Steel coils and their destination

[Junctionfan]

Which industries other than the automotive industry take coiled steel? I see many coil cars but don't know where they might be going. Can you name any particular industry that takes coil cars?

Thankyou

Andrew

[dphusman]

Someone will have to correct me if I am wrong here, but I have a DVD that shows some Iowa Interstate trains with a few coil cars in them. I wonder if these coil cars might be going to Maytag to use for the production of new washers and dryers.

dphusman

[Anonymous]

Steel is used in many items besides cars. These coil cars may be going to just about any manufacturing plant.

[locomutt]

Agree with above replies,coil cars can be going to automotive plants,washer/dryer plants,or basiclly any place that uses steel for a finished product.[:)]

[Hugh Jampton]

could be anything from tin cans to computers.

[Junctionfan]

QUOTE: Originally posted by M.W. Hemphill

Band steel (which is usually coiled for shipment) emerges from the primary steel mill as hot-rolled band, and is either rolled again in a cold-rolling mill to improve its surface properties, strength, and hardness, or consumed. Products that hot-rolled band makes include tanks, silos, corrugated galvanized roofing sheets, highway guardrails, truck bumpers, farm machinery, car stereo speaker brackets, bed frames, shelf brackets -- basically anything that is stamped, rolled into shapes, bent, or curved -- in which a glass-smooth, blemish-free surface finish is not required.

If surface finish is important, hot-rolled band is rerolled in a cold-rolling mill, which also gives the steel toughness, hardness, and strength. Products made from cold-rolled steel include auto body panels, home appliance shells, cans (after tinplating), file cabinets and desks -- anything that will be required to have a smooth finish, and anything that has to be both thin AND strong. Cold-band is much more expensive than hot-band because there's so much more processing involved, plus a lot of the input material is spoiled.

A washing machine uses both hot-band and cold-band steel: the shell uses cold band to give it strength and a slick finish; all the brackets inside that hold the motor and pump and controls are hot-band, or are made from the trimmings from the cold-band.

To some degree you can determine what a coil will be used for, and where it came from and where it's going, by the type of car it's loaded into and where you see it. Hot-band is shipped in open coil cars if it's still hot or if it's finish properties aren't important -- either the user is making something like steel tanks, or will pickle it (dip it in sulfuric acid) before doing something with it. Cold band is wrapped in paper or shipped in covered cars, or both. Most of the cold-rolling mills are concentrated in a crescent around the Great Lakes from Chicago to Hamilton, Ont., dipping down to Ashland, Ky., concentrated around the auto body stamping plants, their biggest customer by far. If you see an open coil steel car anywhere in this area carrying coils, it's hard to say if its destined to a cold-band mill or an end user of hot-band steel. Outside of this region, however, any coil steel you see is probably destined to a user, and if its an open car, its hot-band.

Cool; thankyou for the detailed information.

[pat390]

I see steel coils A LOT mostly because the CN tracks I live by go from steel mills to detroit auto factories but i'm sure other industry uses them too

[Anonymous]

I work for a metals distributor. Many of our facilities receive coil cars into our warehouse.
We then cut, slit, polish, level the coils into pieces for our customers. (No fabrication)
Our Customers then take the material and make things out of the metal.
(like stainless meat slicers, Electrical junction boxes, truck bodies... and many
other procducts ... way too numerous to mention)

Thankyou
2B

[Junctionfan]

QUOTE: Originally posted by rtubbesing261

I work for a metals distributor. Many of our facilities receive coil cars into our warehouse.
We then cut, slit, polish, level the coils into pieces for our customers. (No fabrication)
Our Customers then take the material and make things out of the metal.
(like stainless meat slicers, Electrical junction boxes, truck bodies... and many
other procducts ... way too numerous to mention)

Thankyou
2B

Thankyou; which distributor is that? It sounds like an interesting industry to model.

[Anonymous]

Barges Bring the coil down river.

I hauled Aluminum coils to Anhauser Busch in Williamsburg Va for cans. I know it is not steel coil, but these were more prone to roll over.

I also used a reefer tractor trailer to haul Brass in coil form to Remington Arms in Arkansas for conversion to Cartidge cases. They had to be 60 degrees and 40% humidity no matter the weather outside.

Appliances consume coils by the mile.

A favorite industry that used steel coil were pipe makers. They would take a big coil of steel and wind it while welding in a spiral. Once finished there was a 3 foot 40 foot pipe ready to go on the truck.

I also think that steel coil was used to create cables and wires of metal... I will have to look that one up.

Lee

[Junctionfan]

Don't steel mills that make wire prefer to use scap metal rather than starting from scatch? I was also wondering don't non steel mills that make wire get in steel ingots?

[Junctionfan]

Is there an purification method that can remove the impurities like plastic other than phyical sorthing? Are the steel mills replacing the blast furnaces with electric ones? Is the wire stainless?

[edblysard]

Ok, Steel Masters...
Heres one for you..

What are the uses of the steel coil wire shipped in the open gons..
And the steel balls, (from 2 to 4 inches round) also shipped in open gons,
and why are they shipped in this manner?

(I know, but want the other guys to explain)

Ed

[ericsp]

Isn't hydrochloric acid the acid that is usually used for pickling?

I can't imagine cutting up sheet steel to make wires. I took a class on manufacturing processes, I don't recall the book saying anything about such a process. The same goes for the many steel company websites I have perused.

