What is Steel Slab?

The final result of rolling ingots in a rolling mill, Steel Slab is defined as a semi-finished steel product which sometimes, is produced by processing ingots using a continuous casting process. With rectangular cross-sections, steel slabs are used as the beginner metals in the production of flat products such as hot rolled coils or steel plates. Slabs are in flat form and rectangular shape ranging from 160 mm thicknesses and more. An impressive number of industries are using Steel Slab.

Product Name: Steel Slab
Hs Code: 72061000

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Note: this article is unrelated to the Structural Concrete Slabs in civil engineering.

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Usage

Steel slab is mostly used in heavy machinery industry and steel plates/ coils production. alike the steel billets, slabs are also formed for further processing, however, they are always in their unique rectangular shape. Typically, they are processed through flat rolling and mostly are converted into the chequered plates, sheet metal, pipes, and tubes.

Types, Properties, and Standards

Steel Slabs are available in stainless, however, the most common is carbon steel. The chemical properties are different, but the important elements are iron, copper, chromium, molybdenum, manganese, nickel and silicon. Through standard coding, the specifications must be identified, and usually, they are attached or imprinted to the end part of the slab which always includes:

• Heat number: this is sealed into the far end of the metal
• Color code: This shows the grade of the metal and has to be painted to the end

In Steel Slabs, there must not be longitudinal and transverse cracks, jointing, scab, scum, cavities, shrinkage or any other evidence of surface and internal defect that may negatively affect Standards of the final product.  Each standard will describe the chemical specification which is necessary for the manufacturing of the desired product.

Some of the applied standards are:

Size and Grades

There are different sizes, having 300 millimeters as the industry standard. Steel Slabs’ chemical specification varies based on the type or designation.

Grades in Steel slabs are unique, including:

• Ferritic
• Precipitation hardening
• Duplex
• Austenitic
• Martensitic

Sources:

www.triorient.com,

www.geminatrade.com

https://corporate.arcelormittal.com/news-and-media/factfile/steel-terminology