666,762.1-494.017.620.192.52 In recent years in the Soviet Union and abroad more and more attention has been paid to the production and use of refractories based on fibrous insulating materials and articles. In Great Britain in 1967 the output of refractory fibers amounted to s million sterling; in 1977 the output increased to s million [1]. One of the most effective sites for the use of such materials (glass fiber products) is the working layer of the linings of heating equipment. Roll material or felt [2] is normally used, but in these cases, because of the erosion of the fibrous material, severe restrictions are placed on the rate of gas flow. The use of rigid unfired slabs or blocks is not possible because of the high (up to 5%) shrinkage of the goods in service. The use of prefired tiles [3] leads to further restrictions during preparation, which markedly complicates and boosts the cost of the production process.The aim of this investigation was to obtain unfired fibrous goods with a linear shrinkage of not more than 1.0-1.5% at 1100-1300~ with a sufficiently high installation (mechanical) strength in service.Specimens of fibrous articles were prepared by vacuum forming using water-body mixtures [4]. The fibrous material consisted of mullite-siliceous roll material MKRR-130 (GOST 23619-79) produced by the Bogdanovich refractories factory, and the bond consisted of a mixture of silica gel and polyvinyl acetate dispersion (PVAD) in a ratio of 9:1 (dry weight) which, as established previously [5,6], enabled us to obtain fibrous refractories with a high installation strength that was maintained in service, and with low apparent density and thermal conductivity. To reduce (compensate for) the shrinkage of fibrous articles during heating we used additives ensuring an expansion of the material at the appropriate temperatures.It is known [7]* that during the formation of magnesia spinel from alumina and magnesia there is an increase in volume caused by the lower density of the reaction product. The expansion of pressings from a stoichiometric composition of MgO and A1203 in the form of periclase and corundum reaches maximum values of 5% at 1300~ in 6 h and at 1400~ after 2 h, but at 1200~ it is quite high (about 3%). In this case there is an increase in the porosity. At 1300-1400~ the breaking up and expansion is about 13% (abs.) or about 40% (re1.).Cristobalitization of the quartz glass during heating leads to a significant expansion with an increase in the open porosity from 0.3 to 8.5% at 1400~In this case the degree of cristobalitization reaches 90%. With the addition of 0.65-1.0% Na20 (in the form of Na2CO 3) the temperature of cristobalitization of the fused quartz is reduced to 900~[8].The above suggests that the addition of mineralizing mixtures of A120~ and MgO to the batches for the fibrous materials using stoichiometric ratios or fused quartz premixed with 1% Na2CO 3 (0.65% Na20), as a result of embrittlement and increase in volume, leads to a reduction in the overall shrinkage of the goods.We also te...