Some aspects of Pilot Plant Research and Development in Iron and Steel Industry

Abstract

Students of ferrous metallurgy appear unanimous in their opinion that major revolutions are taking place in the technology of iron and steel production whilst the essence of basic reactions and fundamentals invol- ved remains unchanged. Apart from the physical enlar- gement of smelting units proper and scaling up of anci-llary equipment, some of the major advances currently under application relate to raw-materials processing & prepared burdens such as, sizing, classification,conce-ntrating, agglomeration, sintering etc. which have to-day become bywords to increased productivity and reduced operational costs. Similarly important techni- cal developments are taking place in iron blast furnace operations, stool-making technology, continuous casting technique and in related fields. Those industrial devel-opments are the products. of laboratory scale researches followed by comprehensive investigations on pilot plant scale trials. The importance of such pilot plant trials has been recognised the world over . In this short paper, some of these pilot plant scale investigations will be highlighted including some current technical develop- ments in the technology of iron and steel production in different steel producing countries of the world.