Puddling (metallurgy)

Puddling was an Industrial Revolution means of making iron and steel. In the original puddling technique, molten iron in a reverberatory furnace was stirred with rods, which were consumed in the process. Later, it was also used to produce a good-quality steel with the correct amount of carbon; this was a highly skilled art, but both high-carbon and low-carbon steels were successfully produced on a small scale, particularly for swords and other weapons.

History

Puddling was the first true industrial process to make steel from pig iron. A primitive version of the process was known in China already in the 3rd century. The pig iron tapped off the blast furnace was puddled with iron bars, bringing it into it contact with oxygen in the air and burning off any surplus carbon.

In Europe, the process was one of several that were developed in the second half of the 18th century for producing bar iron from pig iron without the use of charcoal. It was invented by Henry Cort at Fontley in Hampshire in 1783–84 and patented in 1784. A superficially similar (but probably less effective) process was patented the previous year by Peter Onions. Cort's process consisted of stirring molten pig iron in a reverberatory furnace in an oxidising atmosphere, thus decarburising it. When the iron 'came to nature', that is, to a pasty consistency, it was gathered into a puddled ball, shingled, and rolled (as described above). This application of the rolling mill was also Cort's invention.

Unfortunately, Cort's process (as patented) only worked for white cast iron, not grey cast iron, which was the usual feedstock for forges of the period. This problem was resolved probably at Merthyr Tydfil by combining puddling with one element of a slightly earlier process. This involved another kind of hearth known as a 'refinery' or 'running out fire'. [Referred to as a "finery" and "run-out fire" by Overman, but not to be confused with the finery in the finery forge. ] The pig iron was melted in this and run out into a trough. The slag separated, and floated on the molten iron, and was removed by lowering a dam at the end of the trough. The effect of this process was to desiliconise the metal, leaving a white brittle metal, known as 'finers metal'. This was the ideal material to charge to the puddling furnace. This version of the process was known as 'dry puddling' and continued in use in some places as late as 1890.

The alternative to refining gray iron was known as 'wet puddling', also known as 'boiling' or 'pig boiling'. This was invented by a puddler called Joseph Hall at Tipton. He began adding scrap iron to the charge. Later he tried adding iron scale (in effect, rust). The result was spectacular in that the furnace boiled violently. This was in fact a chemical reaction between the oxidised iron in the scale and the carbon dissolved in the pig iron. Again to his surprise, the resultant puddle ball produced good iron. Hall subsequently became a partner in establishing the Bloomfield ironworks at Tipton in 1830, the firm becoming Bradley, Barrows and Hall from 1834. This is the version of the process most commonly used in the mid to late 19th century. Wet puddling had the advantage that it was much more efficient than dry puddling (or any earlier process). The best yield of iron achievable from dry puddling is a ton of iron from 1.3 tons of pig iron, but the yield from wet puddling was close to 1.0.

The production of mild steel in the puddling furnace was only achieved in about 1850 in Westphalia in Germany and was patented in Great Britain on behalf of Lohage, Bremme and Lehrkind. It only worked with pig iron made from certain kinds of ore. The cast iron had to be melted quickly and the slag to be rich in manganese. When the metal came to nature, it had to be removed quickly and shingled before further carburisation occurred. The process was taken up at the Low Moor Ironworks at Bradford in Yorkshire (England) in 1851 and in the Loire valley in France in 1855. It was widely used.

The puddling process began to be displaced with the introduction of the Bessemer process, which produced steel, which could then be converted into wrought iron using the Aston process for a fraction of the cost and time. For comparison, an average size charge for a puddling furnace was 800–900 lbs (360–410 kg) while a Bessemer converter charge was nowrap|15 short tons (13,600 kg). The puddling process could not be scaled up, being limited by the amount that the puddler could handle. It could only be expanded by building more furnaces.

Process

The process begins by preparing the puddling furnace; this involves bringing the furnace to a low temperature and then fettling it. Fettling is the process of painting the grate and walls around it with iron oxides, typically hematite; this acts as a protective coating keeping the melted metal from burning through the furnace. Sometimes finely pounded cinders from a charcoal forge, puddling furnace, reheating furnace, or blast furnace is used instead of hematite. In this case the furnace must be heated for 4–5 hours to melt the cinder and then cooled before charging. Either white cast iron or refined iron is then charged into hearth of the furnace. For wet puddling, scrap iron and/or iron oxide is also charged. This mixture is then heated until the top melts, allowing for the oxides to begin mixing; this usually take 30 minutes. This mixture is subjected to a strong current of air and stirred by long bars with hooks on one end, called puddling bars or rabbles [W. K. V. Gale, "The Iron and Steel Industry: a Dictionary of Terms" (David and Charles, Newton Abbot 1971), 165.] cite book | last = Overman | first = Fredrick | title = The Manufacture of Iron, in All Its Various Branches | publisher = H. C. Baird | date = 1854 | location = Philadelphia | pages = 267, 268, 287, 283, 344 | url = http://books.google.com/books?id=Gani2eHvhAkC] , through working doors.R. F. Tylecote, 'Iron in the Industrial Revolution' in R. F. Tylecote, "The Industrial Revolution in Metals" (Institute of Metals, London 1991), 236-40.] This helps the oxygen from the oxides react with impurities in the pig iron, notably silicon, manganese (to form slag) and to some degree sulfur and phosphorus, which form gases and escape with the exhaust of the furnace.

