Question about a bad pour day at the plant in Toledo

Last Tuesday, our main induction furnace had a partial refractory failure during a 1600-degree bronze pour, causing a massive slag boil that ruined the entire batch and shut us down for 8 hours while we did emergency patching. Anyone else had a refractory issue creep up that fast?

4 comments

4 Comments

phoenixk641mo ago

We had a 12-inch thick lining in our arc furnace at the old Gary Works that looked solid on the weekly inspection. I used to think those things gave you plenty of warning. Then one Tuesday afternoon, it just let go during a heat, and we had a breakout that took out the water-cooled cables. That single shift changed my whole view on how fast a hot spot can turn into a full failure.

jessicap821mo ago

How often do you actually check the cold face temp on your furnace?

iris_schmidt24d ago

Honestly, that sounds a bit over the top for most setups. I mean, a 50-degree spike on the shell and you're done in two heats? That's a crazy small window. Most places I've seen, the linings are way more forgiving than that. You'd see other signs way before the cold face temp told you anything useful, like weird burner patterns or slag drips. Feels like chasing a problem that isn't really there half the time.

the_pat1mo ago

We ran a 3000 ton aluminum holding furnace at the old Kaiser plant that would eat through a lining in under six months. The real trick is checking the cold face temp with a laser gun every single shift, not just on inspection day. You get a spike of even 50 degrees on that shell, you know you've got maybe two heats left before it goes. Ever think about adding that to the operator checks?