I'm seeing enough photos of Cleveland-Cliffs rebuild of their largest blast furnace that I'm going to start these notes for them. See Inland Steel for general information about this mill. C-C is doing more than just relining the furnace. For example, they are replacing parts of the conveyor belt that carries material to the top of the furnace.
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| safe_image for Cleveland-Cliffs to idle its largest blast furnace for planned outage "Indiana Harbor No. 7 is the largest blast furnace in North America, and for reference, produced 33% more hot metal per day than our two blast furnaces at Cleveland works combined," Cleveland-Cliffs Chairman, President and CEO Lourenco Goncalves said in a conference call with investors. "The outage includes repair to two BOF converters in the steel shop and a partial reline in several upgrades to the blast furnace." The blast furnace will be modernized to burn materials other than just the feedstock of iron ore, which should reduce its carbon footprint. |
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| Dylan Cannell posted, cropped Giant crane hovering over #7 at cliffs John Verlich: They pre fabbed everything down river, brought it up in huge sections on barges, collector mains, crossovers etc.. and he could swing everything from the river into place. It was quite amazing to see. Steven Booth: it’s a big crane out at 7 Furnace, crane own & operated by Central. Made our first picks today with it on day shift, got wind out yesterday 15mph winds and boom comes down. [Comments include photos of description of some work done in 2005 for a new bag house.] |
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| Cameron Jankowski commented on Dylan's post [They are probably raising or lowering the jib for the day.] |
I don't think this is the same crane because this one has a double boom and mast whereas the above has just a single boom and mast. A later comment confirmed that this is a separate crane.
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| John Verlich commented on Dylan's post I watched this crane in operation. I believe it’s the 2nd largest in the world. It’s on tracks. John Verlich: That draft stack is 450’ Ian Hapsias: John Verlich looks like their lifting one of the Larry cars in that pic. |
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| Comments on Ian's comment |
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| Steve Herrmann commented on Dylan's post |
I thought the one by the furnace was a Manitowoc MLC, but I could not determine if it was 300 or 650. This photo confirms it is a MLC300.
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| Steven Booth commented on Dylan's post |
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| Steven Booth commented on Dylan's post |
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| Steven Booth commented on Dylan's post |
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| Steven Booth commented on Dylan's post 330 ton capacity in this configuration with 551’ of stick. |
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| Bill DuFault posted [There are no comments, so I'm assuming this is the #7 rebuild.] |
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| Dylan Cannell posted Lots of work going on over here tonight. Indiana harbor #7 blast furnace Erin Meyers: Badass pic im with the 18000 |
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| Cameron Jankowski commented on Dylan's post |
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| Cameron Jankowski commented on Dylan's post |
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| Kyle Hoover commented on Dylan's post, cropped |
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| Cameron Jankowski commented on Kyle's post |
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| Aaron Corns posted 7 bf Indiana harbor! |
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| Alejandro Lopez Garcia posted Looking at 7BF from 4BF cast house [Four cranes. I wonder what brand the white luffer crane is.] |
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| Cameron Jankowski commented on Alejandro's post Before they set the new conveyor Piece the other day. |
Speaking of setting the new conveyor:
Mike Hom posted four photos with the comment: "New 200ft long span of conveyor gallery at Cleveland Cliffs indiana harbor #7 blast furnace. Lifted over 200ft in the air."
Hunter Jones: Is this a replacement or a major upgrade?
Mike Hom: Hunter Jones replacement. I condemned this span last January and they made temporary repairs til they got to their outage this past 6 weeks. Cleveland cliffs spending the big money.
Tim Janko: Awesome I’m happy to see money put back into IHE. All the up grades, cleaning and painting makes it feel good about the place.
Steve Pajak: Is that about 150 tons?
Mitchell Nisevich: John Orlando Skip cars wouldn’t be able to keep up with that furnace.
Mike Hom: John Orlando 2nd largest blast furnace in the world. [Largest in the Western Hemisphere] Those conveyors move material fast.
Eric Bell: 310’ 600,000#
Steve Pajak: IW or BM job?
Bernie Jurasek: Steve Pajak Ironworkers get it there. Millwrights make it work.
