The process tasks facing large steel mills and steel shops seeking to produce a wide range of steel products and using secondary refining processes for these purposes are:
- to prevent clogging in pouring nozzles;
- to eliminate contamination of liquid metal with non-metallic inclusions (including highly corrosive one);
- to improve the pressure tightness and structural integrity of steel products;
- to prevent occurrence of defects in large castings and continuous cast products (including axial porosity and axial sponginess, segregation of carbon, sulphur and phosphorus);
- to improve corrosion resistance;
- to improve the uniformity of mechanical properties of rolled products in all directions;
- to improve the quality of rolled product surfaces.
These tasks can be accomplished through secondary refining processes involving use of INSTEEL® inoculants. Besides calcium, these multi-component and microcrystalline inoculants contain barium, strontium, zirconium, rare-earth metals and other metals. They make it possible to deeply deoxidize melts, thoroughly remove non-metallic inclusions from them, essentially improve their castability and cast them without clogging pouring nozzles. As a result, the quality of finished products will improve to meet the requirements contained in applicable GOST standards and specifications. As compared to such conventional calcium-containing alloys as calcium silicon and ferro calcium used in large-scale production, the consumption of multi-component inoculants is 30-40% less. This results in the cost effectiveness of 10-15%.
Depending on the peculiarities of the practices applied in the manufacturing of products and equipment used as well as the task of improving product quality, our Technological Support specialists will advise you on the choice of the relevant inoculation materials and develop suitable inoculation methods.