Construction and Operation of the Open Hearth Furnace with a Brick Hearth

Steel makers have hoped since earlier years for operating the furnace always with a stabilized hearth. It has been dominantly considered that the magnesite stamp method is the best for the hearth construction of a basic open hearth furnace, but even the hearth which is made by this method is necessary to be repaired periodically in the later half period of one furnace campaign owing to the damage of a hearth. Now the author tried to construct them with bricks instead of stamped magnesite for the improvement in these failure and the results obtained were as follows;(1) The, following points which had been anxious problems in the past were improved:a) Penetration of molten steel through the clearance between bricks.b) Floating up of hearth bricks.c) The spalling of hearth bricks.(2) With this method, it was possible to continue the operation twice as long as magnesite stamped hearth.(3) By this method, it was possible to operate with lower cost than the magnesite stamp method.(4) The production was increased during one campaign because the hearth repairing hours had been shortened.