AIST Steel Intern Scholarship
John L. Reutter
I spent the summer of 2023 working at Nucor-Yamato Steel in Blytheville, Ark., USA. This mill has been producing beams, angle, channel and piling now for 35 years. Here I worked on several projects to expand my knowledge beyond the classroom and gain real world experience. In those projects I interacted with and learned from many other co-workers, metallurgists, lab techs and operators. I learned the skills required for their jobs along with the problems they faced and how that could impact the projects that I was working on. While working with them, I also learned the safety procedures and precautions that are necessary for each job to be completed.
The main project that I worked on was to optimize the flange cooling system settings in our large beam mill. This cooling system sprays the flanges of each beam after the final rolling pass. This process is done to increase the cooling rate of the material through the phase transformation zone and improve tensile strength properties of steel. This is very efficient and cost effective because most of the water can be recycled. I worked with metallurgists, operators and lab techs to conduct trials of improved spray patterns and optimized speeds to run the beams through the cooling system.
The second project that I worked on involved continuing the work of a previous intern who compared the Charpy performance of aluminum vs. silicon killed steels. On this project I performed grain size analysis, microstructural analysis and inclusion analysis. This was used to find microstructural differences in the steel that result from whether the steel was aluminum killed or silicon killed and gives a more in-depth explanation for the differences in the Charpy testing results for the two types of steel.
Overall, I had a great experience gaining a more in-depth understanding of the steel making process. Additionally, I was able to learn an invaluable amount of knowledge and skills that relate to both the technical side of steelmaking and safety, from a variety of people across the plant. I also want to thank AIST for this scholarship and helping me to continue my education and Nucor for giving me the opportunity to intern with them and the opportunity to work full time, when I graduate, at Nucor Steel Nebraska as a QA metallurgist.