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Defined Benefit Retirement Plan
A type of pension plan whereby the employer promises to make pension
payments to retired employees in specified amounts, regardless of the
performance of the fund. Because the employees' total years of service
and their length of retirement are uncertain, the employer's future
liabilities must be estimated and can fluctuate over time.
Defined Contribution Retirement Plan
A pension plan in which the employer promises to make specified
contributions to the pension fund, but the amount of pension benefits
ultimately paid to retired employees depends on how well the pension
fund's assets are managed. There are no balance sheet items for
Defined Contribution Plans because all liabilities are satisfied in
full each year.
Desulfurization
WHAT Operation that injects a chemical mixture into a ladle
full of hot metal to remove sulfur prior to its charging into the
Basic Oxygen Furnace.
WHY
Sulfur enters the steel from the coke in the blast furnace smelting
operation, and there is little the steelmaker can do to reduce its
presence. Because excess sulfur in the steel impedes its welding and
forming characteristics, the mill must add this step to the
steelmaking process.
Direct Reduced Iron (DRI)
WHAT Processed iron ore that is iron-rich enough to be used as
a scrap substitute in electric furnace steelmaking.
WHY
As mini-mills expand their product abilities to sheet steel, they
require much higher grades of scrap to approach integrated mill
quality. Enabling the mini-mills to use iron ore without the blast
furnace, DRI can serve as a low residual raw material and alleviate
the mini-mills' dependence on cleaner, higher-priced scrap.
HOW
The impurities in the crushed iron ore are driven off through the use
of massive amounts of natural gas. While the result is 97% pure iron
(compared with blast furnace hot metal, which, because it is saturated
with carbon, is only 93% iron), DRI is only economically feasible in
regions where natural gas is attractively priced. |
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Drawn-Over-Mandrel
A procedure for producing specialty tubing using a drawbench to pull
tubing through a die and over a mandrel, giving excellent control over
the inside diameter and wall thickness. Advantages of this technique
are its inside and outside surface quality and gauge tolerance. Major
markets include automotive applications and hydraulic cylinders.
Drill Pipe
Pipe used in the drilling of an oil or gas well. Drill pipe is the
conduit between the wellhead motor and the drill bit. Drilling mud is
pumped down the center of the pipe during drilling, to lubricate the
drill bit and transmit the drilled core to the surface. Because of the
high stress, torque and temperature associated with well drilling,
drill pipe is a seamless product.
Ductility
Ability of steel to undergo permanent changes in shape without
fracture at room temperature.
Dumping
Dumping occurs when imported merchandise is sold in, or for export to,
the domestic market at less than the normal value of the merchandise,
i.e., a price which is less than the price at which identical or
similar merchandise is sold in the comparison market, the home market
(market of exporting country) or third-country market (market used as
proxy for home market in cases where home market cannot be used). The
normal value of the merchandise cannot be below the cost of
production.
Duplex
A category of stainless steel with high amounts of chromium and
moderate nickel content. The duplex class is so named because it is a
mixture of austenitic (chromium-nickel stainless class) and ferritic
(plain chromium stainless category) structures. This combination was
originated to offer more strength than either of those stainless
steels. Duplex stainless steels provide high resistance to stress
corrosion cracking (formation of cracks caused by a combination of
corrosion and stress) and are suitable for heat exchangers,
desalination plants, and marine applications. |
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