Abstract: A process for inhibiting grain growth in the production of a single oriented continuously cast silicon steel strip with high magnetic characteristics, including the steps of continuously casting a silicon steel strip; solubilizing iron sulfide in the silicon steel strip by uniformly heating the strip to a temperature between 1050.degree. and 1250.degree. C; slowly cooling the silicon steel strip to a temperature below 500.degree. C to precipitate dissolved sulfur as manganese sulfide; and hot-rolling the continuously cast silicon steel strip at a temperature over 1300.degree. C.

Abstract: Coke is produced with high yield and low sulfur by heating and drying ground coking coal at 200.degree. to 300.degree. C. for 15 to 120 minutes in air, and then heating in two semicoking stages in nitrogen in fluidized bed reactors. The first semicoking stage is 400.degree. to 600.degree. C. for 10 to 60 minutes while the second is 800.degree. to 1,100.degree. C. for 10 to 60 minutes. Tar is condensed from the offgases of the first semicoking stage and the residual gas is divided and 15 to 95% recycled to the first semicoking reactor. Similarly, 15 to 95% of the offgases from the second semicoking reactor is recycled. The condensed tar is fed to the final coke-forming operation.

Abstract: Coke is produced with high yield and low sulfur by heating and drying ground coking coal at 200.degree. to 300.degree. C. for 15 to 120 minutes in air, and then heating in three semicoking stages in fluidized bed reactors. The first semicoking stage is 300.degree. to 470.degree. C. for 10 to 20 minutes; the second is 400.degree. to 600.degree. C. for 10 to 20 minutes; while the third is 800.degree. to 1100.degree. C. for 10 to 20 minutes. Tar is condensed from the offgases of the first two semicoking stages and the residual gas from each is divided and 60 to 80% recycled as fluidizing gas to the same semicoking reactor. 10 to 20% of the offgases from the third semicoking stage is recycled to the third stage as fluidizing gas. In addition, oxygen is used as make-up fluidizing gas in each of the three stages, in the amount of 10 to 30 liters per kilogram of dry coal in the first stage, 5 to 20 liters per kilogram of dry coal in the second stage, and 40 to 100 liters per kilogram of dry coal in the third stage.

Abstract: A hot-top for the production of ingots using an electroslag remelting process, comprises a ceramic hot-top having non-consumable electrodes embedded in the radially inner side walls thereof, the exposed surfaces of the electrodes comprising 5 to 50% of the total area of the hot-top inner surface. The electrodes extend parallel to the axis of the hot-top, from the top edge of the hot-top down at least 50% of the height thereof, and may be graphite or hollow water-cooled metal electrodes. In use, the electrodes contact not only the molten metal but also its superposed layer of slag.

Abstract: Unkilled steel is transferred, substantially without slag, from the refining reactor to a degassing reactor. The pressure in the degassing reactor is reduced to not more than 200 mm. Hg, and calcium carbide is added in a quantity such that calcium added is from 1 to 2 kg. per ton of steel. A vacuum is maintained for 10 to 20 minutes and then released. Preferably, the calcium carbide additive contains 5 to 25% by weight of calcium fluoride.

Abstract: A reducing gas high in H.sub.2 plus CO and low in H.sub.2 O plus CO.sub.2, and therefore suitable for steelmaking, is produced from hydrocarbons, e.g. methane, in a two-stage process. In the first stage, the hydrocarbon is partially combusted with oxygen the oxygen-hydrocarbon molar ratio being in the range 0.60 to 0.75. In the second stage, sufficient hydrocarbon is added to the off gas from the first stage, to raise the ratio of hydrocarbon (unoxidized hydrocarbon from the first stage plus added hydrocarbon in the second stage) to the sum of H.sub.2 O plus CO.sub.2, to the range 0.8-1.0, while bringing the oxygen to total hydrocarbon ratio (that introduced into the first stage plus that added in the second stage) to about 0.5. The second stage is an adiabatic catalytic conversion, preferably through two successive beds, the first of porous magnesia or alumina, and the second of nickel oxide catalyst supported on porous alumina or magnesia. The off gases from the second stage contain no more than 3.

Abstract: Large steel ingots are produced without pipe and blow holes and with minimum segregation, by teeming the steel into an ingot mold having a hot top that tapers upwardly and whose open upper end is largely filled by an electrode that is spaced from the steel by an electrically conductive slag. During a first stage, current is passed from the electrode through the slag to the steel at a rate to keep the slag and the steel in the upper end of the mold molten. During a second stage, the current is increased and the electrode consumed to restore the liquid level that has fallen due to contraction upon solidification, the electrode having a lower content in segregating elements than the steel. During a third stage, the current and the metal addition are reduced until the ingot is completely solidified.

Abstract: In the production of formed coke, the temperatures and times of the oxidation and carbonization phases can be reduced if 5 to 12% by volume of oxygen is included in the fluidizing gas in a fluidized bed reactor in which the carbonization phase is conducted.

