Gas Purging Refractories for Steel Ladles

Gas purging technology is widely used in metal-producing industries. Not only in iron and steel industry, where it has been in operation for decades; but also within recent years intensively in non-ferrous metals production. Inert gases are used to introduce an agitation effect as well as for degassing the melts, and alternatively reactive gases can improve or even enable refining processes.
Secondary metallurgy has become an essential step for high quality steel production. For the processes in secondary metallurgy-which are mainly performed in the steel teeming ladle, purging plug is a critical component in ladle bottom purging system. The major goal of the ladle gas purging system is to stir molten steel, aiming for:

• Fine adjustment of temperature, steel and slag chemistry
• Removal of non-metallic inclusions
• Desulfurization
• Steel cleanliness

Ladle operation & the quality requirement of the steel vary from plant to plant and purging plug is a sensitive product which required being tailor-made, with high quality materials, appropriate designs in terms of bubble volume, size and flow rate, to ensure desired purging performance.
Different types of purging plugs are being used for steel ladles, which include directional models (slot type plugs, segment type plugs) and non-directional ones (porous plugs, hybrid plugs); preinstalled (non-changeable) and replaceable (changeable) sets.