SYMPOSIUM O N APPLIED RESEARCH
Applied R&D in Steel J O H N E. EBERHARDT
Industry looks forward to making of steel f r o m iron ore concentrates
in essentially a single step he steel industry has been described as a capital-
Tintensive, low-technology industry. As to capital, the nature and scale of the business are such that a large capital expenditure is almost invariably required to take advantage of a significant new development, as distinct from an evolutionary development. This situation is not likely to change soon. As to technology, the steel industry certainly is less dependent on new technology than many other industries, but there is more technology and more new technology in the making of steel than many people think. Moreover, steel products themselves are far more sophisticated than is generally realized. There are, for instance, more than 150 grades of common sheet steel with subtle variations in composition and processing to impart particular combinations of properties needed by users for particular applications. The industry has adopted and is adopting new technologies and continues to develop them through applied research and development, the subject of this paper.
increase sales via new products or those which reduce costs via new processes. Investments based on new technologies may also include those demanded by competition or by the environment-e.g., those which improve the quality of existing products or those which abate pollution. Whatever the type, an investment requires a justification, and at this point reference is made to Figure 1, my version of the research and development circle which could be called equally well the R&D merrygo-round. An investment requires a justification. The justification may be an estimated return on investment or it could be a description of the dire consequences of not making
R&D Terms Defined
T o have a common ground for discussing applied research and development, it will be helpful to define some terms. For our purposes, “exploratory research” is finding out what new technical information would be needed to advance an idea to the development stage; “applied research” is obtaining the new information and developing from it the required new operating and engineering principles ; “development” is converting the new principles, plus some old ones, into a new technology; and a new “technology” is a technical description of a process, or a product, or an operation that is of value to the company. The purpose of the whole sequence is to develop new or improved technologies which provide opportunities for investments. Investments based on new technologies may include those offering business opportunities--e.g., those which 10
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Figure 7; Applied research circle
Figure 2. Research and development spiral
the investment. At any rate, a justification is a prediction of something that will happen in the future as a consequence of making a n investment. Predictions by their very nature embody uncertainty, and fear of the unknown is a powerful deterrent. Uncertainty in making an investment is even greater than uncertainty in making a bet. A bettor can normally establish the odds prior to placing his bet. He can then judge the probability of winning relative to the odds and decide whether and how much to bet. His only uncertainty is about the probability of winning. I n contrast, a n investor in the development of a new technology is uncertain not only about the probability of success but even about the size of the bet and the odds! In other words, he is uncertain about the total investment that might be required to get the payoff and perhaps even more so about the ultimate return on investment. Both the bettor and the investor can reduce uncertainty by getting more information, but there aren’t many ways of getting information free of charge. So there it is, getting information itself requires an investment-and we have come full circle. My belief is that the major if not the sole product of applied research and development is information, and, a t least in our industry, such information is likely to be expensive. Getting a project on the R&D merry-go-round is usually easy; getting off may be another story. Getting
off means commercializing the development, or-not too often, we hope-abandoning the development. Neither course is easy. Let me tell you how we go about getting on the merry-go-round and trying to get off again before too many turns.
Steps in Project First of all a n idea is needed. The word “idea” means different things to different people. The most common notion among technical people seems to be that ideas have to do mainly with solving technical problems, and it is certainly true that such ideas are needed. Solving technical problems, however, comes later, and what is needed a t this point is the recognition of a need or a vision of something that people want or can be persuaded to want. I n other words, what is needed here are ideas about what to work on, rather than ideas about how to do the work. One good way to get ideas about needs or wants is to expose the research and development engineers to the business. Certainly, close and continuing association with production and engineering personnel and observation and study of production processes are essential to recognition of production needs. Similarly, close and continuing association with sales personnel and, with or through them, with present and potential customers is essential to recognition of product needs or VOL. 6 2
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wants. Close association with the planning department is important, and exposure to the purchasing and accounting departments can also be of considerable value. T h e most urgent need of a research and development department is the recognition of business needs that can be served by developing new technology. People who come up with thoughts or ideas of that type are worth their weight in gold. Ideas about what to work on can and should come from anyone in the company. Of great importance and, of course, of highest priority are the technologies which company management says it needs to implement its business strategies. A research and development department is not fully effective, however, if it functions entirely on instructions from others. Another important responsibility of company management is to foster the generation of ideas about what research people should be working on by demonstrating a strong interest in the new. I n such a climate, it is easy for research engineers to feel a keen responsibility for generating such ideas. That responsibility is inherent, however, and an engineer should not