5/12/2018
AOD – Argon Oxygen Decarburizing
» “AOD”, is an advanced technology for the refinement of iron,
nickel, and cobalt based alloys.
» After initial melting the metal is then transferred to an AOD
vessel where it will be subjected to three steps of refining:
1. Decarburization
2. Reduction
3. Desulphurization
Reduction
» Reduction recovers the oxidized elements such
as chromium from the slag
» To achieve this, alloy additions are made with
elements that have a higher affinity for oxygen
than chromium, using either a silicon alloy or
aluminium
» The addition of lime and fluorspar help with
driving the reduction of Cr2O3 and managing
the slag, keeping the slag fluid and volume
small
Decarburization
» Decarburization occurs when the metal is heated to
temperatures of 700 °C or above when carbon in the metal
reacts with gases containing oxygen or hydrogen.
» The removal of carbon removes hard carbide phases resulting in
a softening of the metal, primarily at the surfaces which are in
contact with the decarburizing gas
» controlled by ratios of oxygen to argon or nitrogen to remove
the carbon from the metal bath.
» The gases are usually blown through a top lance (oxygen only)
and tuyeres in the sides/bottom (oxygen with an inert gas
shroud)
» The stages of blowing remove carbon by the combination of
oxygen and carbon forming CO gas
» By the end of this process around 97% of Cr is retained in the
steel
Desulphurization
» Desulphurization is achieved by having a high lime
concentration in the slag and a low oxygen activity in the
metal bath
» additions of lime are added to dilute sulphur in the metal
bath. Also, aluminium or silicon may be added to remove
oxygen.
» After sulphur levels have been achieved the slag is
removed from the AOD vessel and the metal bath is ready
for tapping.
» The tapped bath is then either sent to a stir station for
further chemistry trimming or to a caster for casting
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VOD – Vacuum Oxygen Decarburizing » In this process argon plugs is entered from the bottom
of the ladle through porous just to keep agitated steel-
» VOD is often used to lower the carbon content of high-alloy washed.
steels.
» The melting of scrap practiced for VOD is the same as AOD. » Then the oxygen is introduced
With the only variation of the liquid steel is poured into a ladle, from above using a spear. The
entered into a plant (tank) capable of creating an initial 3 mbar latter spreads on the surface
vacuum and then stabilize in 0.6 mbar.
of the liquid thus accelerating
» The vacuum action:
the formation of carbon
1. enhances the decarburization reaction
monoxide.
2. preserves the chromium from over-oxidation

» VOD process is a tank degassing unit which is

additionally equipped with an O2 blowing lance.
» In this process, the ladle is placed in vacuum chamber
and there is a provision for O2 lancing through vacuum
tight gland and alloying additions. Constant rate of de-
carburization occurs depending on the O2 flow rate.
» The process involves preferential oxidation of carbon
over Cr leading to minimum losses of Cr.
» O2 lancing is ceased and the vessel pressure is reduced
and Ar stirring is carried out further to the reaction
between the dissolved O2 and the remaining C.

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VIM – Vacuum Induction Melting

» Vacuum induction melting uses currents within a vacuum to
melt metal.
» VIM involves placing a core-less induction furnace into a
vacuum chamber.[5] The heat used to start the melting process
comes from an induced current called an eddy current.
» The melting and casting operations are then carried out at low
pressures to control the entire alloy chemistry process.
» VIM include melting steels for nuclear applications, cobalt alloy
for medical applications, and both high purity copper alloy and
clean magnetic alloy