Birmingham Steel Installs Praxair Technology in Seattle; Coherent Jet Technology Expected to Boost Productivity, Lower Maintenance Costs.DANBURY, Conn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 15, 1998--Praxair, Inc. (NYSE NYSE See: New York Stock Exchange : PX) today announced it will install its patent-pending Praxair Coherent Jet(TM) technology at the Birmingham Steel Corporation (NYSE: BIR BIR British Institute of Radiology BIR Bureau of Internal Revenue BIR Bureau of International Recycling BIR Baculovirus IAP Repeat BIR Biomedical Imaging Resource BIR Bureau of Intelligence and Research (US State Department) ) mill in Seattle, Wa., this fall, which will save the steel mill in excess of $1 million annually primarily through lower maintenance costs and improved productivity. To date, Praxair Coherent Jet technology is operating on five furnaces; installation on another seven furnaces in the U.S., Mexico and Argentina is underway. The Praxair technology is a new oxygen injection system using wall-mounted nozzles to deliver a laser-like jet of oxygen into the molten steel bath. The nozzles also operate as conventional sidewall burners to melt scrap, and as a supplemental oxygen source for carrying out the patented Praxair post-combustion process, which converts carbon monoxide carbon monoxide, chemical compound, CO, a colorless, odorless, tasteless, extremely poisonous gas that is less dense than air under ordinary conditions. It is very slightly soluble in water and burns in air with a characteristic blue flame, producing carbon dioxide; generated in the furnace into extra energy. The technology totally eliminates the need for conventional lance manipulators and provides cost-savings, energy-savings, safety, productivity and environmental benefits. According to Terry Johnsen, Birmingham Steel - Seattle Maintenance Manager, one of the significant advantages of the technology is its ability to lower maintenance costs. "If you aim the oxygen in the right direction in the furnace it can do a lot of good things. If not, you can have some costly maintenance problems," Johnsen said. "Our current lancing system requires a lot of expensive upkeep and maintenance. The wall-mounted system from Praxair will let us close the slag door and keep the oxygen at the correct angle, improving safety and lowering the time and expense of maintenance." In May, Praxair and Birmingham Steel signed a corporate licensing agreement for installation of the technology at Birmingham's six steel-making plants in the United States. Birmingham Steel specializes in producing special bar quality (SBQ SBQ Sociedade Brasileira de Quimica (Portugese) SBQ Special Bar Quality ) bar, rod and wire steel products and operates electric arc furnace An electric arc furnace (EAF) is a furnace that heats charged material by means of an electric arc. Arc furnaces range in size from small units of approximately one ton capacity (used in foundries for producing cast iron products) up to about 400 ton units used for secondary steel mills in Birmingham, Ala., Cartersville, Ga., Kankakee, Ill., Jackson, Miss., Memphis, Tenn., and Seattle. Praxair supplies oxygen and other industrial gases to five of Birmingham's facilities (except Alabama) via cryogenic air separation plants and non- cryogenic vacuum pressure swing adsorption Pressure Swing Adsorption (PSA) is a technology used to separate some gas species from a mixture of gases under pressure according to the species' molecular characteristics and affinity for an adsorbent material. (VPSA VPSA Vice President for Student Affairs VPSA Vainshtein-Presnyakov-Sobelman Approximation ) oxygen-generating plants. Praxair is the largest industrial gases company in North and South America, and one of the largest worldwide, with 1997 sales of $4.7 billion. The company is a leading supplier of industrial gases and application technologies used by manufacturers of steel, aluminum, copper and other primary metals, with 1997 sales to this segment of more than $790 million. Praxair has received over 275 patents for steel-making technologies using industrial gases in innovative, money-saving ways, including technologies for burners, ladles, melting, refining, and reheating Reheating The addition of heat to steam of reduced pressure after the steam has given up some of its energy by expansion through the high-pressure stages of a turbine. . For more information, visit Praxair on the Internet at www.praxair.com. CONTACT: Media Relations Investor Relations Investor relations The process by which the corporation communicates with its investors. Eric Jones Joe Cappello 203-837-2705 203-837-2073 eric_jones@praxair.com joe_cappello@praxair.com |
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