Charter Steel's commitment to excellence begins with the quality of its billets. Our modern melt shops in Saukville, Wisconsin and Cleveland, Ohio produce high quality, clean, and chemically precise billets.
The melting process begins with a carefully controlled blend of raw materials that is continuously refined until Charter achieves the optimal chemistry and temperature. Deoxidizing and alloying elements are added to create specific carbon and alloy properties and each heat is vacuum-treated before the steel is continuously cast.
Throughout the melting process, Charter Steel utilizes state-of-the-art technologies to cast quality billets, including:
- Eccentric bottom tapping (EBT) technology to minimize furnace slag carryover into the ladle where it could compromise the alloy content or internal cleanliness of the steel.
- Chemical treatment to achieve precisely controlled sulfur levels for the steel's intended application.
- 100% vacuum-arc degassing of all heats to assure extremely high levels of steel cleanliness and minimize undesirable gaseous elements.
- Electromagnetic stirring in the mold to improve surface and internal structure, chemical uniformity and cleanliness.
- Argon shrouding to prevent reoxidation.