, but not necessarily, of different composition from the parent metals.

Fillet weld
A fusion weld, other than a butt, edge or fusion spot weld, which is approximately triangular in transverse cross-section.

Finish
The surface appearance of steel after final treatment.

Finmet
The process reduces iron ore fines with gas in a descending series of fluidized bed reactors. The reduced iron is hot briquetted.

Firecrack
Raised area on the strip caused by a thermal crack on the work roll surface.

Fish eyes
Areas on a fractured steel surface having a characteristic white crystalline appearance.

Fish Tail
The condition on the tail end of the strip from the Hot Strip Mill.

Flakes
Short discontinuous internal fissures in ferrous metals attributed to stresses produced by localized transformation and decreased solubility of hydrogen during cooling after hot working. In a fractured surface, flakes appear as bright silvery areas; on an etched surface they appear as short discontinuous cracks. Also called shatter cracks and snowflakes.

Flame Annealing
A process of softening a metal by the application of heat from a high-temperature flame.

Flame cutting
Oxygen cutting in which the appropriate part of the material to be cut is raised to ignition temperature by an oxy-fuel gas flame.

Flame snap-out
Retrogression of the flame beyond the blowpipe body into the hose, with possible subsequent explosion.

Flame washing
A method of surface shaping and dressing of metal by flame cutting using a nozzle designed to produce a suitably shaped cutting oxygen stream.

Flame Hardening
A hardening process in which the surface is heated by direct flame impingement and then quenched

Flare Test
A test applied to tubing, involving a tapered expansion over a cone. Similar to pin expansion test.

Flash
(1) In forging, the excess metal forced between the upper and lower dies.
(2) In resistance butt welding, a fin formed perpendicular to the direction of applied pressure.

Flashback arrestor
A safety device fitted in the oxygen and fuel gas system to prevent any flashback reaching the gas supplies.

Flash Welding
A resistance butt welding process in which the weld is produced over the entire abutting surface by pressure and heat, the heat being produced by electric arcs between the members being welded.

Flat-Rolled Steel
Category of steel that includes Sheet, Strip, and Tin Plate, among others.

Floating head
A blowpipe holder on a flame cutting machine which, through a suitable linkage, is designed to follow the contour of the surface of the plate, thereby enabling the correct nozzle-to-work piece distance to be maintained.

Fluting
Kinking or breakage due to curving of metal strip on a radius so small, with relation to thickness, as to stretch the outer surface above its elastic limit. Not to be confused with the specific product, Fluted Tubes.

Flux
An iron-cleaning agent. Limestone and lime react with impurities within the metallic pool to form a slag that floats to the top of the relatively heavier (and now more pure) liquid iron.

Forge Welding
Welding hot metal by applying pressure or blows.

Fouling
An accumulation of marine organism deposits on a submerged metal surface. Fouling also refers to the accumulation of normally inorganic deposits on heat exchanger tubing.

Fracture Test
Nicking and breaking a bar by means of sudden impact, to enable macroscopic study of the fracture.

Fragmentation
The subdivision of a grain into small discrete crystallites outlined by a heavily deformed network of intersecting slip bands as a result of cold working. These small crystals or fragments differ from one another in orientation and tend to rotate to a stable orientation determined by the slip systems.

Free bend test
A bend test made without using a former.

Free Machining
Pertains to the machining characteristics of an alloy to which one or more ingredients have been introduced to produce small broken chips, low power consumption, better surface finish or longer tool life.

Freight on Board Pricing
Phrase that explains whether the transportation costs of the steel are included. "FOB Mill" is the price of steel at the mill, not including shipping.

Freight Equalization
A common industry practice when a mill sells steel outside its geographic area; it will assume any extra shipping costs (relative to the competition) to quote the customer an equivalent price to get the business.

Fretting
Action that results in surface damage, especially in a corrosive environment, when there is relative motion between solid surfaces in contact under pressure.

Fretting Corrosion
Deterioration at the interface of two contacting surfaces under load which is accelerated by their relative motion.

Full Annealing
Heating the metal to about 100 (degrees) F. above the critical temperature range, followed by soaking at this point and slow cooling below the critical temperature.

Full Hard
Cold reduced sheet that has not been annealed.

Fusion penetration
In fusion welding. The depth to which the parent metal has been fused.

Fusion Welding
Any welding process in which fusion is employed to complete the weld.

Fusion zone
The part of the parent metal which is melted into the weld metal.

Futures Contract
An agreement to buy or sell a fixed amount of metal for delivery on a fixed future date at a price agreed today.

G