abdicate it even if he fears that his ideas may not be favorably received. If an idea is good enough and if its proponents are persistent enough, it will eventually be implemented and adopted. The technical problems that prevent the company from immediately meeting a need or seizing an opportunity when it has been recognized bring into play the problem solvers. At this point what is wanted is known, but how to get it economically, if at all, is not known. Imagination and ingenuity are required to develop a technology from a concept, and here ideas of the problemsolving type are essential. Often, the man who had the idea about what to work on, also has ideas about how to solve the technical problems. But, with rare exceptions, developing a technology requires technical help from other skilled researchers. Now to get back to the R&D merry-go-round-solving a technical problem requires getting some information, and therefore a n investment. Figure 2, a more elaborate version of the merry-go-round, shows that it is really a spiral which starts a t the center with someone believing that something of value to the company might be developed. Each turn of the spiral consists of a proposal based on information a t hand which, upon approval, leads to work to develop more information, and so on. Each successive turn of the spiral costs more, and the outer turns can be very expensive. Note that the step of approval is not shown in the first turn of the spiral. I n our laboratories we try to provide a receptive climate by allowing a very considerable amount of freedom at this stage; our better engineers are free, within limits, to do exploratory research on their own ideas. Subsequent steps require approval at higher and higher levels of management, and it may be of some 12
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interest to examine the approval process. First of all, it is absolutely essential that a research and development department be assured and reassured that a successful development will provide a business opportunity of interest to the company. For this reason, the research and development department must involve other departments, first by consulting with them at an early stage, and then, as the development proceeds, by getting SUCcessi\dy their cooperation, their active participation, and finally their commitment. Nothing helps to keep a development moving like having a few individuals in other departments committed to its success. The approval process includes considerations of the budget, of priorities, and of risk and return us. chance of success. These and other factors are handled by various methods, and a decision to do one of three things is reached : advance (the solid arrow), stop (the closed gate) or “go back to the drawing board” and get more information (the dashed arrow). A decision to advance is a difficult one-someone is sure to ask if the outcome is really as certain as it should be, and to suggest getting more information before the next step is approved. A decision to get more information often seems to be the easy way out, and it is only human to be attracted to it. However, when this course is proposed, someone must ask pointedly whether the additional information will really reduce the uncertainty enough to make any difference and whether the cost of getting more information and the cost of lost profits from the resulting delay are really good investments. Sometimes bold and aggressive action is needed here to keep a development moving and to get a product to the marketplace before a competitor ruins its potential profitability with a development of his own. A decision to stop is also difficult-the proponents will suggest that getting more information might make the proposition look better and might say that there is an investment to “protect.” Again, a decision to get more information seems the easy way out and again it should be asked whether more information will really make any significant difference in the predicted eventual outcome. Moreover, there isn’t any such thing as “protecting” a n investment. At any point in time, what has been spent on applied research and development is gone (sometimes this is called a “sunk” cost). All there is to show for the cost is information which is, or should be, useful for looking ahead.
E. Eberhardt is Assistant Vice President, Research, Bethlehem Steel Corp., Bethlehem, Pa. T h i s paper was presented as part of the Symposzum on Applied Research, Its Accomplzshments and Futures, 757th X’ataonal ACS Meeting, Mznneapolis, M i n n . , Aprzl 13-18, 1969. AUTHOR John
Figure 3. Sanitary tin can
Decisions to go “back to the drawing board’’ and get more information may not seem difficult, but they should not be taken lightly; too many such decisions can be costly. T h e final proposal is for commercialization, which, according to Webster, means “causing to yield pecuniary profit.” At this juncture, the sponsors of the proposal consider that the uncertainty of its favorable predictions has been reduced to an acceptable level. If those favorable predictions are accepted, a decision on commercializing a new product or providing additional capacity for an existing product is usually to go ahead as soon as possible. If, however, commercialization of a new development means replacing existing capacity for present products in order to reduce costs, the matter of timing needs more consideration because operating costs of the new relative to the old are the overriding consideration. The performance of the older existing facilities tends to deteriorate as time goes on. O n the other hand, when a n industry starts to adopt a new technology, each successive installation is likely to perform better than the last. T h e saving in operating costs through replacing an old facility with one employing a new technology thus tends to increase with time. When the time comes that the investment is attractive relative to other business opportunities, a decision is made to go ahead with the replacement facility as soon as possible. If the timing is to be right, estimates of the operating cost advantage of the new over the old must be kept u p to date, and, in addition, a watch must be kept for emerging technologies promising to be still better than the new one being considered. Here again, “sunk” costs in existing facilities play no part in the decision. Perhaps the most widely known example of new technology replacing old in our industry is the replacement of open-hearth furnaces with basic oxygen furnaces, which started a few years ago and is still going on. I know that my own company moved promptly when the time was right, and I believe the same thing is true for the industry as a whole.
