Iron ore and coke, a carbon-rich substance from heated coal, are melted into a liquid substance in a furnace and then blasted with oxygen to create molten steel. This material is cooled into ingots, large castings of steel for storing and transporting materials, that are shaped between rollers under high amounts of pressure.Some ingots are passed through steel rollers that stretch them into thinner, longer pieces to create blooms, intermediates between steel and iron. They are also rolled into slabs, pieces of steel with rectangular cross-sections, through stacked rollers that cut the slabs into shape.
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