Light Gauge stories from Americas
Michigan wins gold metal for their steel sleds
Michigan governor Jennifer M. Granholm earlier this week joined
US Steel employees at their Troy-based
Automotive Center to unveil a prototype of the sled that will be used by the USA Luge Team during the 2006 Winter Olympic Games in Torino,
Italy.
In 2004,
US Steel became USA Luge's official steel designer and supplier, and since then, the company has worked closely with coaches and athletes to research and develop new high-tech steel runners for the USA Luge Team.
This season's Olympics will mark the first time in Team USA's history that one of its sled entries in the Olympic Games will contain 100 percent All-American steel blades.
"This is a chance for
us to show the world a product researched and developed by our highly trained, highly skilled workers," Granholm said. "We know all of the Olympic luge teams will be admiring
US Steel's products and we want to make those products for them here in Michigan. That will be a gold medal for Michigan."
Photographer documents "steel culture" in Pennsylvania region
The Monongahela river Valley in Pennsylvania is a region whose heritage is based on the steel industry, and photographer Robert Ruschak has undergone a twenty-five year project to capture this special relationship between the community and the industry.
The artist's exhibit, "As I saw it, 1981 to the Present: The Monongahela Valley Steel Towns," now on display at the California University of Pennsylvania, features 40 black and white photos of steel mills from Pittsburgh to Clairton, Pennsylvania.
"For the past 25 years, I tried to shoot the mills from every conceivable angle, including from the top of hills, so that future historians might be able to judge the size, shape, and location of the mills after they had been demolished,"said Ruschak, 54, whose father was a steelworker.
Mr. Ruschak also included shots of brownfields, residences, and flat landscapes of undeveloped tracts which remained after the mills were demolished to document how the people were affected when the mills shut down "because the mills and communities were so interconnected."
The display will run until March 8.
Cause of steel mill fire unknown
A mysterious fire started at the Universal Steel plant in Gainesville,
Georgia has caused an estimated $150'000 in damages to the
manufacturing plant.
Local firefighters got the call from a motorist driving by the plant at around 9pm Tuesday, and arrived to find flames shooting through the roof.
While the fire is still under investigation, fire marshal Scott Cagle told press, "Because the building was secure, we do feel it was accidental in nature."
There were no injuries.
Ohio company makes gigantic custom gears for steel industry
David Churbock and Tim Gill make gears so big, a tall man could walk through them.
The two are partners in Cage Gear & Machine, a company which manufactures giant gears, shafts, gearboxes, conveyor rollers, crane wheels and drums, serving mostly the mining and steel industries, which use heavy gears and gear boxes.
The Canton, Ohio-based company custom designs gearboxes that weigh up to 8'000 pounds, and often has to reverse engineer chewed up, broken, shattered, or just plain worn out gears and other parts.
"We reverse engineer them and figure out what they are," Churbock said. "We get all different shapes and sizes. They say 'Make
us a new one,' and we have to figure out what it is and what it looked like when it was new."
Their biggest problem, they say, is finding qualified workers now that the baby boomer skilled laborers are nearing retirement age. Cage Gear & Machine, which employs 11 full-time workers, have no immediate openings just yet, "But if the right person would walk through the door, we'd hire him and make a place for him."
Brazilian Indians block CVRD's major rail line
Brazilian Indians have blocked the major rail line of Companhia
Vale do Rio Doce SA (CVRD) for the second time this week, in order to force officials to improve healthcare for the villages in the area.
About 400 Indians participated in the blockade of the line that transports
iron ore from the Amazon region to the coast. CVRD says they are being unfairly targeted because the healthcare issue is unrelated to the company. Less than a week ago, the Indians took four CVRD employees and held them hostage for two days.
The Indians are trying to coerce officials from
Brazil's National Indian Foundation to improve health care for their communities, which lie along CVRD's main line.
CVRD released in a statement: "The Indians are trying to force officials from
Brazil's National Indian Foundation to improve health care for their communities."
Indians also targeted CVRD in December, blocking a central Brazilian CVRD rail line to the Atlantic, holding up the delivery of 250'000 metric tons of
iron ore for two days.