As some of you may know, I work at an integrated steel mill (iron ore and scrap steel is combined) and we just finished making 26 batches of armor plate that is destined for military humvees.

The only info I have on it is that they were made to military spec. and the street price is $5,000 a ton and we made approx 7,000 tons of this stuff.

So, for all of you boys that are still over there, this armor plate was made for you guys with union pride in Cleveland Ohio.

 

Maybe be to you and me, but to the federal gov't, its pocket change and to the soldiers is gonna protect, its a dollar short and a day late.

 

That is awesome! Good job.

 

If you don't mind me asking, what kind of steel are you using? Thanks!

Grim

 

I think you misunderstood, we don't use the steel, we make it. The whole process begins with taconite (iron ore) limestone and coke ( purified coal) which are combined in the blast furnace to melt down the iron into a liquid at about 2300-2400 degrees F. The hot iron is then sent to the B.O.F. (basic oxygen furnace) where it is combined with scrap iron and steel and then injected with pure oxygen to burn off the carbon and raise the temperature in excess of 3000 degrees, most of the main ingredients that are used for each particular grade of steel is also added here. The batch of liquid steel now goes to the L.M.F. (ladle metallurgical facility) [where I work at] where we fine tune the chemistry and temp to spec. The steel now goes to the continuous slab caster (picture a giant roll of fruit by the foot unraveled) where it cast into 9" thick and 28-73" wide slabs. When it comes out of the caster, the slabs are cut to length from 229"-388" long. A slab that is 73" wide and 388" long weighs 68,000 lbs. or 34 tons. From this point, the slabs can be sold outright, or sent to finishing where they are rolled out into coils.

 

My brother is back in texas till wed when he heads back to Germany. He is leaving Germany with his unit within 10 days following his return to head for Iraq for a 18 mo tour. I have heard far too many stories of the soldiers walking the surrounding towns and "borrowing" steel that they themselves have to make into armor to stay alive. Glad to see the military stepped up on this and that you were able to help. thanks for posting

 

Thanks!



As a side note, every vehicle that goes out the gate now is "up-armored." (shipped to us that way) I havent been here all that long, so I can't say how long they've been armoring them, but no one here remembers when they weren't.

 

when we were over there in '04, i had one of the FIRST humvees that came from the factory with armor. when i picked it up from the dock in kuwait city, it had 3 miles on it (compared to the 169,000 when i turned it in 13 months later)

the armor is pretty dang sweet. the outer shell is made of aluminum like material. this is made to slow down the projectile. then, underneath the aluminum like soft coating is this hardass material that stops almost everything. ALMOST.

and then, some of the NEWER armor is made up of several plies of kevlar...

and then the reactive armor. wow. all kinds of toys over there.

 

during the invasion, i would say that only half the vehicles we had were up armoured, and almost none of the 5 tons we had had any armour to speak of(we dont use those any more only 7 tons) things have changed alot in the 4 years and some change this war has been going on, i just got back a few months ago. i wll post some pics tommarow fo the armour stoping some IED blasts, and some it didnt.

 

Exactly. $35mil is nothing when you're sitting on the wrong side of an RPG or IED.
We had EEK armor on the amtracks which wasn't bad. Even without, we were in decent shape, but the boys sitting in a Hummer with .5" of AL between them and a new A-hole... well, that says enough I think.

Thanks 05RedFX4 for helpin protect the troops. Now lets just hope it gets where it needs to be ASAHFP!

 

this was off my 1st IED on my first humvee.. two 155's in a pothole about 3am in the morning. fun times