A Study on Decreasing Heat and Metal Loss In Ladle In HC-FeCr Production

Yilmaden Holding is one of the important players in the chromium industry, company consists of 10 companies and operating in 7 different countries. High-quality high carbon ferrochromium (HQ HC FeCr) is produced in 3 different plants with 12 furnaces. These plants are Eti Krom Inc in Turkey, Vargon Alloys AB in Sweden, and Tikhvin Ferro Alloy in Russia. Tikhvin Ferro Alloy (TFZ) casting operations take place through refractory-lined ladles for a long time and also climate conditions are tough. Under these working conditions, some of the liquid metal solidifies in the ladle and a secondary process is needed. The secondary metal recovery process increases the production cost, that’s why ladle refractory design has critical importance to decrease solidified metal amount during casting. In this study, to decrease heat loss and reprocessed metal volume, a new refractory lining design to increase insulation capability of transfer ladle is studied. Theoretical heat loss calculation of existing design and new design are compared.