Exploring Management Possibilities for Increasing Electric Steel Quality (Chapter 4)

The steel industry is currently in a process of rapid technological development. The study presents the technological advances and modernisations carried out at the national and/or world level in the field of increasing the electric steel quality. In this context, conventional complex steel processing methods are analysed outside the electric arc furnace, in order to increase the electric steel quality. Special non-conventional procedures for the production of quality steels are also presented. The progress achieved in the field of steel production, mainly aimed at increasing productivity and quality, had as a basic premise the "secondary metallurgy" or the treatment of the metal outside the primary production aggregate (furnace or converter). This concept transforms the furnace or converter into a fast-melting unit, with advanced refining processes performed in ladles, hence the term "pot metallurgy. The study introduces a revolutionary concept for steel production in the electric arc furnace, involving a procedure based on the application of the pyramid effect. The study emphasises that improving electric steel quality—through temperature and composition homogenization, inclusion and gas reduction, and grain size control—relies on both conventional out-of-furnace processing and non-conventional elaboration techniques.