McLouth Steel Mill of Trenton, MI - Pickling Line
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Here are some pictures from the pickling line and its surroundings.

In the hot rolling process, steel is rolled at high temperature to reduce it from a thick slab to a long thin sheet of the desired thickness. During this process, the hot steel is exposed to oxygen in the air which causes rust/scale to rapidly form on its surface. To remove this scale, the steel is passed through a bath of strong acid to remove the scale in a process known as pickling. A thin film of light oil is then applied to the steel to protect it from the elements during shipment.

The pickling building sits to the right.



The beginning of the pickling line. The pickling machine was originally built by Mesta in 1954.



Is that a strip of steel that they just left there and never finished processing when they shut down?



These are tanks which are part of the pickling line.






After pickling, steel was treated with light oil to slow the rate of subsequent rust formation















I don't know what this red oily-looking substance is, and I'm not sure I want to





During one of my visits to this mill, crews were working to remove pollutants in order to facilitate demolition of the remaining facilities, apparently in part by transferring them into these drums