Abstract: A process for the production of oriented-grain high magnetic permeability steel sheet including the steps of continuously casting a steel slab haing a weight % composition within the range of 2.5-3.5 Si, 0.01-0.04 S, less than 0.07 C, less than 0.15 Mn, and an acid-soluble aluminum in an amount between 0.01 and 0.05, at a feed rate ranging from 700 to 1000 kg/minute, into an ingot mold of a length over 1200 mm and cooling it in said ingot mold with a quantity of water ranging from 2.8 to 4 m.sup.3 per ton of steel; heating the slab so obtained to 1300.degree.-1400.degree. C and immediately thereafter hot-rolling it to a thickness in the range between 2 and 3.1 mm, annealing the strip so obtained at a temperature in the range between 1050.degree. and 1150.degree. C, keeping it at this temperature for a duration between 5 and 30 seconds; cooling it at any desired cooling rate to 750.degree.-850.degree.

Abstract: A continuous metallurgical process such as electroslag refining or continuous casting is continuously monitored by surrounding the area of the melt with a hollow sleeve that contains a continuous helical passageway through which a coolant is continuously passed. The temperature of the coolant is continuously monitored at a plurality of points spaced apart axially of the sleeve, thereby to determine not the temperature of the adjacent metal or slag, but rather the quantity of heat transmitted by that adjacent metal or slag. In this way, the location of the solid metal, the molten metal and the slag, as well as other useful parameters, can be continuously monitored.

Abstract: Iron ore is reduced in a multiple fluid bed reactor, the beds being vertically superposed in a tower and the ore passing by gravity downwardly from bed to bed. The lowermost and all superposed beds are fluidized by off gases from which carbon dioxide and water have been stripped; while a further portion of the fluidizing and reducing gas is provided by combusting methane with a substoichiometric quantity of oxygen and introducing the combustion products into an intermediate level of the column.

Abstract: A process for the two-stage reduction of iron ore in a rotary kiln, which is an improvement on U.S. Pat. No. 3,833,355. A layer of reducing agent such as coke is held against the side wall of a reactor that rotates about its vertical axis, by centrifugal force and its own friction. The next inner layer is a layer of iron ore. The improvement over the earlier patent is that reduction is conducted in two stages comprising a first relatively low temperature stage of 1 to 4 hours at 700.degree. to 1100.degree.C., which does not melt the ore, and a second relatively high temperature stage of 0.5 to 1.5 hours at 1450.degree. to 1550.degree.C., with removal of the reduced carburized liquid iron from the bottom of the reactor during the second stage.

Abstract: A plate for fluid bed reactors to insure uniform distribution of the fluidizing gas, comprises a pair of spaced opposed plates having holes therethrough, the holes in one plate being staggered relative to those of the other plate. The peripheral holes are larger than the central holes. The holes in the upper plate have upper frusto-conical parts and lower cylindrical parts, while the holes in the lower plate have upper cylindrical parts and lower frusto-conical parts. The plates have central holes closed by frusto-conical plugs operable from outside the associated apparatus to discharge material from the plate.

Abstract: A compound meltable electrode for manufacturing metal articles by remelting under electroslag, consisting of a first solid metal meltable element, a second meltable element consisting of at least one of the substances selected from the group comprising metal powder, a binder, and slag, and a third metal meltable element containing and reinforcing said meltable layer.

Abstract: A probe insertable in exhaust gases from steelmaking comprises a partitioned tube with an exposed forward portion that contains a pair of spaced thermometric elements. Heat transfer fluid moves across first one and then the other element, and the difference in recorded temperatures indicates the heat transferred to the fluid. Abrasive particles are intermittently projected against the exposed portion to clean off the deposits from the exhaust gases.

Abstract: A self sintering compound tubular electrode suitable particularly for making metal articles by supply of metal with an electroslag process, consisting of a plurality of concentric walls, each pair of said concentric walls defining an annular cavity containing in the melting zone of the electrode a layer of sintered metal powder, and above said sintered layer, a second layer of powder not yet sintered.

Abstract: Apparatus for cooling welds obtained by high heat input processes by the combined use of water and of gas, wherein the cooling water is brought into contact with the hot weld in a restricted zone located immediately under the molten bath, said zone having a ratio of its dimension transverse to the weld seam and the dimension parallel thereto, comprised between 10:1 and 1:1; and wherein the generated steam and the non evaporated water are immediately removed from the weld.

Abstract: A device for plugging the taphole in reactors for metallurgical processes in which the plug includes: a solid element, made of refractory material, which expands in a substantially cylindrical head having a diameter greater than that of the tap-hole, and applied to the solid element, and O-ring packing made of a material consisting essentially of a mixture of a refractory material in powder form and of a binder, said material being cold coherent, plastically deformable for increasing values of the temperature within the limits of the thermal interval within which the mixture sets, and becoming indeformable for values of the temperature higher than the said thermal setting interval, but lower than the operating temperature of the reactor, after a period of exposure to the operative conditions longer than the time necessary for installing the plug.

Abstract: An immersible probe for determining the oxygen content of a steel bath, having a disposable tip that contains aluminum, calcium, magnesium, titanium, zirconium or a rare earth metal that reacts exothermically with the bath oxygen to cause a temperature rise whose magnitude is proportional to bath oxygen content. In preferred embodiments, the probe tip captures a predetermined volume of the molten metal in a chamber having a closure of the metal of the bath which accordingly melts and exposes the chamber when the probe tip has penetrated beneath the slag. Plural chambers, one with oxidizable metal and one without, may be provided for precise comparison.