Effects of process parameters on density and strength of cold briquetted sponge iron

Abstract

Sponge iron has been widely used for melting high-quality steels. However, there are several disadvantages of using sponge iron to melt steels, e.g boiling and furnace’s wall wearing strongly... which leads to a reduction in life duration of furnace due to its porous structure and low density. The solutions for overcoming these disadvantages are rising the density and reducing the purity of sponge iron by compacting particles of sponge iron to briquets in a high pressure and using a suitable binder. In this paper, the effects of pressing pressure, particle size, a fraction of binder and baking temperature on the density and strength of the sponge iron briquet using hydraulic machine were investigated. The process parameters range to obtain the sponge iron briquet with the density over 3.5 g/cm3 were found, and the optimal processing parameter range for maximizing the compacting strength of the sponge iron briquet was determined.