What is a Steel Billet

Steel billets are a member of the semi-finished casting category, the final products that come out of casting or drawing a billet are bar stock and wire. Steel Billets are the feedstock for larger products that are with a smaller cross section. Steel Billets are hot rolled square bars produced by hot rolling continuous casting billets. The steel billets produced commonly have a cross section between 12-50 millimeter in diameter, steel billets are heated in a pusher or walking beam furnaces at 1,200 degree Celsius. There are many ways in which billets may be arranged in a bar rolling mill, after being taken out of the furnace they are cooled with water jets, placed in a semi-continuous or continuous roll stand. They are geometrically sound to have sharp square or round edges, with the intention of either being machined further or drawn. The main components of a steel billet are low carbon/mild steel, high quality steel and other alloy components.

How it is made

The basic idea of a blast furnace dates back more than 2,000 years to 1st century China. The technology has been updated and the size of furnaces increased but the principle remains the same. First, iron ore is melted to produce pig iron, using coke (originally charcoal) as fuel. Then the carbon-rich pig iron is converted into steel by blowing oxygen through it. A blast furnace is everyone's traditional idea of steel making. It's what's going in the familiar images, of massive crucibles pouring hot molten metal into a giant oven full of burning matter.