Gallery: Enter the 9,000-Degree Hell That Melts 2 Million Tons of Steel a Year
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A worker stands beside the furnace door.
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Steel melts in the electric arc furnace.
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The vertical bloom caster forms three strands of steel.
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A worker cleans a ladle.
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Bars cool on huge rotating racks.
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Molten steel falls from the top of the vertical bloom caster.
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An ingot travels to the press to be flattened and lengthened.
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Scrap metal goes into the electric arc furnace to be melted down. Inside, three electrodes shoot out electricity to heat the metal. Temperatures can reach 9,000 degrees.
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A crane carries the ladle down the line to its next position.
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Molten steel melts to 3,000 degrees in the ladle.
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A worker prepares the vertical bloom caster for a heat.
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A worker watches as a transportation car move through the vertical bloom caster.
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Once the steel is melted, it gets cast. Sometimes that happens in a bottom-pour caster. The steel flows down a central tube, then up to fill six molds.
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A worker watches the ladle pour steel down the 300-foot-long vertical bloom caster.
