Electroslag steel ingot is a secondary refining process, which is a comprehensive metallurgical casting process that combines secondary refining and directional solidification of molten steel. The principle is to use the resistance heat generated by the current passing through the slag as the heat source for smelting. Its main purpose is to purify metals and obtain clean, uniform, and compact steel ingots. The Electro-slag remelting steel has high purity, low sulfur content, few non-metallic inclusions, smooth, smooth, uniform and dense surface of steel ingot, and uniform metallographic structure and chemical composition. The mechanical properties of electroslag steel as cast can reach or exceed the indicators of forgings of the same steel grade.
Electroslag ingots are generally more expensive than electric furnace ingots, because electroslag ingots are Electro-slag remelting steel, which needs to be melted twice as the name implies. This process is more complex than electric furnace steel and has much better performance than steel, including its purity. Its advantage is that non-metallic inclusions in steel are absorbed by slag. The smelting rate during Electro-slag remelting is generally 0.7~0.8 times of the mold diameter, and the diameter is in mm. The advantages of Electro-slag remelting are simple equipment, low investment and low production cost of Electro-slag remelting. The disadvantage of Electro-slag remelting is high energy consumption. At present, there is a high content of CaF2 in general slag, which causes environmental pollution during the remelting process. Therefore, it is necessary to install dust and fluorine removal devices.
The quality of electroslag ingot depends on the reasonable Electro-slag remelting process and equipment conditions.