The Iron Rolling Mill (Eisenwalzwerk), 1870s, by Adolph Menzel.Casting at an iron foundry: From Fra Burmeister og Wain's Iron Foundry, 1885 by Peder Severin Krøyer
An ironworks or iron works is an industrial plant where iron is smelted and where heavy iron and steel products are made. The term is both singular and plural, i.e. the singular of ironworks is ironworks.
Ironworks succeeded bloomeries when blast furnaces replaced former methods. An integrated ironworks in the 19th century usually included one or more blast furnaces and a number of puddling furnaces or a foundry with or without other kinds of ironworks. After the invention of the Bessemer process, converters became widespread, and the appellation steelworks replaced ironworks.
The processes carried at ironworks are usually described as ferrous metallurgy, but the term siderurgy is also occasionally used. This is derived from the Greek words sideros - iron and ergon or ergos - work. This is an unusual term in English, and it is best regarded as an anglicisation of a term used in French, Spanish, and other Romance languages.
Historically, it is common that a community was built around the ironworks where the people living there were dependent on the ironworks to provide jobs and housing. [1] As the ironworks closed down (or was industrialised) these villages quite often went into decline and experienced negative economic growth. [2]
Ironworks is used as an omnibus term covering works undertaking one or more iron-producing processes.[3] Such processes or species of ironworks where they were undertaken include the following:
Electrolytic smelting — Employs a chromium/iron anode that can survive a 2,850 °F (1,570 °C) to produce decarbonized iron and 2/3 of a ton of industrial-quality oxygen per ton of iron. A thin film of metal oxide forms on the anode in the intense heat. The oxide forms a protective layer that prevents excess consumption of the base metal.[4]
Puddling furnaces — a later process for the same purpose, again with coke as fuel. It was usually necessary for there to be a preliminary refining process in a coke refinery (also called running out furnace). After puddling, the puddled ball needed shingling and then to be drawn out into bar iron in a rolling mill.
The mills operating converters of any type are better called steelworks, ironworks referring to former processes, like puddling.
Further processing
After bar iron had been produced in a finery forge or in the forge train of a rolling mill, it might undergo further processes in one of the following:
A slitting mill - which cut a flat bar into rod iron suitable for making into nails.
A tinplate works - where rolling mills made sheets of iron (later of steel), which were coated with tin.
A plating forge with a tilt hammer, a lighter hammer with a rapid stroke rate, enabling the production of thinner iron, suitable for the manufacture of knives, other cutlery, and so on.
The notable ironworks of the world are described here by country. See above for the largest producers and the notable ironworks in the alphabetical order.
Kindiba, in Burkina Faso. Ancient iron extraction site consisting of mines and three clay built furnaces.
Darkhill Ironworks, in the Forest of Dean, England. Experimental ironworks established in 1818 and designated an 'Industrial Archaeological Site of International Importance'
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