Alumina‐spinel castable for steel ladles: An overview

Abstract

Alumina‐spinel castable has excellent refractory properties, including high volume and thermal stability, good hot strength, and excellent resistance against corrosion, erosion, and thermal spalling. Excellent refractory properties have made it a preferred lining for steel ladles, reducing the erosion and corrosion of molten metal and slag and improving the ladle life and efficiency for decades. These castables are also significant for the replacement of chrome‐bearing refractories that cause several health hazards. The current review paper covers preformed and in situ spinel containing alumina castables. It focuses on the importance of these castables in the sidewall and bottom portion of the steel ladle in detail, the effect of spinel and MgO content, and the factors affecting castable properties. The review also covers the final properties of castable and the application areas of alumina‐spinel castable in steel ladle, purging plugs, and RH‐degasser.

Enhanced Properties of Tailored Alumina–Magnesia-Based Dry Ramming Mixes by Calcium Magnesium Aluminate (CMA)

“…Sako et al demonstrated that refractories containing preformed and in situ spinels possessed better overall performance [ 13 ]. It was also pointed out that preformed and in situ spinel-containing castables had immense potential to enhance properties, such as strength, thermal shock resistance, and corrosion resistance [ 14 ].…”

Large‐scale fabrication of TiC@C powders and its effect on the properties of Al2O3‐MgO‐C castables

“…castables linings were corroded and deteriorated by slag and temperature fluctuation resulting in temperatureinduced phase transformation and thermomechanical properties changing, especially thermal spalling. [8][9][10][11][12] Aiming to improving their service life, several attempts found that slag resistance and thermal shock resistance of the castables can be greatly improved by adding graphite. [13][14][15] Unfortunately, high water demand derived from nonwettability of graphite flakes, therefore the castables containing graphite flakes were limited in the application in steel ladle lining because of their higher porosity, lower strength, and poor oxidation resistance.…”

“…Al 2 O 3 ‐MgO castables have been widely used in steel ladle linings because of their good slag resistance, higher refractoriness, 1,2 which owing to the smaller grain sizes and more evenly distributed of in‐situ formed spinel grains derived from the reaction between MgO and Al 2 O 3 at elevated temperatures 3–7 . During steel refining processes, castables linings were corroded and deteriorated by slag and temperature fluctuation resulting in temperature‐induced phase transformation and thermomechanical properties changing, especially thermal spalling 8–12 . Aiming to improving their service life, several attempts found that slag resistance and thermal shock resistance of the castables can be greatly improved by adding graphite 13–15 .…”

Effect of Y2O3 additions on low cement high alumina refractory castable

“…Different types of the binder are used in a refractory castable system, like hydratable alumina, calcium aluminate cement, phosphate, colloidal silica, etc. [3,[7][8][9]. A significant extent of research and developmental work was carried out with calcium aluminate cement as a binder and suggested that 4 wt.% cement addition shows better properties in alumina-based castables [10][11][12][13].…”

“…Major application areas of this high alumina-based castable are steel ladle lining, purging plugs, Rh degasser, etc. [3]. A castable consists of aggregates, binders, fines, and property-enhancing additives [3].…”