A Possibility of Producing Heat-Resistant Products in Induction Furnaces with Bottom Blowing

The main strategic directions of Russian Federation are connected with the development of the power engineering industry, extraction of raw materials, and military-space industry. The production of metals and alloys for these industries is connected not only with the use of costly materials as primary stock but also with the application of high-tech equipment capable of satisfying the requirements of potential customers. The increasing requirements to the mechanical characteristics of metals and alloys lead to an increase in the cost of final products, which, in turn, turns the economic efficiency of the production technology into the decisive factor. Note that heat-resistant steels form one of the largest and most strategically important segments of the market of metals and alloys. At present, the metal market requires from manufacturers to be more and more flexible in satisfying the demands of the customers. Thus, in particular, new requirements are imposed on the production volumes because more and more machine- building enterprises need low-volume deliveries. Therefore, many traditional technologies used for the production of heat-resistant steels become noncompetitive and, hence, new approaches and methods are required. In this connection, we propose a technology of production of heat-resistant steels with bottom blowing with inert gases of the bath of liquid metal directly in the volume of the furnace.