I‘m studying about a sintering plant. It is the only sinter plant in the world that is detached from a steel mill complex. Why is this so? Is sintered iron ore a raw material to make steel bars used for building bridges, buildings and others? After iron ore is sintered, what does it actually look like? Is iron ore also called limestone?
Sintering is a very unique process that can result in a higher quality part than casting. It starts with a fine powder, which is compacted under many tons of force so that it holds together, but not strongly. A heat is applied to the part that does not melt it. Sintering occurs by diffusion. As you have many tiny particles together, they have a large amount of surface area - the driving force of this process is to reduce this surface area. So, after a period of time under the heat, the atoms diffuse to fill in the gaps between particles, forming a solid part.
No iron ore is not also called limestone, although it may contain limestone. I am surprised there is only one plant as I thought there were a bunch of them in northern Minnesota near the iron range (and far from the steel mills) Sintered iron ore by my understanding is heat treated to remove some of the non-iron components which are driven off as gases and made brittle while the iron softens and to thus increase the concentration of iron per ton of ore. So transporation costs are less with less weight of trash per pound of iron.
