JFE TECHNICAL REPORT

No. 15 (May 2010)

Manufacturing Processes and Products of

Bar and Wire Rod in JFE Steel Group†
OGAWA Takao*1 SHIRAGA Tetsuo*2

Abstract: 2. Distinctive Features

JFE Steel and associated companies have been man- of Manufacturing Processes
ufacturing and selling bar and wire rod and related
2.1 West Japan Works (Kurashiki)
products. JFE Steel Group has developed distinctive
products and manufacturing processes to support a wide The most important feature of steelmaking at West
range of request by customers. This paper outlines the Japan Works (Kurashiki) is that this works possesses
manufacturing processes and typical bar and wire rod both large-scale converter/continuous casting equip-
products in JFE Steel Group. ment and ingot casting equipment. By utilizing these
facilities, it is possible to produce a wide range of steel
types, from low carbon steel to high carbon steel and
1. Introduction
alloy steel. Kurashiki also manufactures high cleanli-
The JFE Steel Group was launched in April 2003 as ness steels, centering on bearing steel, by hot metal
a result of a merger of the former Kawasaki Steel and pretreatment and vacuum degassing with strong stirring,
former NKK. The group has production bases for special using mainly blast furnace hot metal (molten iron)1).
steel bars and wire rod at JFE Steel’s West Japan Works In December 2007, Kurashiki introduced ladle furnace
(Kurashiki) and JFE Bars & Shapes’s Sendai Works. (LF) equipment, enabling production of high cleanliness
Both of these plants manufacture products under an inte- steels with a higher degree of freedom.
grated control system which extends from receiving of Table 1 shows the available production range at
raw materials to steelmaking, rolling, and product trans- each plant. The Kurashiki Billet Mill has the capability
portation. Kurashiki is a blast furnace steel works, while to manufacture the world’s largest class of rolled large-
Sendai Works employs the electric furnace route. Taking diameter products, including round bars up to φ420 mm
advantage of these respective processes in a mutually and square bars up to □750 mm. This was made possible
complementary manner, the group as a whole produces a by construction of a dedicated automated finishing line
wide range of product types. for large-diameter round bars and establishment of an
In FY2007, the JFE Steel Group’s total production of integrated process. It is also possible to manufacture
bars and wire rods reached approximately 1.52 million bars and wire rods which are free of surface defects/
tons/year, which was an increase of 30% compared with decarburization by surface fully-automated flaw detec-
production before the merger. tion for round billets and a billet peeling machine.
The following introduces the distinctive features of As a distinctive feature of the Kurashiki Plant, roll-
the related technologies and products of the JFE Steel ing of bars and wire rods is performed with a 4-roll mill
Group, focusing on recent trends. developed by JFE Steel, using both square billets and
round billets as materials. The 4-roll mill is a unique
technology which received the prestigious Okochi
Memorial Technology Prize and enables size-free rolling
over a wide range. It is also capable of producing square

†
Originally published in JFE GIHO No. 23 (Mar. 2009), p. 1–3

*1 *2
General Manager, Steel Bar & Wire Rod Business Dr. Eng.,
Planning Dept., Fellow,
JFE Steel JFE Bars & Shapes

1
 Manufacturing Processes and Products of Bar and Wire Rod in JFE Steel Group

Table 1  Manufacturing facilities for bar and wire rod in JFE Steel Group
(mm)
Mill Product West Japan Works (Kurashiki) Sendai Works
Round bars φ95–420 φ130–200
Billet Mill
Square bars □250–750 —
Straight bars φ16–90 φ17–120
Bar Mill
Bars-in-coils φ16–38 φ13–55
Square wire rods □12.7–27 —
Wire Rod Mill
Wire rods φ4.2–19 φ5–16

