Advanced High-Strength Steel

As advanced high-strength steels (AHSS) become stronger and more valuable, descaling and pickling them efficiently at the mill becomes harder.

Increased alloy contents can yield very complex oxide structures.  As alloy stratification and concentration occur, pickling rates can decrease dramatically.  Conventional hydrochloric acid pickling, effective for decades, is less so when these alloy-rich strata are encountered.

To solve these production issues, we have been developing ancillary descaling processes that help eliminate high-alloy pickling bottlenecks.  Kolene^® Oxigen-X^® – in conjunction with hydrochloric acid pickling – can increase pickling rates on alloy-rich scale.

When Oxigen-X comes into contact with high alloy strata, it reacts with alloy oxides and forms alkali metal salts.  Many of these salts are water soluble; remaining residues are freely soluble in conventional hydrochloric acid pickling.  In published laboratory tests on hot-band samples of a silicon-manganese AHSS, an optimized Oxigen-X conditioning step between a hydrochloric acid pre-pickle and post-pickle produced a clean, scale-free surface with 30 seconds of total pickling; 60 seconds of pickling alone did not.

Our labs are available for sample processing of your alloy coupons with our Oxigen-X process.  Contact us to discuss Oxigen-X availability and process fit for your steel grade.