Refractory alumina plates used in the sliding gate system of steelmaking ladle: chemical degradation analysis of post mortem plates

摘要

In steelmaking, the refractory materials have to be special as they have to resist high temperature and wear situations in service. These special refractory materials are expensive, for this reason the steel industry aims to increase the service life of these materials keeping its performance. The goal of this work was to investigate the transformations that take place in the ladle slide gate plates material while in service. To accomplish this goal the region of post mortem plates that get in contact with the molten material was characterized by visual analysis and chemical composition analysis such as X-ray fluorescence techniques, X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive spectroscopy. The results are some contributions on the chemical corrosion process generated by the chemical interaction between residual slag and the plates. Materials with high calcium content and composed of merwinite and gehlenite, slag characteristic phases, were found to be adhered to the plates. Moreover, it was possible to establish that the thickness of the interaction zone between the adhered material and the surface of the plate varied between 0.4 and 1.2 mm. Thus, when combined with erosion due to steel outflow, chemical corrosion resulting from contact with the slag has the potential to intensify wear on refractory plate channel.