Typical R&D Project
T o return again to the merry-go-round, the successive stages of a development can be illustrated with a recent one of our own. This went very quickly and smoothly for two reasons; first, we had considerable expertise in the field and had already done some exploratory research, and second, the president of the company put us on the merry-go-round. The development concerns cans for beer and beverages, and a little history will be useful to bring the subject into focus. Everyone has seen and handled a tin can, but he may not have really noticed how it is made. T h e construction and design shown in Figure 3 go back many years. T h e term sanitary is used to designate cans in which food is packed, but the construction of beer a n d beverage cans is similar. As shown, the side seam is doubled over and is soldered, while the ends are crimped on by a process called double seaming, with a n organic sealant making the joint leakproof. This container is versatile, safe, and efficient and finds very wide use. Actually, of course, it is not a tin can but a can made of steel coated with tin, the coating accounting for less than 1% of the weight of the can. Cans are demanding of the properties of the steel from which they are made. Note especially the double seam a t both ends; excellent formability is needed to make this seam without breakage. Flatness, uniform thickness, and a number of other special properties are also needed. I n the early days of this century, steel for can bodies was customarily about 0.015 in. thick, as dictated by the rolling mills available a t that time. T h e mills of the late 1950’s made it possible to decrease the thickness to about 0.010 in., and in recent years further developments permitted a further decrease in thickness to about 0.006 in., the thickness now used for the bodies of beer and beverage cans. T h e product was called “thin tin” in the publicity a few years ago. Although tin accounts for very little of the weight of the tin-coated steel, it is a n important element of cost. I n the early days of this century, the coating was applied by dipping the sheets of steel into molten tin, and various VOL. 6 2
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Figure 41 Full-width development line
mechanical developments had brought the coating thickness down to about the lower limit for that method by the late 1930’s. About that time, electrolytic tin plating was developed, and this is the method in use today. Since the late 1930’s) the price of tin has more than tripled, and the average coating thickness has been reduced to about a quarter of what it was then. At present coating thicknesses, it would take only a pound of tin to cover the floors in an average-sized house, that is, one with about 1800 ft2of floor space. But thin steel and thin tin coatings were not enough. T h e market for beer and beverage cans appeared to be in jeopardy from competitive containers. The size of this market is startling, some projections placing it in just a few years at 40 billion cans or roughly $1.5 bill‘ion a year. About three years ago, we had for some time been doing exploratory work on coatings to substitute for tin, but the soldered side seam had been an insurmountable obstacle. At that point, two of the major can companies told us about two independent developments which, by replacing the soldered side seam, eliminated the need for tin as an aid to solderability. One of these developments was the cemented side seam, which uses a thermosetting plastic, and the other was the welded side seam. Our previous work on other coatings had shown that chromium would be the preferred coating, and a t that stage, as mentioned earlier, all departments concerned were instructed to cooperate in developing a process and equipment for the production of chromium-plated canstock, looking toward earliest possible commercialization. This material has since become known as TFS-CT, standing for “tin-free steel, chrome type.” T h e first step in the development used a laboratory rotating cathode apparatus. I t simulates the movement of a steel strip through a bath, while a hoist and the overhead trolley arrangement move the cathode from one bath to another through a sequence of cleaning, plating, and post-treating baths. Times, speeds, and current densities are controlled according to a predetermined program. The information obtained was used to plan runs on a 14
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continuous pilot line capable of plating strip up to 12 in. wide. I t was on hand and, in fact, was being used for other work. T o modify the line for use in this development, all we had to do was build tanks and develop special electrodes for the particular line configurations to be tried. Data from the pilot runs were transmitted to the design group without delay, and alternate designs for a fullwidth development line were promptly evaluated. Considerable time was saved by modifying a n idle tinning line a t one of the plants. The line fortunately had terminal equipment and a power supply in reasonably good shape. Essentially everything between the strip accumulators a t each end of the line was dismantled, and entirely new cleaning, plating, and post-treating sections were built and installed. The full-width development line was in operation less than a year after instructions to go were received. Figure 4 shows the exit end of the line; finished strip can be seen moving downward in the center background, passing by the operator’s control desk, and being coiled. A representative coil of finished material like the one in the foreground is 35 in. wide, weighs about 10 tons, and contains about 5 miles of strip. The product for can bodies is typically a steel strip about 0.006 in. thick coated with successive layers of approximately 100 A of metallic chromium, 60 A of a complex oxide treatment film, and 50 A of dioctyl sebacate. At that thickness of metallic chromium, 1 lb would cover two football fields. T h e line served the dual purpose of proving both the process and the market. I t has limited speed, but it continues to produce commercial product while new high-speed facilities are being built. At the same time it is providing needed information on materials of construction ; the laboratory development program lasted too short a time to indicate the best materials for longterm performance. Developments of Past 10 years
