Cincinnati, OH: Byer Steel, Oldest in Ohio

(Satellite)

I've been noting examples of different process control technologies. This has to be the oldest --- no control! According to some comments, they change the speed of the rollers by changing the sprockets.

Adam Anderson posted seven photos (and some short videos) with the comment: "Was looking for new groups found this one been my steel mill for 2 years rolling rebar. Oldest mill in Ohio! Byer steel"

Michael Wilkes: Oldest mill in ohio? Wow

Adam Anderson: Michael Wilkes start rolling the 60’ and still using the same mill stands and same rolling style. [Is he saying the mill started operation in 1860?]

Last rolling mill that uses train axles and last mill that’s is open and closed manually to get the desired size down to thousands of an inch.

Most manufacturers don’t make what we got so we make it all in the roll shop and slap wield it together lol runs like champ honestly! 40,000 tons last year 4 bar to 11 bar.

Butz Gregory: I visited Byer Steel years ago . Correct me if I'm wrong , you change sprockets to change the speeds of the rolls . I think there was allot of overfill on the tails of the bars out the finish.

Adam Anderson: Butz Gregory that’s right dude hell ya man I’m happy you know about it, ya we cut the front and end of the axles so we don’t wreck. Sprockets and chains yes we change them all we don’t have electric motors to change the speed.

Duane Palmer: How many stands and do you have a lot of cobbles ? Are the cooling beds about 400 feet long and feed to cold shears !!!

Adam Anderson: Duane Palmer depends on the bar size 11 bar we have 2 stands 4 bar we have 10 stands and yes the cooling bed is 300 feet long. We manually pull them of to the conveyer and run them to the cold sheer and cut them to desired length.

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Cory James: That looks bad.
Adam Anderson: Cory James not to bad we had worse took about 45 min to clean up, we use a crane to lift it out in one bunch.
Titus Adams: Cory James that’s a baby cobble.

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I assume they use the railroad axles because they are already forged into a round shape. It is too bad that they can't buy them before the ends are formed and machined since they cut that part off anyhow. While I was using a satellite image to try to determine if they still have rail service, I noticed big piles of axles in storage.

Satellite

I'm surprised that such an old mill is competitive with modern mini-mills. Rebar was one of the first markets for mini-mills. I assume that is because rebar can tolerate some impurities in the steel. Mini-mill steel picks up impurities from the scrap steel that is used to feed the EAF.