Characteristics and manufacturing process of weathering steel

Weathering steel refers to the low alloy structural steel which has a protective rust layer and is resistant to atmospheric corrosion and can be used to manufacture steel structures such as vehicles, Bridges, towers and containers. Compared with ordinary carbon steel, weathering steel has better corrosion resistance in atmosphere. Compared with stainless steel, weathering steel only trace alloy elements, such as phosphorus, copper, chromium, nickel, molybdenum, niobium, vanadium, titanium and so on, the total amount of alloy elements only account for a few percent, and not like stainless steel, reach more than ten percent, so the price is relatively low.

Weathering steel manufacturing process

Weathering steel is generally used in concentrate furnace - smelting (converter, electric furnace - microalloying treatment - blowing argon -LF refining - low superheat continuous casting (feeding rare earth wire)- control rolling and cooling process. During smelting, scrap steel is added into the furnace together with the furnace charge, according to the conventional process smelting, after the steel is added deoxidizer and alloy, molten steel after argon blowing treatment, followed by casting, molten steel after argon blowing tempering is cast into slab by continuous casting machine. Due to the addition of rare earth elements, weathering steel is purified and the inclusion content is greatly reduced.