Steel Mill

Duisburg, Germany

In this broad view of a blast furnace plant, iron ore (purple), coke fuel (gray) and limestone flux (white) are stored in piles in the background that are loaded by rail cars and served by traveling cranes. The raw materials are processed and blended in the buildings behind the blast furnace. Then they are transported to the top of the tall blast furnace at right via the diagonal conveyor and charged into it for smelting to molten iron. The tall chimney on the left is a draft stack for drawing fresh air into the large cylindrical stoves where the air is heated before being blown into the blast furnace.