Black metal scrap. The Benefit of Remelting

2024 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:16

The article explains what ferrous scrap is, how it is formed and how it is reused in industry.

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Metal has been known to mankind since time immemorial, and it has played a significant role in the development of society. The very first primitive labor tools were made of copper, and later bronze, all of them were not durable and quickly fell into disrepair. Especially if it was used in weapons. But with the discovery of iron ore smelting, everything changed. Naturally, iron was not enough, since the process of its manufacture was long and painstaking, and the quality left much to be desired. But at the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th century, with the extraction of coal, everything changed. A new type of fuel made it possible to mass-produce iron and made an industrial revolution. But what is black metal scrap? Why is it formed and how can it be reused? We'll figure it out.

Terminology

According to the official definition, scrap metal is the collective name for waste from the metallurgical industry, iron waste and metal aggregates that have become unusable. It is divided intowhich is disposed of in the secondary cycle, and one with which this cannot be done. Simply put, ferrous scrap is iron that is no longer used for its intended purpose, but, having been melted down again, can be used again. In addition to the natural appearance in the form of end-of-life products, scrap metal also appears as waste in a particular industry. For example, in the form of casting waste (drops), scale or chips during the operation of turning and milling machines. For economic reasons, it is much more profitable to remelt ferrous metal scrap than to do the same from ore.

Ecology is also an important factor - products of iron oxides pollute the environment much less than non-ferrous metals, for example, the same lead, but the constant cleaning of water bodies and landfills from iron has a beneficial effect on nature.

Scrap of ferrous metals: types

After entering the recycling or remelting plants, black iron must be sorted, and even though, at first glance, the difference is small, but it is not. First sorted by type of metal: steel, cast iron, stainless steel. Then, according to the percentage of carbon, it is divided into two classes, then again into two classes according to the amount of alloying materials. The final division occurs according to quality, there are 28 degrees in total. And only after that it goes not to be melted down. With non-ferrous metal, everything is somewhat more complicated, but we will not dwell on it, since we consider only ferrous scrap.

Reason and benefit

As already mentioned, one of the reasons for recycling is economic benefit, since it is easier to melt down metal waste than to start the process of making it from scratch. But, as in any technological process, the remelting of scrap entails a number of other important consequences.

Firstly, iron ore deposits are severely depleted. Although its percentage in the earth's crust is very high compared to others, humanity has been extracting them on a large industrial scale for more than a hundred years.

Secondly, the use of fuel for smelting ore - coal - is reduced, the reserves of which are also far from unlimited. This also entails a reduction in carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere and, as a result, the greenhouse effect. In a word, ferrous and non-ferrous metal scrap and its processing have a beneficial effect on the state economy and the environment as a whole.

This practice has existed in all developed countries for more than a hundred years.

Business

After the collapse of the USSR and the introduction of the capitalist economic system, private business began to grow and expand in the expanses of the former republics. And one of its types is the acceptance of black and non-ferrous scrap metal from citizens. In addition, entire enterprises were subjected to recycling, in which, over the past years or during the stagnation, a huge amount of iron has accumulated.

And in our time this business is widespread, in almost every locality you can find a place where they take black or non-ferrous iron. Prices for it, although not squeezed intorigid framework, but still differ slightly depending on the region.

USSR

In the years of the Soviet Union, large-scale actions to collect iron were also often held. Scrap and waste of ferrous metals were dragged by schoolchildren, Komsomol members and other citizens both personally and publicly, when, for example, on a subbotnik, students of the institute or factory workers had to collect a ton or two of iron for delivery without fail. For visual motivation, often on May Day holidays they organized a kind of procession of tractors and cars that were completely made of iron found by Komsomol members.