A new steel making process for the production of all types of austenitic, martensitic and ferritic stainless steels and other chrome bearing steels

摘要

A process for producing austenitic, martensitic, ferritic stainless steels and other chromium-containing steels consists in charging into a furnace and fusing a mixture of chrome ore, scrap metal, one or more carbonaceous reducing agents such as anthracite, graphite, coke or any mixture of these, and slag-making material, superheating the fused mixture by injection of oxygen to achieve complete reduction of the ore, removing the completely reduced slag, again injecting oxygen to remove carbon and subsequently reducing the chromium oxide formed with non-carbonaceous reducing agents, e.g. ferro-silicon or aluminium. The resulting alloy may contain as little as 0.025 per cent of carbon. The scrap metal used may be plain carbon steel free from chromium or chromium-bearing steel or non-ferrous scrap containing nickel and chromium. The oxygen employed may be commercially pure oxygen or other gas containing at least 30 per cent of oxygen.