psicutrinius Feb 19, 2015:

Having second thoughts... And that is the result:

The steel is made in the converter, where the excess carbon is burned and the impurities are combined with flux (> "fundente") to form slag, which skims ("floats") above the metal. Metal is poured (usually from the bottom of the converter) into ladles and brought wherever needed until only slag remains. The converter is then fully tipped over into a SLAG POT, and that's the culprit., thus OLLA > SLAG POT, literally translated.

Check Google images for "converter + ladle (too long a link here).

Eileen Banks Feb 18, 2015:

Yes, psicutrinius - scoria is a typo :) I should have realized but ... I did think of escoria though :) thank you for your comments :)

psicutrinius Feb 18, 2015:

@Robert Metals (and particularly steel) is my superspeciality. I hold a BSc in metallurgy.

Robert Forstag (asker) Feb 18, 2015:

@Phil I construed "olla" as "smelter."

Robert Forstag (asker) Feb 18, 2015:

@Marcel You certainly seem do be a lot more adept in these manners than I. Thanks for the information. :)

psicutrinius Feb 18, 2015:

That is, assuming that the place is some steelmaking works

psicutrinius Feb 18, 2015:

Yes, "slag" is "escoria"... and since "desescoriado" > "slagging / slagging off" and accounting for spanglish -no capital here, in my view- ("escoreo" and "desescoreo" might well be spanglish, or author's OWN spanglish for "escoriado" and "desescoriado" respectively), plus the fact that the slag may or may not be "frothy" within a wide margin depending on the minerals and the process used, Eileen's answer makes a lot of sense (synonym for "slag" is, among others, "dross", but they are all much less used).

On the other hand, this is the first time I see "olla" in this context -might be due to my Spanish being Spain's, not México's- but if the point is avoiding any "derrame de escoria", that is, slag spill, then they are clearly meaning either the converter (convertidor) or the ladle (cuchara), depending on the stage of production involved: I would go for the latter, because that's where (when pouring the converter, which is tipped over, but not displaced into a ladle), a spill might occur.

I hope that "scoria" is a typo, and that the "e" ("escoria") is missing for that reason.

philgoddard Feb 18, 2015:

Robert Do you know any more about the process taking place here? What do you make of "olla"?