Nucor Steel Tuscaloosa Meeting Announcement

Birmingham, Chapter 143

Nucor Steel Tuscaloosa

Nucor Steel Tuscaloosa invites SME 143 Birmingham members/guests to tour

Date:               Thursday February 16^th, 2012

Time:               5:00 pm – 7:00 pm

Place:               Nucor Steel Tuscaloosa

                        1700 Holt Road N.E.

                        Tuscaloosa, AL  35404

                        (205) 562-1300

                        www.nucortusk.com

Built in 1985, Nucor Steel Tuscaloosa, Inc. has consistently demonstrated product versatility, quality, and cost advantages over traditional plate mills.  Our mill was the first U.S. steel mill to employ Steckel mill technology to produce high quality wide plate from coil.  Our company produces over 1.2 million tons of carbon and pressure vessel steel coil, discrete plate, and cut-to-length plate products annually.

PPE Requirements:  Steel toe boots, hard hat, safety glasses required.  Hearing protection and jackets will be provided (along with hard hats and safety glasses if you do not have your own).  There will be lots of stairs to climb along the tour route.

 From Birmingham: Take I-59 South to Exit 73.  At the bottom of the ramp turn right onto US Hwy 82 West. Travel just over 3 miles and take exit on the right labeled Jack Warner Parkway.  At the end of the ramp turn left onto Jack Warner.  The main gate is @ 1.5 miles on the left.  Check in at the guard house.

SCHEDULE:

·  4:30 pm                     – Early Bird arrival

·  5:00 - 5:30 pm           -  Meet and greet

·  5:30 pm                      –Tour begins

·  7:30 pm                      – After Hours to follow, off-site meet-up

Please register for this event by sending an e-mail to Blane.Vines@nucor.com.  You must register to be allowed to enter plant site.

We wish to thank our local 2010 - 2012 Sponsors:

Hager Oil Company, Inc.

Processing Custom Steel Plate & Bar

Precision Grinding, Inc.

Birmingham Fastener  Global Solutions, Local Service

Osborne Machinery Movers, Inc.

Blake & Pendleton: Compressed Air & Gas, Pump and Heat Transfer

Nucor Steel Tuscaloosa Plant Tour

Nucor Steel Tuscaloosa shut down the plant for our Thursday evening, end of the month tour. As a result, fifteen SME members and guests were allowed to "get close to the equipment" during our tour of the mill.

Our three hosts, Jon, Dave and Johnny welcomed us into their conference room for a brief history of this Tuscaloosa coil and discreet plate mill, along with some light refreshments.

We first climbed the stairs to the top of the mill to see where scrap steel is loaded into the Electric Arc Furnace. We saw the ladle metallurgy furnace that handles 150 tons of newly melted steel. Next in line, we stepped up to the mixing and testing portion of the mill where we were surprised to find that when adding Vanadium, steelworkers throw the whole can full of these precious rocks into the mix. Our tour guide, Jon Walton, let us know that temperatures get extremely hot along the way, beginning at 2300 degrees Farenheit before cooling toward 1000 degrees upon exiting as a finished product, prior to shearing. During production, most of the workers wear heavy, heat protection gear.

We followed the stairs down the path where the steel is poured into the slabcaster. As a rule, Nucor Tuscaloosa generates a standard-sized 5 1/4" slab in order to produce a uniform beginning size for all of their finished coil and discreet plate products. Again, SME members and guests were able to take a closer look at the cooling mechanics of the slabcaster while the mill was shut down. On the other side of the mezzanine, our guides showed us a "from-the-top view" of how the Steckel Mill works these slabs until the desired 5.26" thickness and flatness is achieved. As we made our way into the plate rolling, control room, we viewed monitors showing close-ups of various coil-rolling inspection points. Here, the slab is rolled to the desired coil thickness, then sheared, coiled to a rolled size. At this point, the desired thickness coil has been produced.

Additionally, we viewed the shear lines, the discreet plate lines, and we saw both, finished coils and finished 1/2" to 1 1/2" x 96" x 480" plates. At that time, all of these plates had metric measurements and specific heat and plate numbers written on their edges.

Both, during our introduction and the closing remarks, Dave Reinhold stressed the efforts made for adhering to the highest Safety Standards in the industry. Nucor prides itself on promoting Safety and Environmental Stewardship, while producing some of the highest quality steel products in the world. Dave took the time to answer several of our questions.

We finished our evening with a seafood dinner at Wintzell's. Al Hanhauser a member from the Mercedes Tuscaloosa plant shared one of the more interesting conversations when he introduced us to the new Mercedes SLS Series production vehicles that should rival the Ford Mustang AV-X10. Further, Nathan Cox, from COX MHP, an invited guest from the Mississippi SME chapter suggested that Alabama and Mississippi continue joint tours. Nathan suggested several upcoming Mississippi plant tours that would be of interest to our members.

SME Birmingham members and guests thank NUCOR STEEL for giving us this opportunity to see their Tuscaloosa coil and plate production facilities. We are also thankful for the invitation to come back when the mill is under heavy operation in order to see the steel produced live.

July & August SME Plant Tours set

Nucor Steel Tuscaloosa has invited SME Birmingham members to tour their Steel Production facilities on Thursday, July 30, 2009 from 4:30pm - 6:30pm. Early arrival for Social time begins at 4:00pm. Please, report to the Guard Shack. There you will be given a brief safety introduction along with directions to the meeting building. For those who choose to socialize afterwards, Dinner will follow at Wintzell's Oyster House from 7:00pm to 9:00pm. Dinner costs are $20.00 for members and for guests. Please, RSVP email to Blane.Vines@BhamFast.com in order to confirm your reservation to dine with us. As always, we would like an accurate count of attendees for our hosting restaurant.

With a business philosophy committed to safety, productivity and profitability, Nucor maintains strong business ethics while promoting excellence in environmental stewardship. Nucor has always been committed to producing superior quality. Demonstrating their committment to leading the industry, Nucor Steel Tuscaloosa was the first mill in the US to install Steckel Mill machinery, leading the whole steel industry toward improving production efficiencies while reducing costs. This new innovation provided a better technological implementation for incorporating "scrap steel" into the production process, while also maintaining higher flatness standards and greater consistencies for their plate products. Jon Walton, a Process Metallurgist will be conducting the facilities tour.

Directions: Go to http://www.bing.com/maps
Nucor: 1700 Holt Rd. NE, Tuscaloosa, AL 35404
Wintzell's Oyster House: 1 Bridge Ave., Northport, AL, 5 miles SW (on the Banks of the Black Warrior River)

Please, remember to bring your PPE Safety Gear: safety glasses, hard-hat, steel-toed boots.


Thompson Tractor Company has invited us to tour their Tarrant facilities on Thursday, August 27, 2009. Thompson CAT is the full-line Caterpillar equipment dealer across Alabama and panhandle Florida and represents Mitsubishi Caterpillar forklifts across most of Georgia. While Thompson has always stood tall promoting Safety, Training, and Construction Partnerships, today, additional attention is being devoted to Promoting Environmental and Energy efficiencies. This Birmingham / Tarrant, Pinson Valley Parkway (Hwy 79) location is the corporate headquarters for Thompson Tractor. Details about this event, along with a time to meet is forthcoming.

Please, remember to bring your Safety Glasses for this tour.


Please, consult http://www.sme.org/ or email BrianE@PrecisionGrinding.com if you would like to know more about SME Chapter 143, Anniston, Birmingham, Gadsden, Tuscaloosa, AL.