To Hell and back... and back again
That’s where you go if you are unfortunate enough to be a piece of refractory material and heated to in excess of 1700°C!
To explain, Wikipedia defines refractories as: A refractory material is a material that retains its strength at high temperatures. ASTM C71 defines refractories as “
...non-metallic materials having those chemical and physical properties that make them
applicable for structures, or as components of systems, that are exposed to environments above 1,000°F (811 K; 538°C).” [1] 1 Source: Wikipedia
The VOICE paid a visit to LKAB Minerals Ltd to find out more about it and met up with Adele Redhead, the company’s marketing and communications manager and Simon Hallissey, the works manager for the Flixborough and Bagmoor Lane sites which are located on either side of Flixborough village near Scunthorpe. We naturally visited the Bagmoor Lane site where a brand new Volvo L90H loading shovel had just been delivered but more of the machine later. We were keen to find out about refractories and the process involved for recycling them. Starting out Simon Hallissey gave us some background to LKAB and the AB part of the name gave away the fact that the company emanates from Sweden. “In fact LKAB is one of the largest mineral extraction companies in Sweden operating the huge iron ore mines in Kiruna and is also a global company in mineral production. Here in the United Kingdom we operate from five sites strategically placed around the country where we supply refractories in bulk which is initially imported from around the world into our Flixborough facility,” explains Simon. “The majority of this material goes into the glass and steel industries with at least 75% being made up of Alumina (aluminium oxide) and magnesium oxide. Typically, refractory materials are used in linings for furnaces, kilns, incinerators, and reactors. They are also
used to make crucibles and moulds for casting glass and metals and today, the iron- and steel-industry uses approximately 70% of all refractories produced. Alumina 55, for example, which is one of our fast moving products will have a heat resistance in excess of 1700°C.” Whilst the Flixborough site is processing virgin
imported material the operation at Bagmoor Lane is somewhat different and unique in the sense that it is the largest refractories recycling facility in the country. “What we do here is receive a whole range of material which has been used at least once if not more times in the guise of linings for furnaces, kilns, crucibles etc. Our site at Richmond near Sheffield carries out the initial part of the process by separating the different grades and product as well as carrying out chemical testing to ascertain its integrity for further use,” continues Simon. “The material is then transported to us here at Bagmoor Lane and this is where the loading shovel comes in. Both the size of the machine and especially the size of the bucket are the key to handling the variety, weight and density of the materials arriving here on site ranging from Alumina 55, to slag coming from chrome metal production, which can have densities ranging from anywhere between 2.5 to 3.4m3 and are therefore extremely heavy. The L90H and 2.5m3 bucket combination is proving to be the best optimum solution for handling this type of diversity and
CONTINUED OVERLEAF a
Views of the stock yard with a variety of refractory products THE VOICE MAGAZINE No30 2017 47
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