Terminology

Vacuum Arc Remelting. A method of producing ingots with lower gas content, fewer inclusions and reduced segregation. The process consists of melting a cast or wrought electrode with a DC arc under high vacuum. Molten droplets exposed to the vacuum are collected and solidify to ingot in a water-cooled copper mould

German Iron and Steel Institute

Volatile organic compounds. May be released to the air as an emission during electric steelmaking - thus a potential health risk if not monitored or controlled

Vacuum Oxygen Decarburisation. A ladle steelmaking process in which oxygen is injected into molten steel under vacuum. This allows carbon to be removed from the steel without oxidising chromium. A method of refining stainless steel (see also AOD)

Wire Association International

A means of conveying steel bars, billets, slabs, etc., across a cooling bed or through a furnace. The material to be conveyed rests on a metal grid and a second grid is arranged to lift up and move forward between the stationary grid, thus lifting the material and "walking" it forward, before returning to make another stroke.

World Bureau of Metal Statistics

Joining two pieces of metal together using heat and pressure to soften the materials.

Welding. Welding consists of heating metal on two adjacent plates and then adding new welded metal between them to make a molten pool; when cooled the pool becomes solid and a strong bond is made. A fillet weld is a weld made in an angle between two plates. A butt weld is made when two plates are end to end, with a gap between them, and the whole gap is filled with molten weld material, in one or more passes. Welding can be done with heat from burning gas (Oxy Acetylene), or with heat from electrical discharge between a welding rod and the metal parts. Because of the high heat in welding, the weld must be protected from oxidising, either with the flux supplied on the rod; or by a stream of inert gas around the weld site.

German steel specifications commonly shown as a number followed by a full stop then four more numbers (i.e. 1.2379).

Reference to refrigerators, freezers, ovens, washing machines, tumble driers [often painted white] which make up a distinct steel-consuming segment (especially significant in flat products)

The reduction in cross-section of descaled rod by progressively pulling it through dies. The resulting product has a bright surface, improved mechanical properties and closer dimensional tolerances. Distinguished from bright drawing by being a coil-to-coil process