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Article: For the steel industry, it's innovate or die.
- Article from:
- The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (Milwaukee, WI)
- Article date:
- May 15, 2005
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2005 The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Byline: Rick Barrett
May 15--With parts from microwave ovens bought at a discount store, Jim Hwang is trying to change the steel industry.
Hwang, an engineering professor at Michigan Technological University in Houghton, has built a small iron ore smelter that's about six times faster than a conventional blast furnace at reducing iron oxide to iron, and then making steel.
In his laboratory, Hwang can produce steel in minutes, when normally it would take hours. His goal is to build a larger microwave smelter that can create a ton of steel in about an hour, at half the normal cost.
"We knew that microwaves were good at heating things, ...