2. Iron- and Steel-Making Process

With extensive changing in the operating practice due to stringent control in product quality, introduction of new product mix and demand for high productivity, it is indeed to upgrade the refractory quality to cope up with the changed environment and refractory life improvement. Hence, starting with the master plan, it was decided to provide a brief introduction on modern iron- and steel-making practice along with background of refractory choice in Chap. 2, to amalgam the relation of refractory performance with changed escalating demand on safe performance. As small blast furnaces have been closed and replaced by large-size furnaces, open-hearth steel making has been replaced by high-productive basic oxygen furnaces (BOF), RH (Ruhrstahl Heraeus)—degasser is the most popular for making ultra-low carbon steel. Additional Composition Adjustment by Sealed argon bubbling with Oxygen Blowing (CAS-OB) is started to operate in many integrated and large-size steel plant to produce high-quality alloy steel; the operating processes of those equipment has been discussed in detail.