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Perseverance pays

November 20, 2009 - 00:00 GMT

They say that the simplest ideas are the best. The more experienced might add that they are also the hardest to pull off.

They say that the simplest ideas are the best. The more experienced might add that they are also the hardest to pull off. Take electric steelmaking, for example. Load buckets of scrap, pig iron or DRI into the electric arc furnace according to need, insert the electrodes, turn on the power, skim the slag and tap the molten steel. Then start all over again. Those basic steps are followed by many electric steelmakers and work well, but over 30 years ago inventor John A. Vallomy started to pursue an idea that seemed to offer considerable advantages for what sounds like a simple variation on the process. Why not charge the furnace continuously, instead of using batch charging, by feeding raw material into the...

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