Refractories for reheating furnace present and future status

Abstract

Refractories Nay a very vital role In any integrated tteel plant from the stage of coke making to the finished products. With _he higher competition In the present world to make steel at cheap and competitive rates with the higher costs la Inputs such as raw material, labour and fuel, it has thrown a challenge to all engineers, technol-ogists and designers to construct furnaces for better efficiency and higher output with, less maintenance cost. Dr. Thomas Swinden writing In September 1944, a preface to the first edition of Dr. Chesters well known book, "Steelplant Refractories" pointed out that "we take great care in the designing and building of furnaces, but unfortunately the operating temperatures are often so near to the limiting useful temperatures of refractories that is a constant source of anxiety to get the maximum output and the most of effective operating temperature, without deforming the vital parts of the furnace and destroying or at least reducing its effectiveness,. Even though 32 years past, that constant source of anxiety Is still with us—indeed perhaps more so than ever with the advent of oxygen blowing processes with computarised controls; Today steel plant operators