KAWASAKI STEEL 21st Century Foundation is undertaking and sponsoring such activities as research, surveys and investigations relevant to the steel industry and allied interests to foster creative development for the coming 21st century. The Foundation also plays an active part, at home and abroad, in promoting the development of regions where steel industries are located, and proceeding with projects which are conducive to international cultural exchange. All of these are expected to contribute to the development of the steel industry and bring about an improved quality of life. Steel continues to play an indispensable role in supporting affluent human life by providing the basic material for industry and construction. Annual crude steel production amounts to 750 million tons worldwide. Steel represents about 95% of the total weight of metals used in the world, reflecting its importance among various metals in terms of consumption and versatility. However, academic interest and related education in steel have substantially declined in recent years, resulting in a decrease in the number of such courses at the university level. In order to counteract this decline, the Foundation, since its establishment in 1990, has provided financial support to steel-oriented basic research and applied research in Japanese universities every year. In 1994, the Foundation published and donated to relevant universities in Japan a teaching material entitled "An Introduction to Iron and Steel Processing" (in Japanese). This publication is intended to enhance interest in steel and aid students in selecting steel- related subjects from the list of specialized courses at universities and in graduate studies. In addition, it provides up-to-date practical information for university professors teaching steel-related course. In view of the encouraging acceptance of the teaching material in academia, the Foundation has produced an English version of the material to serve the same purposes at universities abroad. The English version, also entitled "An Introduction to Iron and Steel Processing", comprises of OHP Transparencies, corresponding text and narrated tapes in six chapters: Chapter 1 : Applications-Quest for New Breakthrough in Steel Materials- 2 : Smelting, Refining and Continuous Casting 3 : Working, Heat Treatment and Surface Treatment 4 : Control Techniques for Steel Production 5 : Energy and the Environment 6 : Toward Future Development The following points should be noted when using this teaching material: (1) This material is not intended as a comprehensive textbook and does not necessarily cover all aspects of steel production. As the title suggests, it provides a basic introduction. With regard to realistic steel production processes, this material endeavors to incorporate information on the fundamentals, state-of-the-art technology, and up-to-date information on equipment, installations and operations. Those readers who wish to study specific technical areas in more detail, are recommended to refer to books specializing in the technical field. (2) The numbers and symbols given in the chapters, sections and subsections in the Text, OHP Transparencies, and narrated tapes are consistent. However, the titles of the Text and narrated tapes are not necessarily the same as those for the OHP Transparencies. (3) A reduced-size copy of the illustration presented in the corresponding OHP transparency is given at the bottom of each sheet of the Text to correlate the instruction with the OHP. (4) All the contents of the Text have been recorded on narrated tapes. (5) This teaching material may be used by (i) showing the OHP Transparencies while giving supplementary descriptive explanations, (ii) showing the OHP Transparencies while playing the narrated tapes, or (iii) showing only the OHP Transparencies to support other lecture material. The Foundation hopes this material will be useful in a lecture at universities, and intends to maintain its quality by timely revisions, incorporating new developments in the steel industry and steel technology. This material has been prepared and edited under the partial authorship and considerable supervision of Dr. Zen-ichiro Morita, Professor Emeritus of OSAKA UNIVERSITY, and Dr. Toshihiko Emi, Professor of TOHOKU UNIVERSITY. Mr. Teiichi Enami and Dr. Osamu Hashimoto of KAWASAKI STEEL TECHNO-RESEARCH CORPORATION have made an indispensable contribution to the survey and compilation. This project was planned and promoted by Messrs. Toshiyuki Takagi, Sadayoshi Takigawa, and Tatsuo Uehara of KAWASAKI STEEL 21st Century Foundation. Thanks are also due to Professor K. C. Mills, National Physical Laboratory and Imperial College (U.K), and Professor R. I. L. Guthrie, McGill University (Canada) for their kind assistance in reviewing the English of the text. May, 1997 KAWASAKI STEEL 21st Century Foundation ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ KAWASAKI STEEL 21st Century Foundation , in creating its own Internet home page, will provide access to all of the above-mentioned English language teaching materials, including the Texts and OHP Transparencies, with the exception of the narrated tapes. We hope that all those with an interest in steel will make full use of these educational resources. We have decided to make these materials available as part of our home page because they have been actively used in university lectures and elsewhere, both in Japan and overseas, where they have won an excellent reputation, and we have also had numerous requests for donations from universities and other domestic and foreign educational institutions which were not recipients of donations. Unfortunately, the number of remaining copies is already limited. Because we cannot satisfy all of these requests, and because our home page will make these materials available worldwide, whenever necessary, we believe that this will allow free access and use by all concerned. We hope that these teaching materials will be used widely to achieve the goals for which they were prepared, as described above. January, 2001 KAWASAKI STEEL 21st Century Foundation