I N D U S T R I A L
H Y D R A U L I C S
Hydraulics
and steel production go hand-in-hand Hydraulics are used profusely in steel production because they offer the power density, precision and most importantly, imperviousness to heat required in this harsh environment. Josh Cosford • Contributing Editor
Perhaps more than any other industry in North America, the steel industry experiences the slacks of the economic tide, albeit at a more glacial pace. The complex global economy shifts the production of steel into and out of nations and the trades they support. What changes more slowly is the method of manufacture, because creating steel from its fundamental elements still requires unique applications of fluid power. Steelmaking is an industry forever powered by hydraulics. So severe are the applications, no other method of actuation makes sense — the heat, the force and the danger are all extreme and only something capable with fluid under pressure. So prolific are hydraulics in steel mills, that a plant can have hundreds of power units. A coke oven itself needs hundreds of cylinders to process coal, and the ambient heat in the process at the doors, cars and pushers is intense, to say the least. 42
FLUID POWER WORLD
Industrial Hydraulics-4-19_Vs3.indd 42
4 • 2019
www.fluidpowerworld.com
4/15/19 2:21 PM
