Emission limits of the sinter waste gas have been continually andstrictly tightened in the EU for the last years. To cope with these environmentalchallenges, a survey about the sinter plant flue gas cleaningtechnologies was carried out within the VDEh sub-committee“Burden preparation”. This paper summarizes the main results of thissurvey and describes briefly principles of different processes andtechnologies including some of the latest development in the field ofsinter waste gas cleaning.

PARE has developed an electrode wear monitoring system. Theyhave implemented such systems at the three electric arc furnaces(two DC, one AC) located in Luxembourg. The goal of these systemsis twofold: first it allows the steelmaker to continuously monitor itsgraphite consumption and relate it to the furnace operating conditions;second it allows a feedback to the electrode suppliers for qualitymonitoring.

The control of oxygen and fossil fuels injections, taking into accountreal furnace conditions at each step of the melt, is essential for EAFimprovement. Based on near IR Laser- diode spectroscopy, a systemenabling dynamic and continuous CO and CO2 monitoring of EAFfumes during the whole melt for long-term operations has been developed.Several industrial trials are reported, the technology is describedand the results are discussed.

The effects of the thermo-mechanical parameters, in a Hot Strip Millequipped with a coilbox, on the mechanical and micro-structuralbehavior of a titanium stabilized interstitial free steel are reported. Thecoiling temperature has the most significant effect on the mechanicalproperties. Increasing the coiling temperature reduces yield stress,tensile strength and hardness while it increases the elongation atfracture and drawability. The mechanical properties have been interpreted,through metallographic studies, in terms of ferrite grain sizeand of occurrence, distribution and size of the titanium precipitates.

As a substitute for the chromate conversion anticorrosive systemCRM has developed a new conversion coating based on silica nanoparticles.This new process will be implemented on galvanizing linesjust after the zinc bath where the metal strip is still hot. The strip isdipped into a batch containing a suspension of these nanoparticles.Thanks to the strip heat, the solution is locally destabilized and thenanoparticles precipitate onto the metal. The result is an ultra-thincoating (50-200 nm), very compact, that can provide excellent paintadhesion and anticorrosion properties.

The current strong demand for vehicle lightening from the automobilesector requires flat carbon steel manufacturers to develop newadvanced grades capable of fulfilling the increasingly stringent technicalrequirements of this market. Arcelor Research has recentlydeveloped an ultra high strength Fe-Mn-C austenitic steel with excellentformability for automotive applications. The X-IPTM1000 steelcomposition is optimised to provide the best compromise in ultimatetensile strength (>1000 MPa) and total elongation (>50%) at roomtemperature. These properties are achieved through the optimisationof the TWIP (TWinning Induced Plasticity) effect by careful control ofthe stacking fault energy (SFE) and the final microstructure.

In order to improve the safety and reduce plant shut down time forscheduled maintenance works, Aceralia is developing and testing onits HSM at Aviles an application that ensures that the selected equipmentis correctly and safely powered down. This application also servesupdated information regarding the current status of maintenanceworks and equipment. Finally, it performs automatic analysis of theevents happened during the shut down, deviations with respect tothe scheduling and other statistical analyses.