Page 1 - History of Sintering
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Page 1 - History of Sintering
Page
1 - Sintering Today
Page
2 - Preparation
of materials for sintering
Page
3 - Process of
sintering in Blast Furnace
Page 3 - Benefits
of sintering
Traditional iron plants used iron ore, coal, limestone (CaCO3), and oxygen or air to produce iron.
As supplies of the best natural ores (ores that do not require beneficiation) dwindled, the chemistry and physics of iron making in the blast furnace were becoming better understood.
By the time the industry was forced to turn to much lower grade ores, which had to be finely ground, beneficiated, and reconstituted as pellets, increased productivity in the blast furnace had more than redressed the balance.
Sintering is a process used to agglomerate iron ore fines in preparation for blast furnace smelting, and is usually carried out at iron and steel making centres.
Today, the production records belong to sintered ores (partially agglomerated ores strong enough to permit efficient gas flow in the blast furnace).
Modern sinter plants are capable of producing up to 25,000 tons per day. Sintering machines are usually measured by hearth area; the biggest machines are 5 meters (16 feet) wide by 120 meters long, and the effective hearth area is 600 square meters (6,500 square feet).
This is an image of the raw materials entering the Sinter Plant through a conveyor belt.
The inset shows the actual Sinter Plant