Credited to Austria. Wikipedia credits the invention to the Swiss engineer Robert Durrer in 1948, with the Austrian firms VOEST and OAMG commercializing it in 1952 and 1953. Britannica and voestalpine describe the process as developed in Austria. The record treats Austria as the place where it was developed to production.
How it began
After the Second World War the former Hermann Goering works in Linz became the state company VOEST. On June 25, 1949, after lengthy preparatory work, VOEST engineers in Linz achieved the breakthrough in refining iron with pure oxygen. Engineers at the Alpine Montan works in Donawitz ran their own trials on 5 and 10 ton experimental setups and at first called their process "SK," for oxygen converter. The process took its name from the two towns.
Before it existed
For nearly 100 years commercial quantities of oxygen were unavailable or too expensive, and converter steelmaking blew air through the iron. Most steel came from the open-hearth and Bessemer processes. In 1948 the Swiss engineer Robert Durrer produced steel with oxygen in a small 2.5 ton experimental converter, and that summer VOEST, OAMG and the Swiss firm Roll AG agreed to commercialize his process.
How it works
Oxygen is blown at high speed onto a charge of molten iron and scrap in a converter vessel. The oxygen starts heat-releasing reactions that oxidize impurities such as carbon, silicon, phosphorus and manganese. Scrap is added to absorb excess heat so the steel does not become too hot to cast. Lime or dolomite fluxes, which are chemical bases, help remove impurities and protect the lining. A heat of steel takes about 20 minutes.
How it spread
The world's first LD steel plant was commissioned in Linz in 1952, followed by Donawitz. VOEST began marketing the process abroad without delay, and it soon gained a foothold elsewhere. According to Britannica, it is used under license by steelworks throughout the world, and within 40 years virtually all steel in Japan and more than half of steel worldwide was made by the basic oxygen process.
What lasted
The process raised production rates and cut labor compared with older methods, and it reduced the capital cost of plants and the smelting time. Along with other oxygen steelmaking methods it largely replaced the open-hearth and Bessemer processes. Voestalpine describes it as the event that defined the company's image and development more than any other.
