A NOVEL INSULATING CERAMIC POWDER DEVELOPED FOR APPLICATION IN THE MATERIALS INDUSTRY
Keywords:
Thermal conductivity, Insulating, Tundish, Magnesite, Ladle, Coal - ashAbstract
This paper presents results of an investigation aimed at synthesizing an insulating powder from industrial wastes from the Coal and Steel Industries.
Insulating powder is used to minimize heat losses in liquid steel containing vessels like Ladles and Tundishes. They are mixtures of one or more refractory components, mixed with fast-burning materials. The results of the thermal interesting, were conductivity tests because they did not only show that the newly formulated powders had comparable thermal insulating properties with the imported ones but also suggested, by the clearly lower thermal conductivity values, that the locally made materials might in fact be superior. It also worthy of note that the K-value of the coal - ash based powder (0.12) was lower than that. of the coal reject - based on (0.135), thus the coal reject and coal ash based powders approximately corresponded in composition to imported samples I and II respectively (and also to compound types I and II respectively). This suggested that coal - ash should be used for the formulation of type I compounds and coal reject for type II compounds.
Preliminary results from chemical analyses and thermal conductivity tests compared favorably with data for imported insulating compounds. Thus a substitute for the usual proprietary and very costly insulating powder for use in steel and allied industries had been developed with the attendant huge savings in foreign exchange.
