Development of technology for the production of heat-insulating materials for use in metallurgy and mechanical engineering

Abstract

The article considers the tasks of metallurgical, machine-building, and foundry enterprises of Ukraine regarding heat saving in these industries during the war and post-war periods and in the future. It is shown that the possibilities of developing heat and energy saving in metallurgy and machine building through the widespread use of effective heat-insulating materials made of multisilica fibre have not been fully realised in practice. A promising area of application of heat-insulating products is the construction, reconstruction and modernisation of existing metallurgical units in blast furnace, steelmaking and rolling sections. The technology for the production of modern heat-insulating materials made of multisilica fibre, which are efficient at temperatures up to 1600 °C, sometimes even higher, has been developed and put into practice. Possibilities of changing the operating temperature of products made of multisilica materials (cotton wool, felt, plates, felt, cardboard, etc.) by varying the content of aluminium, chromium, zirconium compounds in the charge for smelting multisilica materials are shown. Specific technical solutions to save energy are proposed, which allow reducing the cost of heating furnaces by ~ (40...45) % by using thermal insulation made of multisilica fibre. The experience of the SINTIZ LLC plant regarding the measures taken to modernise the SKB 6098 ore-thermal furnace is presented. As a result of the improvement of the furnace control system, electricity consumption decreased by ~ (5...15) %. The direction of further modernisation of multisilica fibre production is to combine separate local process control systems into a single closed automated control system for the production of this product. Research and development activities aimed at improving the technology for the production of heat-insulating materials and products based on the use of natural raw materials are also relevant.