High-Temperature and Refractory Heat-Insulating Materials Developed at the Borovichi Refractory Kombinat Joint-Stock Co

Development of the national economy in Russia requires solution of a range of scientific and engineering problems aimed at rational and effective use of all energy and material reserves. According to an economic and engineering analysis carried out at the Teploproekt Research Institute (Moscow), in Europe the production of a $l-worth product unit requires 0.5 kg of equivalent fuel, in the U.S. 0.8 kg, and in Russia 1.4 kg. Production and rational use of effective high-temperature heat-insulating materials (HTIM) makes it possible to minimize the materials consumption of thermal power units (in particular, furnaces) by a factor of 9 - 11 and to reduce environmental heat losses and total fuel consumption in continuous furnaces by a factor of 10 - 15, and in batch-type furnaces, by 45% or even more. Development of steel-ladle metallurgy has required the use of advanced high-performance HTIM as well as the changeover from traditional refractories to periclase-carbon for the lining of steel-teeming ladles and to basic refractories for intermediate ladles with a heat conductivity higher by a factor of 2 - 6, which required a molten steel overheat by 50 - 100DGC during metallurgical processing. A research program was worked out and implemented at the BRK JSC with the objective of developing new high-temperature and refractory heat-insulating materials.