!!!Stahl

Steel, produced from  Iron by reducing its carbon content to less than 
1.6%. Historically, the availability of high-manganese spathic iron 
ore, charcoal and water power were the natural prerequisites for the 
production of excellent quality steel in Austria. When pig mould 
furnaces were introduced in the 16th century, special reduction 
processes had to be developed. Steel grades from Styrian and 
Carinthian fining ovens for tools, such as  Scythes, knives, springs, 
wire etc. were highly esteemed throughout Europe, in the Levant and as 
far as India. One early method for refining steel from decarburising 
hearths consisted in packing several steel rods into bundles which 
were then forged to achieve a uniform grain. During the first half of 
the 19th century the crucible steel process was introduced from 
England. One of the leading 19th century experts in European steel 
metallurgy was P. von  Tunner.

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Industrialisation began in 1830/40 with the introduction of the 
puddling process, which allowed the use of Austrian sub-bituminous 
coal. The transition from wrought iron to ingot steel, and thus to 
rimming steel production was enabled by the Bessemer process, which 
was first introduced in Austria in the Turrach plant, Styria, in 1863. 
From 1870 onwards, yet another steel-making process was available: the 
Siemens-Martin (open-hearth) process. High-grade steel production is 
inseparably linked with the development of the electric steel furnace 
(first one in Austria operated at Judenburg, 1907). Special steels are 
given their specific properties by alloying. The most important 
developments in this field were stainless steel by M.  Mauermann 
(1913) and high-speed steel by F.  Reiser (1900).

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As regards the production of rimming steel, the most important 
20th-century development was initiated in Austria. After a number of 
trial runs, the first steel plants using the  LD Process, or basic 
oxygen process, went into operation at Linz ( VOEST) in 1952 and at 
Donawitz ( Oesterreichisch-Alpine Montangesellschaft) in 1953. Major 
quality improvements in special and high-grade steel production were 
achieved by the  Boehler-Werke at Kapfenberg with the introduction of 
large-scale ladle technology, the Electroslag Remelting process and 
the B.E.S.T. process for the treatment of cast ingots since the 1960s. 
The  Corex-Process was developed in the late1980s. Due to the 
Nationalisation Act of July 26, 1946, the largest Austrian steel 
companies were for several decades part of the  Nationalised Industry. 
The steel industry went through a major restructuring process in the 
1990s in the wake of a number of privatisation measures.  VOEST-ALPINE 
STAHL AG,  VA Technologie AG.

!Literature
L. v. Bogdandy and W. Krieger, Strukturwandel in der 
oesterreichischen Stahlindustrie 1974-1986, in: Berg- und 
huettenmaennische Monatshefte, 1987.


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