From Steel Making Process to Suitable Refractory Ceramics. Solicitations and Industrial Illustrations

The performance of refractories used in the steel industry depends on the conditions of use in relation to the manufacture of liquid metal. These ever-changing conditions have made it necessary to develop hundreds of different refractories capable of providing the best possible resistance in the different zones of these numerous furnaces.

The first part of this article describes the conditions undergone by refractories from the blast furnace to continuous casting.

Temperature and atmosphere conditions, the presence of slag, the flow of different materials (gas, metal...), continuous or intermittent operation, thermal cycling, all vary greatly during the production process in the different furnaces.

Here, we try to quantify temperature, oxygen partial pressure, material flows, etc. The aim is to list the major stresses imposed on refractories and to rank them in order of importance in the various stages of production.

The second part of this article is dedicated to describing the main types of refractory degradation in the steel industry, using visual observation. The complexity of refractory attack still makes these observations indispensable today, so as to judiciously optimize the choice of refractory materials.

The main types of refractory degradation that can be observed in industrial tools are described in detail. Photographic plates are used for this purpose.