【Ten Years of Rapid Development in Chemical Engineering Equipment】By 2025, the technology for producing high-oxygen-resistant enamel steel will reach international leadership levels

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Let’s give praise and encouragement to the achievements made in China’s chemical engineering technology and equipment; your participation in discussions is the greatest encouragement. **********************【Ten Years of Progress in Chemical Engineering Equipment】A continuously updated summary post is available – feel free to join the discussions: https://bbs.hcbbs.com/thread-3576046-1-1.html ***************** On August 25th, the Jiangxi Metal Society organized experts in Xinyu to evaluate the scientific and technological achievements of the project titled “Key Technologies and Industrialization of High-Quality Enameled Steel Strips”, which was carried out under the leadership of Xinyu Iron and Steel Co., Ltd. The evaluation panel, led by Mao Xinping, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, tenured professor at the University of Science and Technology Beijing, and doctoral supervisor, unanimously agreed that the overall technical level of this project is at the international advanced level, with the technology for producing high-oxygen enamel steel reaching the international leading level. According to Zhong Haiqing, the project technology leader at Xingang Co., Ltd., who presented a report on technological research and development at the evaluation meeting, high-quality enamel steel strips, as the fundamental material for enamel products, have properties that determine the service life of these products as well as the applications for which they can be used. In the field of industrial desulfurization and denitrification, due to the high-temperature and highly corrosive working conditions, if the enamel on steel products cracks, it can affect the stable operation of the equipment and lead to excessive emissions. Therefore, high-oxygen enamel steel, which possesses extremely high resistance to scaling and spalling, has become the preferred material for industrial desulfurization and denitrification applications; only a few steel manufacturers around the world, such as Nippon Steel and Baosteel, possess the technology to produce it. In terms of production, this steel grade also faces global challenges such as a limited number of consecutive casting batches (usually ≤3 batches) and long production cycles, which results in a high dependence on imported enamel steel strips for industrial desulfurization and denitrification, thereby hindering its widespread use. To overcome the key manufacturing technology challenges associated with enamel-coated steel strips, and in line with China’s development plans for the steel industry outlined in the 14th Five-Year Plan as well as the goals of achieving carbon peak and carbon neutrality, Xingang Steel Co., Ltd. took the lead in researching key manufacturing technologies for high-quality enamel-coated steel strips. It developed such products that exhibit excellent properties in terms of resistance to scaling and cracking, as well as good adhesion. Additionally, the company developed a set of key manufacturing technologies with independent intellectual property rights, enabling domestic substitution for imported products. After evaluation, the expert group concluded that the main innovation of this project lies in the independent development of a series of high-quality enamel steel strip compositions, as well as the creation of a technology for coordinated control of the solubility and precipitation of micro-nano scale second-phase particles in the steel. Through multi-objective coordinated optimization of the \"hydrogen trapping\" and \"pinning effects\" associated with the precipitates in high-quality enamel steels with different composition systems, the resistance of these products to scaling and spalling has been significantly improved. An in-house developed production technology for continuous casting of high-oxygen enamel steel and high-titanium enamel steel over multiple batches was established. Through the development of proprietary pouring flow-control devices and research on precise control of total oxygen content in the steel, it became possible to carry out 5 consecutive castings of high-oxygen enamel steel and 7 consecutive castings of high-titanium deep-drawing enamel steel, thereby significantly improving production efficiency ； It was the first to develop the preparation technology for rare earth enamel steel, revealing the existence forms of rare earth elements in this type of steel as well as the mechanism behind its resistance to spalling. The criteria for selecting rare earth alloys and the methods of adding these elements were determined; as a result, the yield of rare earth elements increased from less than 15% to 45%, enabling the mass production of rare earth enamel steel ； Virtual simulation and deviation sensitivity analysis techniques for the multi-roller transport process in the continuous annealing of thin-gauge enamel-coated steel strips were developed. A sheet-level control method based on dynamic stability criteria was established, and the rolling shape model as well as the tension control program for continuous annealing were optimized. These efforts addressed the technical issues of deviation and warping that occur during the continuous annealing of thin-gauge enamel-coated steel strips, enabling stable batch production of products with a thickness of 0.30–0.50 mm in conventional 1550 continuous annealing furnaces. The product has been tested by the **Steel Materials Testing Center, and it exhibits excellent performance in all aspects; it has received positive reviews from users both domestically and internationally. The project has been granted 12 patents, including 7 invention patents ； Led the development of 1 group standard, and participated in the development of **1 standard ； 6 papers have been published, including 1 in SCI. A series of high-quality enamel-coated steel strip products developed for this project have been adopted and utilized in countries such as Turkey, South Africa, Guatemala, and Italy**, as well as by domestic enterprises including Shandong Haodunhua, Zhejiang Kaili New Materials, Shangguo, Dongguo, and Hagauo, delivering significant economic and social benefits. News link: Enameled steel products are widely used in various important sectors of the national economy, such as industrial environmental protection, petrochemicals, home appliances, building decoration, and sanitary equipment, thanks to their excellent properties including corrosion resistance, resistance to acids and alkalis, high-temperature tolerance, ease of cleaning, non-toxicity, odorlessness, smoothness and wear resistance, as well as cleanliness. China has now become a globally recognized major producer of enamel steel products, with an annual output value of 24 billion yuan and over 600 enterprises in this sector. The domestic production volume of enamel components for industrial desulfurization and denitrification has reached 100,000 tons ； The production volume of daily-use enamel products has increased from 30,000 tons to nearly 300,000 tons today, with these products being exported to countries around the world. Especially since the 21st century, the annual export value has been growing steadily at a rate of over 10%.