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SBQ Steel Bars and Billets

Large industrial steel pipes rest on blue supports inside a warehouse with a yellow floor marking and additional machinery in the background.

Our premium air-melt technology elevates the quality of our bars and billets and put us at the top of the market.

Since 1917, we have manufactured and engineered special bar quality (SBQ) steel and billets for critical applications. Today, precise metallurgical practices and state-of-the-art processes continue to drive the reliability, efficiency, and performance of our steel. Industry leaders and customers across markets – from the smallest bearings in light vehicles to the largest axles in industrial equipment – trust the cleanliness and strength of our high-performance steel bars and steel billets.

Through our Manufactured Components processes, we offer a wide variety of engineered components including precision-cut tubes and bars, forging preforms, green machined preforms, machined-to-print parts, and ready-to assemble parts. In addition to manufacturing these products, we also offer a number of value-added services to help manage production and delivery, allowing our customers to focus on their core competencies. Our aim is to find the best way to support our customers through every stage of their project.

Size Range

Metallus is one of North America’s leading producers of large diameter and intermediate-size special bar quality (SBQ) steel bars, which are long steel products engineered for tough applications. Our size range ranks among industry leaders.

Rounds1-16″
Round corner squares3.1-12.5
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Aircraft Landing Gear

The steel we manufacture is trusted in applications like aircraft landing gear, where reliability and meeting demanding requirements are the most critical.  Whether on an aircraft 30,000 feet above ground, in an oil or gas well thousands of feet below the earth’s surface, or in the transmission of an 18-wheeler that drives thousands of miles across the country, our customers count on Metallus.

Quality Levels

Metallus produces steel to a range of quality levels in order to meet customers’ specifications for each project.

Improved fatigue life and power density start with clean steel. Our Ultrapremium™ certified air-melt technology takes cleanness to a higher standard. When applied to almost any grade of steel, this process dramatically lowers oxide inclusions over competing processes. The result: optimum performance and longer service at a lower cost than re-melted steels.

Customers generally use this steel, which is produced in accordance with industry specification AMS 2304, for extremely critical or highly stressed parts, as well as other applications involving additional exceptionally stringent requirements (magnetic particle inspection and macro-etch limits, for example). To meet these requirements, we employ exacting steelmaking, rolling, and testing practices.

Customers in the aircraft market count on high-performance, clean steel for important or highly stressed aircraft parts, including landing gear and brakes. We produce this quality level of steel in accordance with the industry specification AMS 2301. To meet these requirements, we employ exacting steelmaking, rolling, and testing practices.

Bearing quality generally applies to alloy steel bars and tubes that we manufacture for anti-friction bearings. Typically, this quality level ranges from standard alloy carburizing grades and high-carbon chromium grades. We produce these steels in accordance with American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) A534, A295, and A485 standards. We subject our bearing-quality steel to restricted melting and special teeming, heating, rolling, and conditioning practices to meet the rigid quality requirements.

In our electric arc furnace, which is our primary melting vessel, we melt steel scrap by passing electricity through carbon electrodes. The primary advantages of this type of furnace are that it allows for the extremely close control of temperature, heat analysis, and refining conditions required for the production of standard carbon and alloy steels. Electric furnace quality refers to a restriction of .025 percent maximum sulfur content and .025 percent maximum phosphorous content for the specified grade.

Commercial quality refers to the basic or standard quality level for alloy steel bars and tubes. Customers typically use this type of steel for less critical applications. We melt this quality level of steel to chemical ranges and limits, and inspect and test it to meet normal requirements for regular constructional alloy steel applications.

Capabilities

Grades of Steel

Thermal Treatment

Jumbo Bloom Vertical Caster

Ultrapremium Technology

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