01The mill
From scrap to site in one day
Follow a tonne of steel through our Idu mill: sorted scrap in the morning, tagged B500 bundles on a truck by evening.
- Furnaces
- 3 × 30 t induction
- Caster
- 4 strand
- Rolling lines
- 2
- Stands
- 18 per line
- Power
- Grid, gas and 6 MW solar
01Ambient
Scrap yard
Sorted, sheared and weighed. Every load is checked for sealed containers and non steel.
Scrap arrives from dealers across the north central states and from our own buy back weighbridge. Loaders separate heavy melting steel, shredded scrap and turnings, and a radiation portal checks every truck at the gate.
021,620 °C
Melt
An induction furnace melts 30 tonnes of scrap in about ninety minutes.
Our three induction furnaces each take thirty tonnes. Melts are planned around grid supply and solar output, and the furnace crew samples the bath every twenty minutes.
031,560 °C
Refine and cast
Ladle refining sets the chemistry, then a continuous caster forms billets.
In the ladle furnace we adjust carbon, manganese and silicon to the B500 recipe. The four strand caster then pours a steady ribbon of steel that is cut into six metre billets.
041,150 °C
Reheat and roll
Billets are reheated and pass through eighteen rolling stands.
A gas fired furnace brings billets back to rolling heat. Eighteen stands squeeze each billet from 130 mm square down to the bar size on the day's schedule, with ribs rolled into the final pass.
05600 °C
Quench
Water boxes harden the surface, the core tempers the bar from inside.
Water boxes after the last stand quench the bar's surface in under a second. The hot core then tempers it on the cooling bed, which is what gives B500 its mix of strength and bendability.
06Ambient
Bundle and test
Cut to 12 metres, bundled, tagged with a heat number and tested in our lab.
Shears cut bars to 12 metres. Bundles of about two tonnes are strapped, tagged with heat number and size, and samples from every heat go to our laboratory before the bundle can be sold.
07Questions
About the process
Is recycled steel as strong as new steel?
Yes. Steel can be recycled indefinitely without losing strength. What matters is controlling chemistry in the ladle and testing every heat, which we do.
What does quenched and self tempered mean?
The bar is sprayed with water as it leaves the last stand, hardening the outer layer. Heat from the core then tempers it, giving a strong skin and a ductile core.
How do you handle power cuts?
The melt shop runs on grid and gas with a 6 MW solar field. A power plan schedules melts around supply so no heat is lost mid cast.
See it in person
Engineers and contractors can book a guided mill visit on Tuesdays and Thursdays.