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| John Seaman posted 7BF north side today. Note new 300 foot long BF1 conveyor section. James Torgeson shared Jay Gollner: That section has needed to be replaced since 1998, I ran the inspection on it back then when I was working for Raytheon. Whoever took over Ross Beans job should have the report. Joshua Gant: We had the exact job done on #8 in Fairfield about two years before it was taken offline and demolished...good times. |
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| John commented on his post, cropped The conveyor lift! Picture credit to Barnhart crane co. |
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| Aaron Corns commented on James' share, cropped |
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| Cameron Jankowski commented on James' share |
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| Bill DuFault commented on Cameron's comment |
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| Joe Pope posted re-line of the largest blast furnace in America, number 7 blast furnace Cleveland Cliffs In East Chicago, Indiana. Boilermakers 374 Billy Cochran: Thomas Saunders this one is a 45 day shutdown for the new reline. Jim Allgren: I’m always trying to describe to young folks how the Mahoning Valley looked back in the day. Blast furnaces and mills from end to end! Jeff Bacchetti: Jim Allgren 1 continuous mill from levvitsburg to lowellville. With different companies and different owners. [I've been wondering what the extent of the mills were. I have noticed that there were a lot along that river and down the upstream part of the Ohio River.] John Hawkins: Down at the bottom of the stack. Looks like it's just above the tuyer level. Mark Edmund DaSacco: Just reminds me of what one of my fellow steelworkers told me happened at us steel Great Lakes works; they had just rebricked the furnace and told the foreman he had to wait like 24 hours or something before it was fired up. He was impatient and thought twelve hours was long enough. Fired it up and all the brickwork cracked and collapsed into the furnace. They were out nearly a million dollars and the supervisor was out of a job! Jacob Ehrhardt: Laith Alnatour makes around 11,000 tons a day or used to 10 years ago. 77,000 tons of iron a week. Bobby Stephens: Laith Alnatour after the reline it’ll make 12,500 tons a day. Laith Alnatour: Bobby Stephens that’s almost 4x what we put out with 2 furnaces I would hate to do a shell split on that. Stephen Moore: Button that job up And get ready to do cleveland C5. [40 tuyeres. I saw elsewhere that this furnace has four taps.] Kendall Ray Kilgore: What is her name? Donald Summar: Kendall Ray Kilgore Madeline Mike Chechalk: Copper plate coolers in bosh and stack. [I've learned that I need to learn about coolers.] Steven Booth: staves and plates removed. In 2004 7 furnace went from plates to staves. Going back to the original set up on this reline, a massive undertaking. 7 had multiple burned up staves past 4 years that they have been dealing with, killing cooling circuits and using using high pressure nitrogen for cooling using “Super Coolers”. This is my 3rd reline on the furnace & probably the last. [Steven also posted a 17 sec video. I think it shows them using a cutting torch to get rid of the old equipment.] Jacob Alan Buchanan: I thought #14 at Gary Works was the biggest? Bobby Stephens: Jacob Alan Buchanan biggest that US Steel has. [If someone is remembering correctly, the diameter is 54'.] Andy Pierce shared Alfred Petrocelli: On my first day working a Summer job as a laborer on the Blast Furnace at US Steel South Works, the Summer of ‘73, I found myself alone inside Furnace #5, as I was the only one small enough to fit back out the opening once the last piece was packed in. Outside were 5 “Blue Hats” some from Pittsburgh, shouting instructions. Your picture brought back memories. Larry Clarino: Is that one of the old Inland Steel furnaces? |
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| Dennis DeBruler commented on Larry's comment on Andy's share Yes. It is the largest blast furnace in the Western Hemisphere. A comment in the base post indicates that it was built in the 1970s. 41°40'59.5"N 87°25'27.9"W |
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| Dylan Jacson commented on Joe's post One from a job I was on a few years ago. [The comments call the shotcreting an 800 ton bandaid.] |
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| Richard F Luzzi commented on Joe's post Stack sheets. D furnace Bethlehem |
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| The rest of the dialog between Larry and Dennis on Andy's share |
My dad worked number 7 blast furnace for 42 years. I'm curious if anyone has any connection to Barry" Bear" Switzer. He retired from Inland in 1994. If there are any pictures of him on the job it would be interesting to see them. I am old enough that I remember take a tour of the Furnace as a kid.
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