Shougang Jingtang's Tinplate Warehouse

Steel is the pillar of a great country, and creating a steel powerhouse is the common dream of generations of ironworkers. With the mushrooming of groundbreaking technological innovations, steel products are frequently updated. This is inseparable from technological progress in the steel industry.

Steel can be as shiny as pearls

An array of fine patterns such as "calligraphy," "buildings," "flowers and birds," and "auspicious beasts" steadily and marvelously take shape on the grain-oriented silicon steel sheet. Like a sandwich, such a steel sheet consists of a matrix, a magnesium silicate layer, and an insulating coating. The surface area of a roll of grain-oriented silicon steel is as large as three standard football fields. Therefore, it is possible to imagine how difficult it is to make a magnesium silicate layer with a thickness 1/70 that of A4 paper grow at the surface during annealing at a high temperature. Employees of the Shougang Group who are adept at controlling grain growth can accurately control the appearance on the surface of silicon steel.

After seven days of annealing at a maximum temperature of 1,200℃, technology and art are finely and perfectly combined. This stunning art on steel has become a case for teaching at colleges and universities. "If we use highly magnetic grain-oriented electrical steel to upgrade transformers, we can save more than 90 billion kWh of electricity each year, which is close to the annual capacity of the Three Gorges," said Fan Tiejun, then Director of the China Metallurgical Industry Planning and Research Institute.

In April 2023, CCTV's "News Live Room" fully demonstrated China's first professional production line of ultra-thin and high magnetic grain-oriented electrical steel in a video entitled "China's First High-performance Grain-oriented Electrical Steel Production Line Completed and Put into Production." This steel product deserves to be named the "crown jewel" of the steel industry.

Steel can be as expensive as diamonds

Steel made by China is widely used in a versatile range of scenarios from rivers and mountains to the deep sea, and then to the enhancement or extension of an industrial chain.

When dawn breaks in Eastern China, huge castle-like intelligent aquaculture cages make up rows of "blue granaries" on the sea. When dusk falls in Western China, crude oil tanks in Kuqa, Xinjiang are arranged in sequence like rows of tall warriors full of confidence. In the hot and humid environment of Southern China, the Sansha Sports Center and Sovereignty Square welcome island soldiers ready for military training. In the extreme cold weather of Northern China, the pipe fittings of the booster station of the Power of Siberia are free from electric heating and thermal blankets as they are extremely tough...

There are countless examples like these. 9Ni steel, known as the "diamond of the steel industry," is particularly remarkable. Since it can be stable even at -196℃, it is the toughest material in extremely cold environments and is widely used in the energy and chemical industries and national defense projects. For a long time, the steel-making process for 9Ni steel had only been grasped by steel companies in Europe, the United States, Japan, and South Korea. At that time, China had no bargaining power and had to buy it at a high price. Worse still, this product was sometimes unavailable on the market. 

Thanks to strenuous efforts made by generations of ironworkers, we are now able to grasp the process of 9Ni steel and avoid being disadvantaged by other countries.

Steel can be as thin as a cicada wing

"5G steel is awesome! Can I trade in my 10-year-old admission notice for a new one? I can make up the difference!" "I want a steel-made notice! I want it! I want it so much!" "It's really cool!" Comments full of envy from alumni of the University of Science and Technology Beijing flooded the screen. The undergraduate admission notice of the University of Science and Technology Beijing was the third thing made of "gauzy steel" after the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics postcard and the Ode to the Great Wall postcard of the 20th CPC National Congress.

This notice is the largest flat paper made of "gauzy steel." It is still made of steel and paper, but we tried to ensure the smooth edge of the steel sheet to prevent it from cutting our fingers. We organized a professional team to make special molds, repeatedly conduct stamping tests, and control the production process. Finally, a unique admission notice was produced in accordance with high standards.

"Gauzy steel" is ultra-thin steel for 5G developed independently by the Shougang Group. It is mainly used for signal receivers at 5G base stations. As the name suggests, it is as thin as a cicada wing. The production process overcomes three difficulties, namely, "high purity of molten steel, PL-TCM, and double-stand steel rolling", and it is tracked with the support of more than 300 procedures and thousands of quality control points. The thickness of wide "gauzy steel" sheets exceeds the design limit of the equipment by 42%, so this process is world-leading

Steel can be as fine as silk

"Isn't it cotton, chemical fiber, or hair? It's magnetic but fire resistant." "It's full of details and beautiful. It's amazing! I wouldn't have known it was made of steel if you hadn't told me!" "It's amazing! Is it also made of steel?" Blast Furnace #3 Store for Cultural and Creative Products at Shougang Park was crowded with people. The clerk was using "silky steel" to make a "silk painting" titled "Smooth Sailing." Such art using steel amazed visitors. Its fine charm was derived from exquisite technology.

The width of "silky steel" is one-tenth that of A4 paper. At a 5 m distance, you can hardly see it unless with good lighting. The production of "silky steel" is a very complicated process. It requires a cylindrical steel ingot with a length of nearly 2 m and a diameter of 15 cm to react with more than ten elements at 1,600℃ before being rolled and stretched through the branded process "Ganghua" developed by Jitane New Materials. "Silky steel" is mainly used in the spherical heads of the premix burners of gas kilns for industrial production to improve fuel efficiency, as well as in car exhaust purification. It can ensure temperature uniformity during combustion and play a positive role in inhibiting nitrogen oxide and carbon monoxide emissions and promoting full combustion. It is one of our top-notch products that cater to high-end consumers across versatile scenarios. Due to its softness, silky steel can also be combined with other materials to make radiation-proof clothes, thus providing convenience for more special groups in daily life. The high-performance iron-chromium-aluminum yarn has been certified as a "National Key New Product" by the Ministry of Science and Technology, and its technical performance indicators are world-leading.

Time goes by so quickly. The progress of China's steel industry is reflected in both amazing manufacturing capacities and dazzlingly exquisite products. Have you ever imagined that steel products could be as shiny as pearls, as expensive as diamonds, as thin as a cicada wing, or as fine as silk? The innovation-driven progress of China's steel-making technology is driving the rapid growth of its overall strength. Have you "understood" every bit of the efforts behind it?