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US 5,634,960 AGranted
Scrap melting in a submerged arc furnace
AssigneeElkem a/s
InventorPeter Cowx
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
The process feeds a mixture of scrap metal, quartzite, carbonaceous material and wood chips to a submerged arc furnace to make a base iron suitable for iron foundry purposes. The mixture contains 1 to 20% quartzite, 5 to 15% carbonaceous material, 0 to 10% wood chips, all based on the weight of scrap in the mixture. By maintaining the charge in the furnace, good efficiencies are obtained.
Claims11
A method for continuously converting ferrous scrap metal into an iron for foundry purposes comprising the steps of:
- (a) feeding to a submerged arc open or closed furnace having one or more electrodes a charge comprising:
- (i) ferrous scrap metal wherein said scrap metal comprises 80-99% by weight scrap iron,
- (ii) about 1 to about 20% by weight scrap of quartzite,
- (iii) about 5 to about 15% by weight scrap of carbonaceous material, and
- (iv) about 0 to about 10% by weight scrap of wood chips;
- (b) melting said charge in said furnace such that said furnace contains a molten layer and a layer of solid charge above said molten layer;
- (c) positioning said one or more electrodes immediately above said molten layer;
- (d) maintaining said layer of solid charge in said furnace such that said layer of solid charge completely covers said molten layer and extends from the side walls of said furnace to surround said one or more electrodes;
- and
- (e) tapping said furnace to remove from said molten layer a molten iron suitable for foundry purposes and having a silicon content of about 0.5 to about 4% by weight and a carbon content of about 2 to about 5% by weight.
7 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.