2024-2025 Steel Premier Internship Scholar

Benjamin Macy

This summer I completed my second internship with Nucor working as a metallurgical intern at Nucor Steel–Indiana, a sheet steel mill located in Crawfordsville, Ind., USA. As an intern at Nucor, I have gained experience in steelmaking, but I have also grown professionally. My mentors kept me engaged throughout the summer with more than half a dozen different projects across the meltshop, rolling mill and cold mill supporting production throughout the steelmaking process.

 In addition to technical skills, I quickly learned the valuable lesson of balancing time and priorities. Communication skills also played a large part in carrying out multiple trials in a week such as sending mass emails, spending time on the floor building relationships, and submitting process change managements. These are skills that I will take away from this summer and continue to improve on.

 My main projects consisted of tundish flux management, titanium fade at the LMF, and mandrel quenching at the roll mill. The tundish study consisted of producing a model for theoretical versus measured flux chemistry for comparison of trials consisting of differing tundish furniture setups. Titanium fade at the LMF was measured by gathering slag samples and the work done on the heat was monitored to recommend best practices. Both the tundish flux and titanium fade samples were analyzed using an optical emission spectrometer. The effects of mandrel quenching at the downcoiler were analyzed by measuring the mechanical properties and microstructure of the steel at different laps away from the mandrel. This involved the use of tensile testing, Rockwell hardness testing, and micrography. Each of these projects was affected by oftentimes overlooked variables within the mill, which provided a better understanding of the overall process.

 I am grateful to AIST and Nucor for this opportunity. I gained incredible experience and knowledge in a summer that seemed to fly by. I want to give a special thanks to Lori Wharrey and the Scholarship Committee at AIST, John Lowry (NSIN), Ian Markon (NSIN), Tyler Reikofski (NCFNE), and Jon Barkl (NCFNE) for all their help. I am excited to see where the steel industry leads me.