Posted on 21 May 2013
ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih, the largest producer of rolled steel in Ukraine, has finished the overhaul of its blast furnace number seven after just 26 days. A total of 17 operations were performed on the blast furnace.
"In April we accomplished a category two overhaul repair of blast furnace number seven. During this period, the furnace remained idle for four weeks (19 days of repairs and seven of commissioning operations). We were using only two blast furnaces in this period, but this did not affect our production performance in April", said Paramjit Kahlon, ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih chief operating officer.
Kahlon added that cold repairs to the two-bath steelmaking vessel in the open-hearth plant and repairs to the return-stream apron conveyor number one in the sinter shop number one, also started in April.
The blast furnace repair started with the skull breaking process. ‘Skull’ is a heat-proof mass often formed as the result of negative interaction between the charge and refractory lining. The biggest part of the project came with the replacement of the charging equipment - this will prevent skull formation on the blast furnace in future. A double-bell distributor with a calibration device was also installed in the blast furnace - a first for the plant. This will reduce coke consumption equivalent to around 25 kg per tonne of hot metal.
