Life extension of copper staves in blast furnaces

摘要

Copper staves allow cooling large areas of a blast furnace. This technology has been in use for nearly 20 years; however, it has not come of age yet. Design campaign life of furnaces incorporating these staves is usually 10 to 15 years. There are a number of instances where copper staves have experienced premature wear and early failures and in a few cases, the campaign life was as short as three years. The World Steel Association (worldsteel) initiated a project in 2013 in order to investigate this issue. A global survey was carried out which collected information on 36 blast furnaces consisting of profile, operation, gas flow and burdening practices as well as arrangement and state of the copper staves during the current campaigns. This paper presents the summary of actual practices and experiences collected worldwide with copper staves.