BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
METHOD:PUBLISH
BEGIN:VEVENT
ORGANIZER;CN=ESTAD 2023:mailto:info@metec-estad.com
LOCATION:Room 16a
SUMMARY:Copper contamination of recycled steel - curse or blessing?
DESCRIPTION:The steel industry is a major contributor to global carbon emissions, with the production process being energy-intensive and relying heavily on fossil fuels. It is therefore crucial to find ways to reduce the carbon footprint of the industry in order to mitigate its impact on the environment. One such method is through scrap recycling, where existing steel products are reused instead of producing new steel from raw materials, saving on energy and resources. However, pronounced material integration and multi-material use in technical products lead to a contamination of steel scrap. Some of these contaminations cannot be economically removed during remelting and refining in the electric arc furnace and therefore, a gradual accumulation of detrimental impurities, like Cu or Sn, causes a deterioration of quality. Accordingly, the respective recycling steel grades are not sufficient to fulfil the demanding specifications of flat products, e.g. in the packaging or automotive industry. Strong segregations at the prior austenite grain boundaries leads to the problem of hot shortness, i.e., massive embrittlement of hot-formed steel products. Therefore, a need for the investigation of the influence of elements like Cu on the properties and processability of different steel grades exists and new approaches for tolerating higher Cu concentrations must be developed. The study presents the effects of adding 0.5% and 1.0% copper to reference alloy 42CrMo4 on its transformation behavior and mechanical properties. To investigated the risk of Cu-embrittlement, hot tensile tests were performed. Microstructures are investigated with light optical, scanning electron, and transmission electron microscopy. The results show that copper contamination, which is unavoidable in steel recycling, has the potential to increase the hardness and strength of high strength steels, if it can be controlled during the processing.
CLASS:PUBLIC
DTSTART:20230614T115000
DTEND:20230614T121000
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR