UNITED STATES STEEL " A BETTER WAY" CONTINUOUS CASTER 1960s INDUSTRIAL FILM 54304

Steel production through continuous casting is the thrust of this 1960s color film. Continuous casting replaced ingot casting, the traditional method of working with a single iron ore batch from start to finish before starting a new batch. Equipment used to sit idle while other equipment was in use. Continuous casting increases efficiency and decreases energy consumption. Today, more than 90 percent of total steel production in the world is continuously cast. In continuous casting, throughout the pouring stage, the mold is continuously water-cooled to solidify the hot metal coming directly in contact with it. The mold oscillates vertically (or in a near vertical curved path) to prevent the metal from sticking to the mold walls. A lubricant is also added to the metal in the mold to prevent sticking, as well as to trap any non-metallic slag particles - including oxide particles or scale that may still be present in the metal.
The film opens at a United States Steel (USS) plant in eastern Pennsylvania where two furnaces provide an endless stream of molten steel (mark 01:05). The narrator explains how steel is carefully monitored during the process as US Steel continues to fine-tune the process, and as the film continues, offers the viewer a detailed, step-by-step explanation of the steel-making process. Some of the steel is shown undergoing quality-control inspections (mark 04:55) and watch how billets (a length of metal that has a round or square cross-section) are further processed via profile rolling and drawing. Steel rods are shown emerging from a furnace at mark 08:00 and onto a conveyor belt where they are cooled, and we later watch steel coils being mechanically compressed and banded (mark 09:40) before being sent to various USS wire mills.
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This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit www.PeriscopeFilm.com

[@UriNierer]

I work in a steel mill in Austria, last summer I was at the continuous caster. Really amazing how continuous casting has evolved over the years. Most of the time, I worked at the oldest CC in our mill, and it is still MUCH more modern than that one in the video.

[@jameshendrickson8151]

My dad still works at the steel mill in Weirton west Virginia. 45 years as a crane operator

[@capriracer351]

The shop that I work in is a legacy shop of one of the original builders of continuous casters. It is a former United States Steel Oilwell Division plant. While the oil well production part is long gone, we still build and refurbish continuous caster equipment.

[@663rainmaker]

Incredible History USA 🇺🇸 Thank You for Sharing

[@hallofo8107]

This was pretty dang cool. I'm amazed at how this particular work was done and how the industry has evolved over the years. Watching documentaries about older "batch" casting/refining and then on to this, then on to modern highly-automated methods is very interesting. To me, at least.

[@c00kien0m]

They really love the term "ultra-modern" in these old reels.

[@whitetrash1864]

Alot of this stuff is ultra modern still today

[@kevin6667]

My grandfather worked US Steel South Works Chicago

[@hermanschijf21]

Great film hallo from holland

[@chillydawgg4354]

Groovy

[@rainbowfan_laylabug]

USS posco / us steel. We just got bought out after having the best year in 110 years. Leaving us to find new careers

[@lightmarker3146]

President Trump loved Steel !

[@brosefmcman8264]

Thanks Joe Biden! From day one he has been a complete and utter failure like Obama

[@g1sokool669]

@@lightmarker3146 Joe Biden n ot so much!

[@DrLumpy]

5:57 The Pushout Man enjoys a relaxing cigarette while - "...monitoring everything by re-MOTE control"

[@youngstownhistoricalcenter4589]

We have a model of a continuous caster that will be on view during Ohio Open Doors on Saturday, Sept. 17 from 12-4. The model is huge and makes more sense after viewing this video.

[@isaacbenyin5478]

great work

[@shake8]

Was this Bethlehem or fairless works?

[@lowercherty]

USS Fairless. Now all gone.

[@icecreamforcrowhurst]

@@lowercherty I think I read somewhere that the buildings have been converted to Amazon -type warehouses

[@icecreamforcrowhurst]

The people you see in this film are not men, they are DEVO

[@mattstarr8203]

pop Finnegan territory PA coal country

[@felixyusupov7299]

Everything in this video only ran ten years for so then shut down. Obviously a horrible investment for US Steel.

[@randymagnum143]

The cranes are still around somewhere. I've made parts for them from the original drawings.

[@steamfire]

Why did it shut down?

[@felixyusupov7299]

@@steamfire The simple answer is that non-union competition down south made Fairless rod mill unprofitable for US Steel. Their strategy from that point forward was to concentration on product line where all of their competitors had the same basic cost structure as they did, meaning unionized labor. Anything and everything inside the US Steel organization that had direct non-union competition was closed and/or put into harvest mode by US Steel management in the 1980s. Operating non-union does allow a company certain advantages that US Steel couldn't touch because they were unionized. These include high variable compensation, unrestrictive work rules, unrestrictive contacting out of work. The other big problem with operating a plant in Pennsylvania is high taxes relative to the south.

[@felixyusupov7299]

@@randymagnum143 Overhead cranes are moved around all the time. Same with the equipment in the mills. You can buy used steel mill equipment for the likes of Casey Equipment and various other people. You can retrofit it with new electrics and hydraulics and end up with a runnable piece of equipment. It might not be as good a new equipment in terms of performance but it does work and it is cheap.

[@michaelbarbarich3965]

@@felixyusupov7299 non union workers benefit from the ground broken in compensation, workplace safety, and benefit packages by union workers while leeching away jobs, then begin to lose these advances when unions lose power. While unions are far from perfect, american workers are only sabotaging themselves when they swallow anti union propaganda.

[@mercoid]

“A BETTER WAY”…? Yeah? Stupid dummy better? Man? The good life? Gigantic? Stream of molten steel???? Modern advance? Hmmmmm!!!?!????