In 1977 the Izhorskii Works Production Union put into operation an imported furnace-ladle type installation for refining and vacuum treatment of steel outside the furnace (IRVO); this permits arc heating of the metal, electromagnetic mixing throughput the period of treatment, vacuum treatment and desulfurization of the metal, purging with oxygen and argon, and introduction of alloy components.The installation includes ( Fig. 1) a ladle 1 (70 or 150-ton), a car 2 for transporting the ladle with its fitted inductive mixer coils, a device 3 for arc heating (two stands), a vacuum system 4, and a system for blowing oxygen and argon.The distinguishing feature of this installation is the flexibility of performace of the possible technological operations, ensuring preparation of high-grade metal. Operation of the IRVO gave steels with mass fractions of sulfur and oxygen of 0.003 and 0.0005%, respectively, in the end sample; the hydrogen content after vacuum treatment of the steel was 1 cm 3 per 100 g of sample.Operation of the installation showed that refractory service conditions in it are more severe than in batch and circulation types. This is due to the great length of treatment (up to 5 h), to marked circulation of metal (as a result of electromagnetic mixing) and gaseous segregations during the period of vacuum treatment, to blowing with argon and oxygen, and to cooling of the ladles between fusions. Superheating of the ladle lining in the extraelectrode space during arc heating of steel is also observed. As a consequence the refractory consumption on the furnace lining, according to foreign data and the results of operation of imported refractories in the installation, is 10-15 kg per ton of processed steel, whereas in batch and circulation types it is 0.6-0.8 kg / ton.Abroad, under these service conditions high-alumina refractories, and in the most intensely worn slag belt of the lining magnesite-chromite refractories, are used in furnace-ladle installations [1-3]. Imported refractories were obtained in the period of initial mastery of the installation, and they were investigated with the aim of replacing them by home-produced ones (Table 1).Mineralogical analysis* showed that the bauxite artifacts used for the reinforcement and working linings of the ladles consist (Fig. 2a) of large grains of high-alumina composition (0.5-3 mm), small (0.5-1.5 mm)