The demand for high-quality refractories is on the rise as their need in many industries increases annually.   It is because refractory products help protect equipment, defying most hostile conditions like high temperatures, even up to 1200 degrees Celsius, extreme pressure, chemical corrosion, heavy thermal and mechanical abrasion, and others.

It is the reason that the global refractories market is to grow at a CAGR of 4.6 to reach 47.09 from 34.46 billion dollars from 2023 to 2030. The future of refractories is bright, with many top manufacturers digitized, automating most of the functions, using robotics, and offering sustainable solutions with effective data-driven process control.

They provide different tundish refractory linings using high-quality materials to ensure effective and safe diversion of molten steel with a steady flow, along with purifying and storing them. It also ensures the production of high-quality steel using effective continuous casting processes. 

In this article, let us discuss all the different tundish refractory linings for doing multiple tasks successfully, along with knowing Ankertun used in both dry and cold setting mixes.

What is Ankertun?

Tundish wear linings have both dry and cold setting systems that need Ankertun for mixing and delivering materials. It is because of its many advantages, like not losing material during the start and end of the lining, along with having consistent material, mixing quality and water flow.

The other advantage is controlling the template vibrators with the mixer control panel to make it easy to use and also having a mixer cleaning program. Also, there is less physical strain for those operating the machine and to work under safe conditions.

What is tundish?

Tundish is a buffer vessel with a refractory lining that is useful in CC or the continuous casting of steels between the CC mould and the spoon. It is also a crystallizer for refining the molten steel and stabilizing the steel flow by reducing the impact on the billet shell.

Also, it serves as a storage container and distributor for molten steel with uniform temperature and removes non-metallic impurities. It further purifies the molten steel during its long pouring time by keeping the temperature constant, promoting further inclusions to float and prevent contact with air to avoid nitrogen and oxygen absorption. 

What are the different tundish refractory linings?

As tundish plays a pivotal part in the continuous casting of steels, it needs the best refractory linings for maintaining the temperature even under many hostile conditions. Also, the design of the linings and the refractories used should be able to withstand the huge thermal shock, prevent oxidation, avoid thermal loss, and resist corrosion and erosion.

Hence, it influences the many operational parameters of the continuous casting machines, such as speed, superheat requirements, and others. The refractories used to determine the long casting sequence, quick tundish turnaround, increased campaign life, etc.

So, there is a direct influence of the lining material on liquid steel quality as it is close to the solidification stage and keeps contact with steel to avoid erosion. Hence, the following are the different tundish refractory linings offered by the top manufacturers to improve steel quality.

• Brick lining for tundish has existed since the 1960s with the CC technology introduction for continuous casting of liquid steels by using alumina bricks to pick up hydrogen with low risk, low inventory and investment
• Gunnable lining for tundish was introduced by the Japanese using dry refractory powder with the right composition after fluidization transferred on the tundish walls using a gunning machine to have monolithic lining
• Sprayable tundish lining developed in 1982 is spraying a mixture of high-quality refractory materials like MgO and SiO2 with a robotic application system.

RHI Magnesita is the global leader in providing the best tundish refractory lining for the continuous casting steel-making process. It has four main offices and 26 site offices across India and has many ISO 9001 plants to have over 2005 crore rupees turnover in 2022.