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Irifune Kozai and pickled steel sheets

Irifune Kozai and pickled steel sheets

Irifune Kozai - the pioneer of pickled steel sheets

In the 1960s, before the Japanese high-growth period, the pickled steel sheet was only recognized as a intermediately product in the manufacturing process, so it was hardly distributed in the market as a commercial product.

What is a pickled steel sheet?

What is a pickled steel sheet?

The steel sheet with the clean surface, which is made from a hot-rolled steel removed the oxide layer chemically by dipping it into chloride.
A pickled steel sheet has better workability than a hot-rolled steel sheet and is cheaper than a cold-rolled steel sheet.
In the 1960s, the pickled steel sheet was recognized as a intermediately product in the preceding process of manufacturing the cold-rolled steel sheet, it was hardly distributed in the market as a commercial product.

In such period, our founder, Toshikazu Ichino, was among the first to notice at the marketability of the pickled steel sheet as a commercial product. He started stocking the pickled steel sheet with the second grade products such as overrolled steel which come from the steel maker's factory. At the beginning, the sales activity of the pickled steel sheet was difficult because of low market recognition, but he explained the merit of its workability to pressing plants and sheet metal plants carefully, then the commercial scene was expanded little by little.

In 1965, a lot of second grade pickling products at the experimental stage was generated from the Hukuyama Iron Mill of NKK Corporation(about 2,000t). Our company purchased all of them and sold out successfully.

This led our company to make the pickled steel sheets as flagship products. In late 1960s, our company became a dealership dedicated to the pickled steel sheets, dealing with most of pickled steel sheets manufactured by NKK.

Before long, the usage of the pickled steel sheet widespread to the car components, the electrical machineries and the constructions. Since our company made the market recognized the pickled steel sheet as a commercial product and expanded its channel for sales widely, we were then recognized as "Pickeld steel company Irifune" or "a pioneer of pickled steel sheet sales" by the industry.

The benefits of the pickled steel sheet

  • 1Good press workability

    A pickled steel sheet is lubricated without an oxide layer, so it eases the burden of press working machines.

  • 2Easy to be welded

    The oxide layer that interferes with the hindrance of welding is removed beforehand, therefore welding operation is easy and finished finely.
    Excellent paintability

  • 3Excellent paintability

    An oxide layer causes exfoliation to paint application. A pickled steel sheet realizes paint application with high adhesion without pretreatment.

  • 4Pretreatment mitigation of metal plating

    Unnecessity of pickling processes in plating markedly mitigates the work burdens.

Our main pickled steel products

Specifications
SPHC-P, SS400-P, SAPH400-P, SAPH440-P, Various high tensile specifications
Thickness
1.2~12.0mm

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