wire rod with excellent squareness and dimensional 3.1 Main Products of
accuracy of the opposing sides. Precision rolling is pos- JFE Steel and JFE Bars & Shapes
sible by taking advantage of the minimal lateral spread
which is a feature of the 4-roll rolling process, and it is Both of these companies manufacture product lines
also possible to manufacture products down to a mini- which respond to the diverse applications of bars and
mum diameter of 4.2 mm, contributing to omission of wire rods by effectively utilizing the distinctive features
wire drawing by secondary processors2). of their production equipment, as described above, in
a mutually complementary manner. Because Kurashiki
2.2 Sendai Works
uses blast furnace hot metal as its main raw material,
Sendai Works introduced a 130 t environment- this plant manufactures mainly bearing steel and carbon
friendly high efficiency electric furnace (Eco-Arc Fur- steel. Kurashiki also manufactures high strength shear-
nace) as part of a modernization project in 2008, and is ing reinforcements in cooperation with JFE Techno-
also introducing other equipment which give full consid- wire, which is a JFE Steel Group Company. On the other
eration to CO2 reduction, such as use of liquefied natural hand, because Sendai uses the electric furnace route, it
gas (LNG) for all fuel in the works, including the site’s possesses distinctive product lines in free cutting steel,
power plant, reheating furnaces, and others. In the recent alloy steel, and micro alloying steel (non-heat treated
modernization project, the billet size at the Bar Mill and steel).
Wire Rod Mill was unified on □160 mm in order to real-
3.2 Bearing Steel
ize higher efficiency in manufacturing. A further evolu-
tion in measures against surface defects in wire rod was As mentioned above, Kurashiki manufactures high
also realized by modernizing the wire rod reheating fur- cleanliness bearing steel. In addition, by focusing on the
nace and strengthening the rolling equipment. Construc- mechanism responsible for microstructural defects under
tion aimed at realizing high quality in combination with rolling contact environments, Kurashiki has developed
high efficiency was completed by changing the former 3 and commercialized bearing steel with excellent rolling
strand line to a 2 strand line. contact fatigue life in the normal-to-medium tempera-
In order to respond to precision rolling of steel bars, ture range and medium carbon bearing steel based on a
Sendai Works possesses a 3-roll mill manufactured by new design method. Kurashiki also manufactures wire
Friedrich Kocks GmbH & Co KG, and produces a prod- rods for small diameter bearings down to φ4.2 mm uti-
uct line with distinctive features utilizing proprietary lizing the aforementioned 4-roll mill.
on-line cooling technologies. In the Bar Mill, a water
3.3 Free Cutting Steel
cooling zone comprising water-filled tubes is installed
following the roughing mill, intermediate rolling mill, Sendai Works has long possessed equipment that
and finishing mill. In this system, Sendai Works manu- enables production of Pb-added steels, which it uses in
factures a line of self-tempering steel bar products in the manufacture of free cutting steels. Sendai Works is
which direct quenching of the product surface layer now developing Pb-free free cutting steels which contain
is performed mainly using the product water-cooling no lead, thereby responding to the global environmental
device installed after the finishing mill, and the product problems of recent years. A number of Pb-free products
is self-tempered by the heat retained in the interior of are already in standard production. As a substitute for
the bar after passing through the water-cooling device. the Pb-added low carbon free cutting steel AISI12L14
The Wire Rod Mill features a mist-spraying device (AISI: American Iron and Steel Institute), which is
which enables direct patenting by mist cooling3). widely used in printer shafts and automotive parts,
Sendai Works developed a Pb-free free cutting steel
with improved machinability by using Cr addition and

  JFE TECHNICAL REPORT No. 15 (May 2010)

 Manufacturing Processes and Products of Bar and Wire Rod in JFE Steel Group

S increase to control sulfide inclusions4). Sendai Works quenching is performed with a water cooling device
has also developed a steel containing crystallized BN as after finishing rolling of steel bars. The TQF steels have
a Pb-free free cutting steel which is suitable for forging been commercialized using the self-tempering process,
applications5). Kurashiki developed a Pb-free free cut- in which the surface layer forms a tempered martens-
ting steel utilizing graphite precipitation with the aim of ite microstructure, and the interior forms a fine ferrite-
satisfying both cold forgeability and machinability. pearlite microstructure.

3.4 Alloy Steel 3.6 Bars-in-Coils and Wire Rods

Diverse properties are required in case hardening Kurashiki, in cooperation with JFE Techno-wire,
alloy steels. This report introduces two developed steels. has developed and commercialized a yield strength
In carburized dual-phase steel, the Ac3 transformation 1 275 MPa class shearing reinforcement with excellent
point is increased by addition of Si and V in order to ductility after welding, and a 785 MPa class shearing
secure a dual-phase microstructure of ferrite and mar- reinforcement which achieves alloy saving by control-
tensite in the internal microstructure after carburizing ling cooling. Sendai Works has commercialized TMP
at the normal carburizing temperature (the carburized wire rods which make it possible to omit off-line lead
layer is a single phase of martensite). As a result, distor- patenting by applying its mist-cooling process.
tion due to quenching after carburizing is reduced, and
4. Conclusion
improved pitting resistance under high Hertz contact
stress is achieved simultaneously with low distortion. JFE Steel Group possesses bar and wire rod prod-
As a steel for high frequency quenching use, a fine ucts and manufacturing equipment which are capable
grained steel was developed from an early date with of responding to the diverse requirements of customers.
the aim of improving toughness and fatigue strength by The company is continuing to devote great energy to
refining the austenite grain size in the quenched part. various technical developments aiming at environment-
friendly product manufacturing. This special issue
3.5 Micro Alloying Steel
focuses on recent achievements in technical develop-
As micro alloying steels which make it possible to ment.
omit heat treatment with carbon steels and alloy steels,
JFE Steel Group has commercialized steels for hot
References
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JFE TECHNICAL REPORT No. 15 (May 2010)