Recent Developments

The FOS steelmaking process -- More details are now available for Bisra's FOS method of steelmaking which reported earlier. The basis of the FOS technique has
been eatablished on a half-ton scale in Bisra's Sheffield melting shop and confirmed by trials on a five-ton scale in a local works. For maximum heat transfer, a cylindri-cal vessel is preferred and to permit rapid basket char-ging the roof is movable. The roof carried a single 'Toroidal' burner (developed by the Shell International Petroleum Company) and waste gas removal ducts. The absence of elaborate electrode movement
mechanisms and of supply transformers and switchgear
makes the capital cost very much less than that of an arc furnace. The likely need to fit arc furnaces with voltage fluctuation compensation equipment will add a further cost advantage to the process.