More fuel is then added and the temperature raised. The iron completely melts and the carbon starts to burn off as well. When wet puddling the mixture will begin to "boil" due to the added iron oxide. The carbon dioxide formed in this process causes the slag to "puff up" on top, giving the rabbler a visual indication of the progress of the combustion. As the carbon burns off the melting temperature of the mixture rises from 1150 °C–1540 °C (2100 °F–2800 °F),cite book | last = Smith | first = Carroll | authorlink = Carroll Smith | title = Engineer to Win | publisher = MotorBooks / MBI Publishing Company | date = 1984 | pages = 53 - 54 | isbn = 0879381868 ] [W. K. V. Gale, "The British Iron and Steel Industry" (David and Charles, Newton Abbot, 1967), 70-9.] so the furnace has to be continually fed during this process. Eventually the carbon is mostly burned off and the iron "comes to nature", forming into a spongy material, indicating that the process is complete and the material can be removed. The hook on the end of the bar is then used to pull out large puddle ballscite book | last = Rajput | first = R.K. | title = Engineering Materials | publisher = S. Chand | date = 2000 | pages = 223 | url = http://books.google.com/books?id=6yr-NMgM6HQC | isbn = 8121919606] of the material, about 35–40 kilogram (70–80 pounds) each, and 30–38 centimeters (12–15 inches) in diameter. Sometimes a large pair of tongs are used to removed the puddle balls.

These puddle balls are then transported to the hammer or squeezer by dragging them along iron slopes built between the furnace and the shingling equipment or, more commonly, the puddle balls are loaded into iron wheelbarrows and transported to their destination. Shingling expels slag and welds shut internal cracks, while breaking off chunks of impurities. The iron is then re-heated and rolled out into flat bars or round rods. For this, grooved rollers were used, the grooves being of successively decreasing size so that the bar was progressively reduced to the desired dimensions. Some of the iron oxide is from the scales that form in the later steps of shingling and rolling. The quality of this may be improved by faggoting.

Puddling furnace

The puddling furnace is a metalmaking technology used to create wrought iron or steel from the pig iron produced in a blast furnace. The furnace is constructed to pull the hot air over the iron without it coming into direct contact with the fuel, a system generally known as a reverberatory furnace or open-hearth process. The major advantage of this system is keeping the impurities of the fuel separated from the charge.

There were two major types of puddling furnaces used in the United States. The first is the single puddling furnace, which is based on the same design used in England and, thus, the most common. The second kind is the double puddling furnace, which was most often found on the east of the Allegheny Mountains.

The general design of a single puddling furnace is as follows. The footprint of the furnace was 3.3–3.6 meters (11–12 feet) long, 1.5–2.1 m (5–7 ft) wide (depending on hearth size) and 1.5 m (5 ft) tall. The outer walls were 23 centimeters (9 inches) thick and made of typical brick and then covered by cast iron plates. Wrought iron square bars, called cross binders, are run through the roof of the furnace and bolted to the cast iron plates to keep the roof from collapsing. The chimney was 9–12 m (30–40 ft) tall and 40 cm (16 in) square. There would be a small work hole allowing access to the fire, and a work door allowing access to the hearth. The average work door was 55 cm (22 in) wide by 68 cm (27 in) tall, lined with firebricks on the inside and with a small square work hole for tools.

The hearth is where the iron is charged, melted and puddled. The hearth's shape is usually elliptical; 1.5–1.8 m (5–6 ft) in length and 1–1.2 m (3.5–4 ft) wide. If the furnace is designed to puddle white iron then the hearth depth is never more than 50 cm (20 in). If the furnace is designed to boil gray iron then the average hearth depth is 50–75 cm (20–30 in). Due to the great heat required to melt the charge the grate had to be cooled, else it would melt with the charge. This was done by running a constant charge of cool air on it, or by throwing water on the bottom of the grate.

The fireplace, where the fuel is burned, used a cast iron grate which varied in size depending on the fuel used. If bituminous coal is used then an average grate size is 60x90 cm (2x3 ft) and is loaded with 25–30 cm (10–12 in) of coal. If anthracite coal is used then the grate is 1.5x1.2 m (5x4 ft) and is loaded with 50–75 cm (20–24 in) of coal.

A double puddling furnace is very similar to that of the single puddling furnace, with the major difference being there are two work doors allowing two puddlers to work the furnace at the same time. The biggest advantage of this setup is that it produces twice as much wrought iron. It's also more more economical and fuel efficient as compared to a single furnace.

Impact

Though it was not the first process to produce bar iron without charcoal, puddling was by far the most successful, and replaced the earlier potting and stamping processes, as well as the much older charcoal finery process. This enabled a great expansion of iron production in Great Britain to take place. That expansion constitutes the Industrial Revolution so far as the iron industry is concerned.

Precursor in China

By the Han dynasty (2nd century BCE – 3rd century CE), Chinese metallurgists had discovered how to puddle molten pig iron, using blast furnaces and stirring it in the open air until it lost its carbon and became wrought iron. In Chinese, the process was called chao, literally, stir frying.Fact|date=April 2007

ee also

*Crucible steel
*Decarburization
*Steelmaking
*Wrought iron

References

Bibliography

*W. K. V. Gale, "Iron and Steel" (Longmans, London 1969), 55ff.
*W. K. V. Gale, "The British Iron and Steel Industry: a technical history" (David & Charles, Newton Abbot 1967), 62-66.
*R. A. Mott, 'Dry and Wet Puddling' "Trans. Newcomen Soc." 49 (1977-8), 153-8.
*R. A. Mott (ed. P. Singer), 'Henry Cort: the great finer" (The Metals Society, London 1983).
*K. Barraclough, "Steelmaking: 1850-1900" (Institute of Materials, London 1990), 27-35.
*cite book | last = Overman | first = Fredrick | title = The Manufacture of Iron, in All Its Various Branches | publisher = H. C. Baird | date = 1854 | location = Philadelphia | pages = 259-302 | url = http://books.google.com/books?id=Gani2eHvhAkC

Notes