Introduction
Steel smelting is an important process in modern industry, and the refining of steel is to obtain high-quality steel products. In steel smelting, electric furnace refine and converter refine are commonly used, and electric furnace refine is a commonly used refining method in steel production. Its advantages include: first, electric furnace refine and converter refine are able to produce steel with a wider range of chemical compositions. Second, the electric furnace is more flexible and can be used for micro-alloy smelting, so electric furnace refining often becomes an essential step in quality steel production.
However, in order to meet the requirements of special steel smelting and control alloy elements, or in the case of high-temperature oxidation of the cast steel when the electric furnace increases, the refining time of electric furnace refining increases and the refining cost increases significantly. Therefore, the application of external refining technology has become an effective way to improve the production efficiency and reduce production cost.
Outer Refine technology
Outer refine technology has been used in steelmaking since the 1950s. It is a refinement technique that uses an induction furnace, which is attached to the outside of an electric furnace or converter, to melt and homogenize steel to meet the requirements of secondary refining. Generally speaking, the application of the external refining technology can be divided into two parts: the refining of the melting electric furnace and the refining after tapping.
External refine method for melting electric furnace is to add alloying elements to the steel through the induction furnace, and then use the induction furnace in the crucible to homogenize the steel in the electric furnace and make it meet the requirements of secondary refining. The external refinement after tapping is to reduce the carbon content of steel by adding electric furnace slag or alloying elements to the molten steel through a ladle or tundish. The electric furnace slag is cooling to remove the carbon content of the steel and the alloying elements are added to make the steel up to grade.
Advantage
The biggest advantage of external refining technology is the ability to shorten the refinement time, reduce energy consumption and reduce costs. The traditional electric furnace refining process requires the furnace to increase, reduce and restart four times, while the external refining technology only requires two times of raising and reducing, thus reducing the refining time and energy consumption.
At the same time, the application of external refining technology can reduce the cost of electric furnace refining. If a high carbon steel is smelted with an electric furnace, the electric furnace adds a small amount of electric furnace slag, which can reduce the carbon content of the steel without increasing electricity consumption, thus reducing the refining cost.
In addition, the application of external refining technology also reduces the consumption of alloying elements. In the traditional electric furnace refining process, a large amount of alloying elements are added in proportion to make up for the loss of the amount of alloying elements during tapping and the addition of electric furnace slag.In the process of external refining, due to the metallic yield of the electric furnace slag, the amount of alloying elements needed to make up for the mixed grade can be reduced.
Conclusion
In summary, the application of external refinement technology can shorten the refining time, reduce energy consumption, reduce costs, and reduce the consumption of alloying elements, thus reflecting the advantages of external refining technology in improving production efficiency and reducing production cost.
