Strategic steps towards longer and reliable blast furnace trough campaign - Tata Steel experience

摘要

At Tata Steel, Jamshedpur works the hot metal production capacity was enhanced from 3 centre dot 57 mT in 1997-1998 to 5 centre dot 51 mT in 2007-2008 with the same number of cast houses, thereby, increasing the thermal load on the runner system. Maximising trough availability and ensuring zero breakouts were the means to fulfill the objective of handling the increased furnace production. Significant changes in trough refractory design and introduction of new materials like prefabricated shapes helped to improve reliability of the troughs. The paper presents the design and mode of operation of main troughs of different blast furnaces (BFs) operated at Jamshedpur works, modification of trough design in the upgraded G-BF and its performance and details of improvements made in the trough back-up refractory lining, its wear monitoring and cooling systems.