How Docol® Tube R8 is Made

Docol® Tube R8 and Advanced High Strength Steels are complex, sophisticated materials, with carefully selected chemical compositions and multiphase microstructures resulting from precisely controlled heating and cooling processes.

The production of Docol® Tube R8 starts in the iron-ore mines of Sweden and Finland. (Docol® is non-scrap-based material resulting in a very clean material.) Once mined, the iron ore goes through a blast furnace where pig iron is produced. The pig iron then heads to the steel mill where additional elements are added to the pig iron, and the mixture is heated producing molten steel. The molten steel then passes through continuous casters to be formed into slabs. Slabs are then reheated and sent to a continuous quenching and tempering process while being reduced to its final thickness and then rolled into coil form. This quenching and tempering process produces its multiphase microstructure. Various strengthening mechanisms are also employed during this continuous process to achieve the desired strength, ductility, toughness, and fatigue properties. The coils are then cooled and await their next destination.

While many coils are sent to leveling houses around the world where they will be sheeted out and sent to end users, some are transported to another SSAB mill where the coils are slit and prepped for rolling into tubes and ultimately become Docol® R8 tube. Watch the full process of turning the slit coils into tube in animated video below.

Watch the production Hardox® Steel plate another product from SSAB at the Oxelosund mill. The video below shows the entire process from iron ore to finished product.

Sign up for our monthly newsletter below to stay up to date with articles like this one from A.E.D.!