Extension of blast furnace campaigns at Inland Steel
Inland Steel Company operates two 1940s vintage blast furnaces and one world class furnace commissioned in 1980. A table gives a description of the small No. 5 and 6 blast furnaces and the large No. 7 furnace. Historically, the smaller furnaces were relined every four years after averaging 3.6 million net tons of iron production and campaign extension was not an issue until the mid-1980s. At this time a grouting practice was developed to extend stack and bosh life. A sixteen hour shutdown was required every three weeks to perform the grouting. In 1992 Inland investigated ``remote gunning`` of the furnace stack by viewing applications in Canada, Brazil and Japan. After developing a plan for required technical support, equipment modifications, downtime duration and costs, Inland decided to test the relatively new concept of remote gunning. A plan was developed to focus on several key areas that were required to make remote gunning a success: (1) Modify the furnaces to accept remote gunning equipment. (2) Select a remote gunning supplier who was committed to developing and demonstrating reliable equipment and refractory. (3) Improve blowdown practices to successfully clean the lining refractory hot face so the gunning material could adhere properly. (4) Develop a selection of refractory materials to allow zoning of gunning material into different locations based upon the local attack mechanism.
- OSTI ID:
- 577451
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-9704181-; ISBN 1-886362-23-8; TRN: IM9809%%92
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: 56. Ironmaking conference proceedings, Chicago, IL (United States), 13-16 Apr 1997; Other Information: PBD: 1997; Related Information: Is Part Of Ironmaking conference proceedings: Volume 56; PB: 781 p.
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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