Not all developments follow the classical pattern discussed above. Some are evolutionary, with the work being done on full-scale production equipment, and some
skip one or more of the stages mentioned. Examples of developments of the past decade or so are offered not as illustrations of any particular pattern but as illustrations of how applied research and development have contributed to the industry. Computers for process control are finding wider use, requiring developments in the measuring devices that communicate with the computer. As one example, it was necessary to develop direct digital readout for the spectrometers used to analyze steel during its making. I n the field of iron ore there have been tremendous developments in beneficiation and in agglomerating the finely ground concentrates into a form suitable for use in the blast furnace. Iron ore pellets have been well publicized, but there have also been important developments in sintering and especially in flux-containing sinter. Improved methods for cleaning coal to reduce its con. tents of ash and sulfur, and petrographic techniques for predicting the coking characteristics of coals have been developed. Impurities in the benzene derived from our coking operations, notably sulfur and nonaromatics, can now be reduced to extremely low levels. I n ironmaking, developments include stoves to furnish hotter preheated air, injection of auxiliary fuels, and blast furnace practices to take advantage of beneficiated and size-prepared burdens. In steelmaking, basic oxygen furnaces have already been mentioned. Other important developments inciude several methods for improving the properties of steel by melting it or treating it while molten in vacuum, and a method for making steel by melting prereduced iron ore pellets in an electric arc furnace, although this is applicable only in certain situations. Not to be forgotten, of course, is continuous casting, which has only recently been developed to the point where it can produce slabs suitable for the production of high-quality sheet steel. I n finishing operations, a new method for heat-treating steel plates, called roller quenching, produces plates with superior properties. There have also been outstanding developments in systems for controlling rolling mills to produce sheet steel of more uniform thickness. An essential element of such systems is a n accurate and reliable on-line thickness gauge which had to be developed for this purpose. I n steel products, a list should include the “thin tin” and the chromium-plated canstock previously mentioned, a very low-carbon sheet steel which can be coated with vitreous enamel in a single coat instead of the traditional two coats, a series of higher-strength constructional steels offering the customers more strength per dollar, chromized sheets made by a new process which, in effect, applies a relatively thick coating of chromiumtype stainless steel on low-carbon sheet steel, and doubleoriented sheet steels with superior magnetic properties. Finally, pollution abatement should be mentioned. Very large amounts of money are being spent in installing facilities and in developing equipment and process improvements too numerous to mention. One new
Figure 5. Trends in prices and employment costs process shows promise for treating a serious source of stream pollution consisting of acid drainage from both operating and abandoned coal mines. Technology Past and Future
Now, what has new technology from these and other developments meant to the industry? Figure 5 shows indirectly, but I think effectively, how the adoption of new technology has helped to keep costs in line. If the industry had not adopted new technology, the rise in total hourly employment costs with a nearly stable price level would have put it out of business. Figure 5 also contains a message for the future. The industry is going to have to continue to develop and adopt new technology, and in this connection some developments that might lie ahead are worth mentioning. Certainly, the pattern of steel technology has been one of continuing evolutionary developments during the periods between spectacular, revolutionary ones, and this pattern is expected to continue. Of particular interest is the prospect of continuous rather than batch processing methods. Continuous casting has already been mentioned, and the development of a continuous process for making coke has already reached the pilot-plant stage. Even more intriguing, however, is the prospect of eliminating entire major processing steps. For instance, the making of steel from iron ore concentrates in essentially a single step is being seriously studied. A single unit would replace the ore pelletizing plant, the coke plant, the blast furnace, and the oxygen steelmaking furnace. The development will be long and difficult, but it must and it will succeed. In steel products, it is likely that a wide variety of additional coated products with desirable properties will be developed and that these will be made by technologies just beginning to be understood. Again in steel products there is increasing activity in the field of thermomechanical processing, that is, combinations of heat treating and mechanical working, which should lead to new steels with superior combinations of properties. Composites of steel and other materials can have some interesting properties, and entirely new products could result from applied research and development in this field. VOL. 6 2
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