STEEL MAKING in Neath Port Talbot
Creating Steel
Steel is iron that has most of the impurities removed. Steel also has a consistent concentration of carbon throughout (0.5 to 1.5 percent). Impurities like silica, phosphorous and sulphur weaken steel tremendously, so they must be eliminated. The advantage of steel over iron is greatly improved strength.
The open-hearth furnace is one way to create steel from pig iron. Pig iron is so called because the iron is run into troughs from the blast furnace. The charge of limestone and iron is fed into an open-hearth furnace where it is heated to about 1,600 degrees F (871 degrees C). The limestone and iron create a slag that floats on the surface. Impurities, including carbon, are oxidized and float out of the iron into the slag. When the carbon content is right, you have carbon steel.
Another way to create steel from pig iron is the Bessemer process, which involves the oxidation of the impurities in the pig iron by blowing air through the molten iron in a Bessemer converter. The heat of oxidation raises the temperature and keeps the iron molten. As the air passes through the molten pig iron, impurities unite with the oxygen to form oxides. Carbon monoxide burns off and the other impurities form slag.
However, most modern steel plants use what's called a basic oxygen furnace to create steel. The advantage is speed, as the process is roughly 10 times faster than the open-hearth furnace. In these furnaces, high-purity oxygen blows through the molten pig iron, lowering carbon, silicon, manganese and phosphorous levels. The addition of chemical cleaning agents called fluxes help to reduce the sulphur and phosphorous levels.
Steel making started in Briton Ferry around 1886 and the works became known as the 'Old Steel' when the new Albion Steel works started production in 1893 on the opposite side of the Briton Ferry docks.
In Port Talbot the original works was situated south of Port Talbot railway station. Constructed in 1901-5, the works was named after Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot of Margam Castle, the principal sponsor of the developments at Port Talbot docks, which had opened in 1837. The works closed in 1961 and the site was demolished in 1963. The General Offices housed Port Talbot magistrates' court, until 2012, but the rest of the site is now an industrial estate.
At Margam, steel making began around 1923 (1916 according to Wikipedia) with a blast furnace near the wharf of the deep water dock where iron ore and coal was unloaded from ships bringing it from its source.
Iron from the Margam blast furnaces was the feedstock for both Margam and Port Talbot melting shops with their 75 ton open hearth gas/oil fired furnaces. The iron was mixed with scrap metal from the adjoining scrap yards to produce steel for the Port Talbot rolling mills.
The Port Talbot mills consisted of light and heavy plate mills, which supplied many ship building yards. The Bar Mill made lines for the railway companies with sleepers from the sleeper pressing plant and 'fish plates' processed for connecting rails. As stated above, the works closed in 1961.
