Effect of ladle environment on alloying elements loss in structural steels production

The influence of the atmosphere on the waste of titanium when pouring liquid steel into a ladle during the process of alloying was studied under laboratory conditions. Titanium alloying of steel has been studied in normal and neutral atmospheres, that is, in an atmosphere of air and argon. Steel smelting was carried out in a laboratory induction furnace with a capacity of 20 kg in a magnesite crucible.Alloy steel waste, ferrochrome FKh10, metallic nickel and 70 % ferrotitanium (crushed to sizes 3-10 mm) were used as charge components. The melting of the charge in the furnace was carried out in a normal atmosphere, the furnace was heated to 1700 °C, the steel was deoxidized with FS75 ferrosilicon and the chemical composition of the melt was adjusted. The influence of the ladle atmosphere during the alloying process on the waste of the alloying element is considered.The losses of alloying elements and metal with slag were studied under conditions of one and two slag meltings. For this purpose, a static assessment of the analysis results on the loss of metal and alloying elements when removing slag from the furnace and ladle was carried out. The most effective alloying condition was provided by isolating the ladle lining from the external atmosphere. In this case, titanium absorption was achieved up to 78 % and was almost identical to the result of using an argon environment. To improve the quality of construction steel, it was vacuum processed in a ladle in a liquid state. It has been established that with increasing saturation of titanium in steel, its saturation with nitrogen and oxygen monotonically decreases. This occurs due to the formation of titanium nitride and oxide, which turn into slag during out-of-furnace processing of liquid steel in a ladle. This work was supported by the Science Foundation of Azerbaijan — Grant No. AEF – MCG – 2023 – 1 (43) – 13 (01) 1-M-01.