ArcelorMittal Global R&D delivers unmatched, innovative process and product solutions for our customers and operations

12.03.2019

At ArcelorMittal, our most valuable resource is our people. Among thousands of ArcelorMittal employees worldwide are those leading the charge on innovation – especially those who make up our Global Research and Development Group.


Hundreds of highly skilled researchers at our 11 Global R&D centers lead the development of new steel products and solutions, evolving new production processes and evaluating new business models.

In 2018, ArcelorMittal invested $290 million in global research and development to drive innovation in product solutions. Investments in R&D and innovation help our company lower future capital requirements and operating costs, while also increasing yields and reducing resource and energy use. These investments ultimately help us become more efficient and economically viable.

Here in the U.S., our R&D center in East Chicago, Indiana, focuses on process and technical assistance, automotive, appliances, energy products, construction and industry products.

“Our East Chicago researchers are among the best at what they do - servicing both our customers and operations with superior knowledge and expertise in the innovation, development and production required for today’s steel solutions,” said Mark Atkinson, East Chicago R&D lab leader.

“This center also has some of the very talented staff to operate the world-class instruments in support of the various research projects,” added Robert Joseph, manager, facilities, Global R&D, East Chicago.

“Among the strengths of Global R&D is the ability to develop and evaluate innovative solutions for both products and processes within our operating facilities,” said Jayanth Chintamani, director, automotive product research, ArcelorMittal Global R&D, East Chicago. “Due to the global reach of R&D, we can cascade proven solutions implemented at other global facilities to the ArcelorMittal USA operations.”

Superior steel process solutions

R&D process researchers provide our operations with assistance in improving key technical parameters, primarily in the areas of improved yield, quality and productivity. They also help meet customer requirements and support the industrialization of new products.

“Process involves everything from raw materials through the finished product,” said Dave White, director, process research, Global R&D, East Chicago. “Our researchers are constantly looking for innovations that improve the efficiency and reduce the costs of our operations. With the introduction of new products, our researchers are assisting the mill to manufacture these products. We have an excellent two-way working relationship with those in our USA operating facilities.”

As an example, White said R&D process specialists work each year with those in coke making operations and purchasing to determine the best coal blends for their facilities. The goal is to try to reduce the cost of the blend while maintaining the quality of coke needed to feed our blast furnaces.

“R&D is a valuable organization for our business,” said Tim Candiano, manager, coke operations, ArcelorMittal Burns Harbor. “They are able to look at the macro part of the business, communicate with several plants, review and study new technologies, filter through the opportunities and make implementation suggestions to the operations and, finally, help us overcome any obstacles that may occur.”

Some of the current projects the processing researchers are addressing include:

• development of a novel extrusion technology for recycling steel shop waste products to prevent them from being landfilled
• implementation of new sensors and models that improve the efficiency of our primary operations, such as an above burden infrared camera at the blast furnaces; a global steelmaking model for basic oxygen furnaces and a global casting model for continuous casters
• collaboration with product development to create new products and the downstream processing to support them, such as the low-end cooling upgrade at the Cleveland hot-dip galvanize line

“East Chicago R&D is a valued partner to us in Cleveland’s iron-producing division,” added Dennis Cronin, division manager, iron-producing. “Leading up to the 2013 reline on C6 blast furnace, R&D helped us operate safely with a badly worn hearth. In more recent years, we have seen reductions in fuel rate due to advanced technologies including the above burden infrared camera and STROOI burden distribution model. Currently, we are working with R&D on many process improvement projects, along with the C5 reline planning and stove rebuild project. Research continues to be a valuable technical resource that contributes to our success.”

Product development/applications and steel solutions

In the area of product development, R&D creates competitive differentiation through enhanced or unique functionality, as well as the superior quality of our products, all while ensuring the manufacturability and delivery to our customers at the lowest possible cost.


Automotive product development makes up the majority of this division. Chintamani said that although R&D works on new steels for one particular customer, such as new advanced high strength steels for automotive, the same steel products are valuable to other customers who have a similar need in the future. Cleveland’s low-end cooling hot-dip project is an example where new steel grades are being developed for General Motors, but other customers may also benefit from them.

“Some of the products we are looking at producing in the future for our customers have not yet been requested by them,” said Chintamani. “These are the types of strategic product solutions we like to implement that are cost-effective for our customers in various market segments such as automotive and appliances.”

Some of the automotive-specific projects for the product development group include new galvanneal 980 dual-phase and 1180 dual-phase products from our Cleveland facility for Toyota, galvanneal 1470 high strength product made at Cleveland and CR Martensite 1700 made at Indiana Harbor’s No. 3 continuous anneal line (CAL).

“Particularly working at Indiana Harbor, which is located near the East Chicago R&D facility, we are able to receive timely assistance and even use the R&D facility for testing and training,” said Andrew Handa, manager, operations technology, finishing, ArcelorMittal Indiana Harbor.

“Indiana Harbor’s No.3 CAL shape improvement upgrade project over the last year is a great example of the assistance offered by R&D. R&D engineers from East Chicago, France and Spain, worked closely with operations, op tech and quality to commission, refine process set-ups and standardize best operating practices for welding, quenching and tension leveling,” noted Handa. “Additional ongoing support from R&D continues to assist in modeling the fluid flows in the quench and analyzing the final strip shape to design process and proposed equipment design changes.”

The plate, energy and infrastructure markets are also part of the products division. Researchers develop innovative plate and light flat rolled products that help our facilities improve yield, quality and productivity. R&D actively assists customers through co-engineering projects to utilize steel products and components.

“Through our R&D efforts, we are helping to ensure the sustainability and future of the company,” said Murali Manohar, division manager, plates, energy and infrastructure, Global R&D, East Chicago. “Our role is to develop and promote ArcelorMittal steel solutions, new products and processes and offer technical support to our operations and customers.”

Rounding out Global R&D’s three main research areas are applications and steel solutions. This group assists customers in making the best possible use of our advanced product range that includes advice on processing parameters and other technical services. Such solution examples include S-in motion®, which is the automotive solution for weight reduction, providing weight savings for battery electric vehicles (BEV), an engineering approach for the design of multi-megawatt towers and a full case study on future office buildings.

“Global R&D has recently finalized two S-in motion® projects dedicated to plug-in hybrid vehicles and battery packs for battery electric vehicles, or BEVs. These projects are being rolled out through collaborations with automotive partners and tier-one suppliers,” confirmed Bala Krishnan, director, automotive product applications, ArcelorMittal Global R&D. “On top of these projects, ArcelorMittal is developing dedicated holistic steel solutions for BEVs that will be deployed in the second half of 2019.”

Handa added, “We are quite fortunate to have the depth of resources throughout our R&D organization to collaborate with and draw from to troubleshoot issues, develop new products and procedures and improve our existing processes. Our R&D group allows us to pull the best resources from across the global organization and deliver the best products and solutions to our customers.”

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