What Is A Ladle Furnace?

What is a ladle furnace?

Ladle arc refining furnace is an out-of-furnace refining technology that uses arc heating under vacuum conditions.

It is refined by placing the molten steel initially smelted in a general steelmaking furnace in a special ladle.

This technology was studied by Daido Steel Works Co., Ltd. in Japan in 1971.

Based on ASEA-SKF, refining furnace, VAD furnace, VOD method and other refining technologies and equipment, it is developed by adopting the mature experience of other refining methods and avoiding their difficulties.

What Is a Ladle Furnace?

LF is an important metallurgical equipment used to refine molten steel melted in primary furnaces (electric arc furnace, open hearth furnace, converter), and can adjust the temperature of molten steel, process buffer, and meet continuous casting and rolling. The ladle furnace is one of the main equipment for refining outside the furnace.

Функция

Main functions of ladle furnace:

It has the function of heating up molten steel and keeping it warm.

The molten steel is heated by an arc to obtain new heat energy, which not only enables the addition of alloys and adjustment of components during ladle refining, but also the addition of slag, which facilitates deep desulfurization and deoxidation of molten steel. Moreover, the starting temperature of the molten steel required for continuous casting is guaranteed, which is beneficial to the improvement of the quality of the dry casting slab.

Argon stirring function.

The argon gas is blown into the molten steel through the breathable brick installed at the bottom of the ladle, and the molten steel obtains a certain stirring function.

Vacuum degassing function.

After the ladle is hoisted into the vacuum tank, a steam jet pump is used for vacuum degassing, and at the same time, argon gas is blown into the molten steel through the bottom of the ladle to stir the molten steel, which can remove the hydrogen and nitrogen content in the molten steel, and further reduce the oxygen and sulfur content. Finally, the liquid steel with higher purity and the material with superior performance are obtained.

From the point of view of the entire enterprise, the application of the ladle furnace can at least increase the following benefits: speed up the production rhythm and improve the overall metallurgical production efficiency.

Application fields: Ladle furnaces are widely used in industry, iron and steel, metallurgy and other industries.