Improvement of the out-of-furnace steel treatment technology for improving its mechanical properties

Abstract

The problem of increasing the competitiveness of technology today is largely determined by the quality of manufacturing large-sized cast billets for their supporting systems. Many factors are involved in forming the service properties of a casting. Each factor is important and affects the quality of the resulting casting. The presence of "cold" slag does not allow refining processes to be fully realized during the induction melting of steel. Therefore, attempts to achieve the same results for induction melting steel without additional furnace treatment as for electric arc melting steel do not always lead to success. In recent years, various methods of out-of-furnace steel processing have been developed, which make it possible to eliminate certain disadvantages of induction melting. One of them is the modification of steel in the bucket with rare earth metals (REM). Additional modification of steel in the ladle along with REM also allows for further improvement of steel quality. Currently, REM, with a high affinity for oxygen, sulfur, nitrogen, non-ferrous metals, and other impurities, are widely used in the steel production. Studies have been carried out to improve the technology of out-of-furnace steel processing and its mechanical properties. The effect of alkaline earth and rare earth master alloys on impact strength and the contamination index with non-metallic inclusions of cold-resistant steel is shown.