ArcelorMittal Europe – Flat Products

Online client newsletter | March 2018

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Active, agile, and innovative

ArcelorMittal Sestao specialises in boron steels for agriculture and automotive

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The ArcelorMittal Europe – Flat Products mill in Sestao (Spain) produces high quality boron steel grades. They are typically used by customers to create hard-wearing and abrasion resistant applications for agriculture, automotive, and industry. As one of the few compact strip processing (CSP) mills in Europe, ArcelorMittal Sestao is able to tightly control the steelmaking parameters to create very clean steels and act as a trial production site for new grades.

Very tight thickness tolerances can be achieved at ArcelorMittal Sestao

ArcelorMittal Sestao produces the most comprehensive range of boron grades of any mill in the ArcelorMittal network. The main application for these incredibly strong steels is in agricultural disks. The high toughness of boron steels is obtained after quenching and ensures the disks can withstand the hard wear they endure from contact with soil and stones.




Agricultural disks are one of the major applications for boron steels

Automotive lightweighting with boron steels

Increasingly, boron steels are being used to form small welded tubes which are used in many structural applications, and in the automotive sector. With their excellent toughness and high tensile strength, boron steel tubes offer carmakers new lightweighting possibilities. Key applications include anti-roll bars, steering assemblies, and exhaust systems.

High quality boron steels are noted for their excellent internal cleanliness

One of the advantages of ArcelorMittal Sestao is the compact nature of its operations, as Atish Kumar, director of product development and quality, explains: “Like other high carbon steels, the production of high quality boron steels requires good temperature control. If the slabs are cooled to room temperature, brittle fracture may occur. At ArcelorMittal Sestao, we cast a very thin slab at high speed. That is reheated in a tunnel furnace within 15 to 20 minutes of casting and is ready for direct rolling.”



Tight tolerances and quality critical for customers

Customers appreciate Sestao’s very clean and precise steels. One such customer is Flinsa, a Spanish producer of steel tubes and strips which are used in a range of applications including automotive.



ArcelorMittal Sestao is equipped with a powerful hot rolling mill monitored
by crown and flatness control systems





“The regularity in thickness of the steels produced at ArcelorMittal Sestao, especially in micro-alloyed and boron steels, is very important,” notes Gregorio Pérez Gil, CEO of Flinsa. “The high strength and low thicknesses of these products is also critical for us. We appreciate the strong commitment Sestao has to quality and service towards us as a customer.”

For more info on ArcelorMittal’s boron steel

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