ESTONIAN ACADEMY
PUBLISHERS
eesti teaduste
akadeemia kirjastus
PUBLISHED
SINCE 1952
 
Proceeding cover
proceedings
of the estonian academy of sciences
ISSN 1736-7530 (Electronic)
ISSN 1736-6046 (Print)
Impact Factor (2022): 0.9
Protective coatings for the graphite facing in calcium–aluminothermal processes; pp. 54–60
PDF | doi: 10.3176/proc.2008.1.06

Authors
Nikolai Obabkov, Valeri Gorkunov, Rein Munter, Askold Beketov
Abstract
Results of pilot plant and full scale studies on the elaboration of high temperature protective coatings for graphite in the process of the reductive melting of niobium pentoxide and NbAl alloys production are presented. Graphite has found extensive application in high temperature processes due to its unique thermophysical properties. However, in these conditions it reacts very easily with air oxygen, liquid metals, oxides, and fluorides. As a result, porous graphite gets impregnated with liquid metal; besides, carbonization of melt and formation of a layer of metal carbides on graphite surface takes place. The layer of metal carbides has a low adhesion with graphite and a major part of them is transferred to the melt. The graphite facing of a furnace is quickly destructed. To avoid these harmful processes, special plasma sprayed protective coatings are used.In this work various coatings (Аl2О3, Аl2О3·CaO, ZrO2, NbC, Аl2О3 + Nb, ZrO2 + Nb, NbC + Nb, Nb) were tested in pilot plant and industrial conditions. It was established that the best durability of the protective coating on graphite can be achieved in the case of its three-layer composition: Nb (0.07 mm) + NbC (0.4 mm) + Nb (0.3 mm). After industrial melting of 500–2000 kg ingots about 80% of this coating on the belt of the shaft furnace had preserved. Plasma sprayed protective coatings on the graphite facing extended its operation time, reduced the carbon content in the metal ingots to 0.02% (mass), and slag carbon content to 0.05–0.15% (mass).
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