Current Activities
The Refractory Systems Technology Committee (RSTC) met in Burlington, Ont., Canada, for their spring meeting. The meeting began on April 14 with the RSTC Producer-Only Subcommittee. Following a review of safety-related incidents in the industry, the attendees reviewed the status of the Reheat Furnace Refractory Benchmarking Study. The final summary for the study will be provided at the fall RSTC meeting. In addition, a Tundish Refractory Survey will be sent to the producing members of the RSTC and the Continuous Casting Technology Committee to benchmark current tundish refractory practices. The next meeting will be held in October in northwest Indiana and will be co-located with the Ladle Refractory Short Course, the AIST Ladle & Secondary Refining Technology Committee meeting and the AIST Midwest Chapter Kickoff Dinner. On April 15, the complete RSTC met, beginning with a review of safety and environmental issues in the steel industry. The RSTC technical sessions at AISTech 2010 were reviewed. Two sessions were sponsored by the RSTC: ladle refractories and slidegates, and blast furnace refractories. Plans were then discussed regarding papers for AISTech 2011, with suggestions being metal-free MgC refractory, MgC degasser linings, recycling practices for spent refractory and MgC castable refractory. Aivars Pupols of ArcelorMittal Dofasco Inc. and Paul Saffrin of Vanocur Refractories LLC then presented information on the progress of the coke oven throughwall project at ArcelorMittal Dofasco and the technology behind the BigBlock Coke Oven Brick produced by Vanocur. Following the meeting, the committee toured the ArcelorMittal Dofasco No. 1 Coke Battery throughwall replacement project. Ken Blake of ArcelorMittal Dofasco provided the tour, which showed how the blocks were being installed as well as the obstacles that were overcome in conducting the project. The next RSTC meeting will be Oct. 14 in Merrilville, Ind., and the technical subject for the meeting will be well blocks and ladle sand practices.
On Oct. 15, the Producer Only Subcommittee of the Refractory Systems Technology Committee (RSTC) held their fall meeting in northwest Indiana. Following introductions and a review of the AIST Anti-Trust Guidelines, the group began the meeting as they do every meeting: by discussing any safety incidents in the steel industry. The Reheat Furnace Refractory Survey was then reviewed. Adjustments were made to the criteria, and the survey was sent to all the producer members of the RSTC to complete by Nov. 30, 2008. The results will be compiled and discussed at the next meeting. The Tundish Refractory Survey was reviewed, and adjustments were made to the criteria and layout of the survey to be similar in appearance to the Reheat Furnace Refractory Survey. When the Reheat Furnace Survey has been completed and compiled, the Tundish Refractory Survey will be sent to the RSTC producers. ArcelorMittal’s Xin Zhang, refractory engineer, and Yong Lee, senior research engineer, presented their feasibility study on steel ladle insulation board trials at Indiana Harbor No. 2 Steel Production. It was a study on determining the insulation that would be needed if the high-alumina lining in the ladle barrel was replaced with alumino-magnesite carbon refractory. Following the meeting, a tour for the RSTC was hosted by North American Refractories Co. Gary Iron and Steel Production Services. The facility maintains and repairs ladle and degasser shells as well as other steelmaking vessels and, through its proximity to U. S. Steel – Gary Works, maintains the refractory linings in the vessels for Gary Works. The facility has full fabrication and engineering capabilities for these projects. On Oct. 16, the full RSTC met to discuss business matters. The abstracts that related to refractories for AISTech 2009 were reviewed, and it was determined that the committee should co-sponsor the Ladle Refractory and Slidegates session with the AIST Ladle & Secondary Refining Technology Committee (LSRTC). A co-chair was named from the committee. As the committee members are new to AISTech session planning, they will be co-sponsoring a session for 2009, with plans to sponsor independent sessions for AISTech 2010. The committee will also be assisting the LSRTC with the AIST Technical Report No. 9 refractory section information as needed. The last item of business was to determine future meeting structure and activities. The technical portion of the meeting will continue to be the main focus of the meeting, and they will look to increase the value of the content through presentations and additional benchmarking reviews. The RSTC next meeting will be April 21–22, 2009, with the site to be determined.
