Man of Steel, Balls of wool
I worked for Bluescope steel for just shy of 25 years.
During that time I was featured in Australia’s Creative Knitting magazine due to my habit of knitting during night shifts.
The headline was man of Steel, Balls of wool.
This is a great video to explain what
“I made steel” means
The video above is not from the plant I worked at but it does show all the process areas I worked at during my time with Bluescope steel.
I spent approx 10 years as the senior process operator on the Metallic coating line #5.
During this time I was involved in many molten metal transfers.
To make steel or Colourbond, the steel strip passes through a molten metal bath at high speed.
The temperature of the liquid metal is above 600 degrees c.
The bath temperature is maintained by inductors that are situated all around the pot.
Molten metal inductors are used to heat, stir, and shape molten metals using electromagnetic induction.
They are a key component in induction furnaces, where alternating current flowing through a coil creates a magnetic field that induces eddy currents in the metal, causing it to heat up and melt.
When one of these fail, it means you have to lower the production line speed.
This generally means the production must stop, the liquid metal removed and the inductors replaced.
Molten metal specialist
This was the job title i would use later on performing this task overseas.
I was involved in every Inductor and pot change at Westernport for over 15 years.
This included both Zincalume and galavanising lines.
This experience got me a six week job in Jamshedpur India in 2011.
I traveled alone to Jamshedpur India to a joint venture steel plant operated by TATA steel and Bluescope.
Getting there meant flying from Melbourne TO Calcutta, then boarding a train for 7 hours to Jamshedpur.
That part of the trip was an experience by itself.
The line was nearing the commissioning stage and that meant that the 2 Pots needed to be filled with molten zinc and aluminum.
My job was to assist the operators in filling these pots.
