In the conclusion of work «On damask steels», P. Anosov, the founder of Russia’s quality metallurgy, wrote that, «I finish this work with hope that soon enough our soldiers will arm themselves with swords made of damask steel, that our husbandmen will cultivate soil with damask steel instruments, that our artisans will manufacture their handicrafts with damask steel tools…»

MADE OF DAMASK STEEL

Vladimir OSTAPOVICH, Director General with "Bulat NVR"
Scientific and Technical Center

In the conclusion of work "On damask steels", P. Anosov, the
founder of Russia’s quality metallurgy, wrote that, "I finish this work with hope
that soon enough our soldiers will arm themselves with swords made of damask steel, that
our husbandmen will cultivate soil with damask steel instruments, that our artisans will
manufacture their handicrafts with damask steel tools…"

One and a half centuries have elapsed since the time when this was written
down. The metal industry has changed drastically over the time passed by. Yet, these very
lines by P. Anosov serve as an epigraph to the article below.

Nowadays, the Center’s specialists successfully design and find industrial
application for new compositions of steel, pig iron, ferrous and nonferrous alloys, as
well as products made of them.

The Center pays paramount attention to comprehensive technology for
production and utilization of damask steel, which is fundamental for development of the
contemporary quality metallurgy.

Modern machinery puts forward high requirements for component materials,
which are subject to powerful alternating and impact loads during their service.

To function in such exploitation conditions, materials should possess such
properties as sufficient ductility, resilience, and viscosity, along with high durability.
Components, which operate under friction, have to ensure the high standard of wear
resistance. We aimed our efforts at meeting all these requirements when designing and
mastering production of damask steel.

Specialists with the Center helped to master manufacturing for a full range
of commodities (such as rounds, squares, forged products, and rods with special surface
finishing) made of U12B steel (the name is temporary) at "DneproSpetsStal"
Electro-Metallurgic Works. After commencing production at “DneproSpetsStal”, our
specialists tested U12B steel in various industrial sectors.

In the first place, rolled metal is used by machine-building plants to
manufacture auxiliary technological tools, including punches, moulds, dies and matrix for
cold-upsetting machines, metal-chopping knives etc. As a rule, our specialists supervised
test works, thus ensuring consistent technological process from manufacturing of tool and
rigs all the way to comparing service efficiency of the tool with that of a tool made of
conventional grades of carbon and alloyed steels.

All the comparative tests in chopping, bending, punching holes, upsetting
hardware and so on have proven the high performance of our steel. Tools made of U12B have
1.5-2 times and higher durability as compared to instruments made of U7A-U13A, H12M, HVG,
9HS and other steel grades.

I would like to emphasize that chemical composition of the mastered U12B
steel predominantly comprises only iron and carbon without any alloying agents.

Tests of several-time melted U12B steel in operations of machining
attachments, made of forging and HR rounds and squares, yielded positive results.
Therefore, this allowed us expanding the range of U12B utilization.

Impact hammers, made of calibrated U12B steel bars, which rig nail-driving
shoe-making automated machines, underwent comparative tests at several Kiev-based shoe
factories, the shoe factory of Romny town (Sumy region), as well as at Priluki Shoe
Factory. Service properties of our hammers corresponded to durability of imported
instruments made of 110V2HMF steel.

In the wood-working operations, durability of U12B-made tools is about the
same and sometimes even higher than that of instruments made of 9HF, 8H6NFT, and 9H6VF
steel grades.

Shebekin Machinery Plant manufactured a tentative set of beet-slicing
knives made of damask steel. The set was tested on T2-SC2B-12 centrifugal beet-slicing
machine at Yagotin Sugar Refinery and compared to knives made of U8A and 65G steels.

Under the test results, beet chips cut by the tentative knives enjoyed a
better quality and had an increase in length from 6.3 meters all the way up to 7 m.
Besides, spoilage percentage in such chips was reduced from 5.8% down to 4.7%.

Nonetheless, works on industrial commercialization of such knives were
suspended due to construction complexity and lack of sufficient funds.

Within the frames of program on enlargement of strips assortment at
"DneproSpetsStal", at the present, it becomes possible to organize rolling of
specialty strips needed to manufacture beet-slicing knives. Furthermore, there are a
number of other examples of successful current utilization of this steel grade.

All the aforementioned allows stating that this steel should be widely used
in industry, which will enable:

• unifying grade mix of tool steels;

• reducing export of alloying agents and products made of alloyed plates;

• manufacturing competitive types of metal products, which can be
  exportable;

• boosting efficiency of load-bearing tools in machinery and gearing.

Following comprehensive research on application of steel, on demands for
particular types of rolled metal, and on metal products currently manufactured by metal
mills, the Center’s management made a decision to master production of high-carbon tool
plate. This product is of desperate need for machine-building and processing plants.

Reference. In 1995, with participation of "UkrNIISpetsStal"
Research Institute and "DneproSpetsStal" Electro-Metallurgic Works,
"ZaporozhStal" Iron & Steel Works set up production of alloyed tool steel
with 5N1A, 7HNMFB, and 7H15MFSB grades.

For the first time ever, in compliance with the trilateral manufacturing
plan, an experimental-industrial batch of HR plate, 4-7 mm thick, was made out of U12B
steel on production facilities of "Bulat NVR", "DneproSpetsStal", and
"ZaporozhStal". Then, the plates produced were used to manufacture a number of
tools, such as knives to shred timber into feedstock for production of wooden shaving
plates, knives to cut cellulose-containing paper, meat-processing knives and other
instruments. Once again, preliminary tests verified high performance attributes of tools
made of U12B steel.

To shear granite, we specifically rolled a 4,500 meter-long plate, which is
currently used to manufacture a pilot batch of strips. By the way, no other enterprises
manufacture this type of products in Ukraine at the present. Physical-mechanical
properties and the pattern of the obtained metal give hopes that the tests will be
rewarding and fruitful.

The Center’s team would like to thank "Antik" Financial and
Industrial Concern, CJSC "Alpha-Capital", and "Crodex" company for
their financial support in industrial manufacturing of steel, and the staff with
"DneproSpetsStal" and "ZaporozhStal" mills for their assistance in
joint mastering of novel types of metal products.

A couple more words about the Center’s proximate plans.

We hope for further cooperation with OJSC "DneproSpetsStal" and
OJSC "ZaporozhStal", as well as for potential future joint work with OJSC
"Alchevsk Iron & Steel Works", to accomplish the following:

• to master CR plates and tapes needed to manufacture technical blades,
  wood-working band-saws, cultivating instruments to equip agricultural machinery, including
  knives to harvest herbaceous and leguminous plants, etc.;

• to expand dimension-types of strips;

• to set up output of high-carbon plates, made of U12B steel and of other
  steel grades, which are planned to be mastered by the Center;

• to arrange production of cutting steel for the needs of Ukrainian
  shoe-making and leather industries, which presently import such steel from Austria,
  Sweden, Germany, and Russia;

• to organize production of specialty rolled metal, needed to manufacture
  beet-slicing knives etc.

We have already experienced the fruitless ordeal of trying to get official
state support for implementation of mastered or to be mastered technologies. At the
moment, we are interested in cooperation with investors willing to participate in
manufacturing of competitive products on mutually beneficial basis.

Properties of products made of U12B steel

• "Rynok metallov" ("Metals Market")