AIST Steel Intern Scholarship

Nathan E. Woodward

This past summer, I was fortunate to work as an intern for SSAB Americas’ Research & Development (R&D) department at their steel mill in Montpelier, Iowa, USA. My time at SSAB was spent working on a project under Sunday Abraham, studying the impact of mill processes on inclusions in steel samples. In addition, I helped the other engineers and analysts with a variety of projects in everything from cutting samples to taking micrographs for analysis.

This position provided me with many opportunities to learn more about the equipment and processes that go into steelmaking. My project involved taking samples from plant operations, and having them sectioned, mounted and polished for analysis. While I have done some mounting and polishing of samples during my classes, there are many different techniques for metallography, and being able to talk to the analysists at SSAB helped me learn from their expertise. In addition, samples were analyzed using a scanning electron microscope (SEM) to identify inclusions in the steel. This was my first exposure to using a SEM and it was one of my favorite pieces of equipment to use. I learned more about the operating principles, controls and how to process results from the SEM than I thought I would be able to in a couple of months. In addition to my work on this project, I was able to tour the mill several times and see how normal plant operations worked. Talking with the plant operators and seeing the process of making steel was an amazing experience. I also was able to run CNC mills, watch tensile and Charpy tests, watch quenching tests, and talk with a wide range of experts in steelmaking. At the end of my project, I reviewed the data collected, wrote a report to summarize my findings and gave a presentation to the R&D department.

Overall, this internship has allowed me to gain a better understanding of steelmaking and mill operations, expand my skills in the field of metallurgical engineering, and explore opportunities in the steel industry. My time at SSAB was an incredibly valuable experience. I would like to thank AIST for their support, and SSAB Americas for providing me with this wonderful opportunity.