[DPD1]

QUOTE: Originally posted by dphusman

Someone will have to correct me if I am wrong here, but I have a DVD that shows some Iowa Interstate trains with a few coil cars in them. I wonder if these coil cars might be going to Maytag to use for the production of new washers and dryers.

Yes, I know that at least some of the coils come from USS Gary on the EJ&E, then come onto the Iowa at Joliet.

A very large portion of coil traffic is actually not going to the end user, but to another plant for further processing. The BNSF Steel Trains are often an example of this, like the JOLPIT that goes to POSCO in California for further processing. There's also simple single spur trackside rail to truck places that some coil loads can go to. There's one here in the L.A. Harbor that is served by the PHL. It's nothing more then a short spur next to a gravel lot where heavy-duty forklifts take the coils off the gons or open coil cars, and transfer it to trucks. I've seen similar places that can handle hooded cars with a crane. Also near that location is a similar business that has a small warehouse. That place gets the hooded cars from many roads, including NS, EJ&E, Indiana Harbor, and others.

Los Angeles, CA
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[ericsp]

QUOTE: Originally posted by DPD1

QUOTE: Originally posted by dphusman

Someone will have to correct me if I am wrong here, but I have a DVD that shows some Iowa Interstate trains with a few coil cars in them. I wonder if these coil cars might be going to Maytag to use for the production of new washers and dryers.

Yes, I know that at least some of the coils come from USS Gary on the EJ&E, then come onto the Iowa at Joliet.

A very large portion of coil traffic is actually not going to the end user, but to another plant for further processing. The BNSF Steel Trains are often an example of this, like the JOLPIT that goes to POSCO in California for further processing. There's also simple single spur trackside rail to truck places that some coil loads can go to. There's one here in the L.A. Harbor that is served by the PHL. It's nothing more then a short spur next to a gravel lot where heavy-duty forklifts take the coils off the gons or open coil cars, and transfer it to trucks. I've seen similar places that can handle hooded cars with a crane. Also near that location is a similar business that has a small warehouse. That place gets the hooded cars from many roads, including NS, EJ&E, Indiana Harbor, and others.

Los Angeles, CA
-Rail Radio Online-Home of the "TrainTenna" RR Monitoring Antenna-
http://eje.railfan.net/railradioonline
-The Elgin, Joliet & Eastern Photo Archive & E-Mail List-
http://eje.railfan.net

There is also the unit trains USS POSCO sends to California Steel Industries.

[Junctionfan]

Somebody told me that they use Hydroflouric Acid to pickle steel as well. Is that true?

[mvlandsw]

In Pittsburgh, Pa. there are two plants that receive steel in covered coil gons to be galvanized or coated with zinc. Some of this is then shipped out in the coil cars and some goes out by truck.

[ericsp]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Junctionfan

Somebody told me that they use Hydroflouric Acid to pickle steel as well. Is that true?

Probably not unless they have, and I cannot (of the top of my head) think of a reason why they would need to. However, it is possible. HF is significantly more toxic than HCl or H2SO4, not that any of them are something to play around with. I know they use HF to etch glass. They might use HF to etch stainless steel.

[Junctionfan]

I am rather scared of hydroflouric acid after finding out that it can absorb into the skin and coagulate the blood and cause a painful death.

[ericsp]

A few years ago when I was down in Fontana, CA. by California Steel Industries (CSI), I saw a coil car sitting on the rail line that goes from CSI to the SP main line. A few days later that same coil car came to a local steel service center. That means that the coil could have possibly been produced by United States Steel at Gary, IN. or Fairfield, AL., sent to USS-POSCO, then to CSI, then to the service center, then finally to the fabricator (maybe). Thats quite a journey. By the way CSI has its own switchers.

[dknelson]

A very interesting customer for large sheets of heavy gauge steel is the Bucyrus Erie plant in South Milwaukee WI (on the UP, formerly the C&NW passenger main between Milwaukee and Chicago). They build the huge drag lines and some real monster equpment used in strip mining. Some of the steel sheets are in gondolas and are shipped at an angle using wood bracing -- sometimes welded steel bracing -- and it towers over the car itself. B-E has its own railroad to handle movement of steel and finished parts within the plant. They also use flat cars as platforms for when parts go to the paint shop. Sometimes the smell of fresh paint is quite strong when a load goes by. They also get steel structural shapes that they fabricate into booms and other parts.
B-E also has its own foundary for casting steel.
Presumably they would have some use for coiled steel -- such as the finer work within the cabs of these monsters -- but I think that they must get by truck.
B-E is located at the eastern end of Rawson Avenue off of I-94
Dave Nelson

[DTomajko]

There are actually three galvinizing plants around Pittsburgh, all owned by the same company; Nextech in East Pittsburgh, Metaltech on 2nd Avenue, & Galvtech in Hays. I worked as a mechanic/ driver for a steel-hauling trucking company for 19 years and we handled a lot of coils. One place I remember was Rollcoater in Greenfield, In. They sized and coated coils for use in appliances. One time I was involved in a shipment of over 50 truckloads of coils to Rollcoater from USX Irvin Works near Pittsburgh. The foreman in Greenfield told me that they wouldn't do a thing to all those coils except store them until USX shipped them back out in 2-3 weeks! Another thing to remember,the customer chooses how its material would be handled. We handled rebar from New Jersey to various midwestern points that always had to be tarped from November to April, despite being stored at delivery outside on the ground. The reason for the covering was to keep road salt off the material before it was placed into concrete.Also, all tinplate steel is not shipped as coils, sometimes it goes as sheets stacked and banded on pallets. Good luck and stay safe.