<p>The present work was to study the role of ladle glaze as apotential supplier of inclusions to the steel melt during theladle refining process. In this study, the total number ofinclusions at the beginning and at the end of the ladletreatment process was found to be increasing with ladle age,which is the number of heats, the ladle being used. Asubstantial increase in inclusion population was noticed aftera certain ladle age.</p><p>Totally four types of inclusions named as; type-1 (MgO),type-2 (spinel), type-3 (an oxide solution) and type-4 (spinelin the center surrounded by the oxide solution of type-3) wereobserved in the beginning of the ladle refining process.Thermodynamic calculation revealed that the type-3 and type-4inclusions were generated by the reactions between EAF slag andladle glaze. Even a part of inclusions of type-2 (spinel phase)could be formed by these reactions. Three types of inclusionswere found before casting, viz. type-5 (oxide solution with lowcontents of MgO and SiO2), type-6 (small MgO islands embeddedin an oxide solution) and type-7 (spinel in the centersurrounded by the oxide solution of type-5). Inclusions of bothtype-5 and type-7 were the products of the reaction betweeninclusions of type-2 and the liquid metal. On the other hand,the occurrence of pieces of MgO having sharp edges in the oxidesolution suggested that the type-6 inclusions were generated bythe ladle glaze.</p><p>A preliminary examination on the possibility of inclusionseparation by bubble floatation, experiments using cold modelswere also carried out. De-ionised water and silicon oil wereused as the bulk phase. Charcoal particles of different sizeranges were employed as the dispersed phase. The examination ofcharcoal-water-gas system indicated that the positivefloatation coefficient is not a sufficient condition for theinclusion separation. The experimental results were found to bein contradiction with the prediction of a typical model thatconsiders interfacial energies. The omitting of the drag forcewas believed to be the reason causing the failure of the modelprediction in the charcoal-water-gas system. The failure of themodel prediction suggested a need of a new model taking intoaccount interfacial energies, drag force, buoyancy force andgravity force.</p><p><b>Key words:</b>oxide inclusions, ladle metallurgy, ladleglaze, inclusion population, ladle age, interfacial tension,inclusion separation</p>

The present work was to study the role of ladle glaze as apotential supplier of inclusions to the steel melt during theladle refining process. In this study, the total number ofinclusions at the beginning and at the end of the ladletreatment process was found to be increasing with ladle age,which is the number of heats, the ladle being used. Asubstantial increase in inclusion population was noticed aftera certain ladle age. Totally four types of inclusions named as; type-1 (MgO),type-2 (spinel), type-3 (an oxide solution) and type-4 (spinelin the center surrounded by the oxide solution of type-3) wereobserved in the beginning of the ladle refining process.Thermodynamic calculation revealed that the type-3 and type-4inclusions were generated by the reactions between EAF slag andladle glaze. Even a part of inclusions of type-2 (spinel phase)could be formed by these reactions. Three types of inclusionswere found before casting, viz. type-5 (oxide solution with lowcontents of MgO and SiO2), type-6 (small MgO islands embeddedin an oxide solution) and type-7 (spinel in the centersurrounded by the oxide solution of type-5). Inclusions of bothtype-5 and type-7 were the products of the reaction betweeninclusions of type-2 and the liquid metal. On the other hand,the occurrence of pieces of MgO having sharp edges in the oxidesolution suggested that the type-6 inclusions were generated bythe ladle glaze. A preliminary examination on the possibility of inclusionseparation by bubble floatation, experiments using cold modelswere also carried out. De-ionised water and silicon oil wereused as the bulk phase. Charcoal particles of different sizeranges were employed as the dispersed phase. The examination ofcharcoal-water-gas system indicated that the positivefloatation coefficient is not a sufficient condition for theinclusion separation. The experimental results were found to bein contradiction with the prediction of a typical model thatconsiders interfacial energies. The omitting of the drag forcewas believed to be the reason causing the failure of the modelprediction in the charcoal-water-gas system. The failure of themodel prediction suggested a need of a new model taking intoaccount interfacial energies, drag force, buoyancy force andgravity force. <b>Key words:</b>oxide inclusions, ladle metallurgy, ladleglaze, inclusion population, ladle age, interfacial tension,inclusion separation / NR 20140805

The control of non-metallic inclusions is very important for the improvement of performance during the application of tool steel. This present study was performed to see the effect of changing of some process parameters during the vacuum degassing of the melt and how these changing parameters affects the characteristics of inclusions in tool steel. The main parameters that were changed during the vacuum degassing were the change of induction stirring, argon flow rate from both the plug 1 and 2 and different ladle ages for different heat. Electrolytic extraction method was used to observe the morphology and characteristics of inclusions as a 3 dimensional view in tool steel. Four lollipop samples from four different heats were used for the experiment and all the samples were after vacuum (AV) degassing. In this study four different types of inclusions were found and they are classified as type 1, 2, 3 and 4. Of them type 1 inclusion was the major one with mostly spherical shaped. This study shows that among the three parameters, induction stirring has the biggest effect for the total number of inclusions per volume in the sample than the other two parameters Heat 4A showed the lowest number of inclusions per volume comparing with the other heats. The main reason behind this can be said that the induction stirring was the lowest comparing with the other heats with moderate argon flow and ladle age of 12. Extreme value analysis was used in this study to predict the probability of getting largest size inclusions in a certain volume of the metal. For the prediction of the largest inclusion size, both the electrolytic extraction (3D) and cross-sectional (2D) method was used. Later in this study comparison was done to determine the accuracy of both the methods and it is concluded that for the type 1 inclusions electrolytic extraction method shows almost similar trend with cross-sectional method and electrolytic extraction method shows better accuracy for the prediction of largest size inclusions than the cross-sectional method. Electrolytic Extraction method is also applicable for the prediction of largest size inclusions for multiple types of inclusions.