Keystone Steel and Wire Co.

Located in Peoria, Illinois, Keystone Steel and Wire Company is the manufacturer of a variety of steel products made for a wide array of uses.  All the company’s products are melted and manufactured in the United States and include items used in the construction industry, industrial wire, and rods.

Construction products include Keydeck ® Reinforcing Mesh, which is used in monolithic roof decks; Keymesh® Pipewinding Mesh, used as reinforcement for the concrete applied in the manufacture of negative buoyancy steel pipe; and Keymesh® Stucco Netting, applied underneath stuccos for walls, ceilings, or other surfaces.

Industrial wire manufactured by Keystone Steel and Wire is available in a number of size ranges and finishes.  Rods are available with borax or lime coating and in a wide variety of sizes.

The company receives millions of tons of scrap metal each year at its Illinois plant.  Molten steel is then “purified and refined in an electric arc furnace, allowing Keystone to meet the demand for a wide range of chemistries and physical properties.” 

Like any steel manufacturer, Keystone has used various materials to insulate its pipes and furnaces, many which, at one time, contained asbestos.  Steel mill workers who were employed at Keystone Steel and Wire Company prior to asbestos warnings were most likely exposed to asbestos fibers while on the job. Some even wore aprons, coats, gloves, and masks that contained asbestos, issued in order to avoid burns caused by boiling hot molten steel.  Ovens, ladles, and other materials that were handled on a daily basis also contained asbestos, due to its excellent heat- and fire-resistant properties. 

If you were a millwright, pourer, furnace operator, welder, tester, or machinist at Keystone Wire and Steel, you may have already been diagnosed with mesothelioma, a serious cancer for which the only known cause is asbestos exposure.  If that’s the case, you’ll want to learn more about the disease and your rights to compensation.  Take a moment to order our free Mesothelioma Information Kit, available at this website.