The second week of June was time for UCAR Refractory System's to exhibit at the huge Metec conference in Düsseldorf, Germany. The experiences from participating at the last Metec in 2003 were very positive and the results from exhibiting this summer were even better. Many of you who read this Newsletter visited us in our booth and we would like to take this opportunity to thank you. For those who didn't participate, here is a photo of our refractory section of the exhibit.

Several technical and commercial meetings were conducted in our booth, of which we would like to highlight one in particular; the photo below shows Mr. Ratan Jindal and his colleagues from Jindal Stainless Limited, New Delhi, India, just having signed an agreement to supply two furnace linings. These UCAR linings will replace the carbon block linings in two Ferro Chrome SAF's owned and operated by Jindal in the Kalinganagar, Orissa region. Jindal Stainless is part of the $5 billion Jindal conglomerate and prides itself on pioneering and exploring new technical ideas and opportunities to maintain its leading position among the Indian ferroalloy producers. This very successful company will actually be the first Indian ferroalloy producer taking advantage of the UCAR concept. Prior to the decision, Jindal visited South Africa to discuss the UCAR refractory concept with other operators. 80% of the FeCr producers in RSA are using the UCAR concept and materials, which has allowed them to increase their campaign lives considerably compared to those using conventional refractory technology. Participating in this Jindal project is also Düsseldorf based company SMS Demag.

Above photo shows agreement just made with Jindal Stainless Limited (from left to right we see Mr. Peter Sylvén and Mr. Peter Duncanson from UCAR Refractory Systems, Mr. Ratan Jindal, Mr. Tarun Khulbe, Mr P. S. Ghose, and Mr. Subhash Bansal).

The management for Corus Scunthorpe in England have decided to replace their existing UCAR hearth wall lining with a new UCAR lining for their Queen Anne blast furnace. The hearth wall linings in Scunthorpe will therefore continue to be 100% supplied from the UCAR plant in Lawrenceburg, Tennessee.

John Davidson, BF Manager Corus Scunthorpe 1982 to 2000, presented a paper at the European Iron Making Committee Meeting back in 1997. This was called "Scunthorpe's experience with hearth life at higher productivity and granular coal injection" and this synopsis is a good summary of what was made possible with the help of a UCAR hearth lining: "During the early 1980s Granular Coal Injection, together with increasing amounts of oxygen injection resulted in increased productivity, but also increased hearth wear, on the Scunthorpe furnaces. Campaign lengths, already quite short @ circa 7 years, deteriorated dramatically, contributing to hearth breakouts at Q Victoria in 1984 and Q Bess in 1985. Output rates had increased steadily from 1.5tm3/day to 2.3tm3/day, but beyond this wear rates were exponential, with regular hearth flooding, giving tight furnaces, slipping burdens and heavy tuyere losses. Following visits to Japan, Europe, Canada and USA, a progressive change to the North American "thin wall", Hot-Pressed™ brick construction/design was made. This resulted in dramatic increases in hearth volume which gave > 15% increase in useful volume and an actual increase in productivity of over 5% without slipping, tight furnaces, or increased tuyere losses. Since that time all four Scunthorpe furnaces have been changed to these designs/materials. No breakouts have occurred since, hearth sidewall problems are a thing of the past, productivity to 2.9tm3/day together with GCI to over 190 kgs/thm and 10% oxygen injection has been enabled without tight furnaces or heavy tuyere losses."

Mr. Davidson wrote this in 1997; today, 10 years later, it is still true! UCAR provides the proven hearth lining! Please contact us if you would like a full copy of this paper.

Furnace data Queen Anne Blast furnace:

• Hearth diameter: 9.0m
• Working volume: 1629
• Number of tapholes: 2
• Hearth cooling: Water spray
• Design productivity: 2.6 t/m3/24h
• Annual Capacity: 1.5 million tonnes
• Blow in: 2008

When asked why Corus keeps using UCAR Hot- Pressed™ bricks for the hearth walls of all four blast furnaces, one campaign after another, Iron Works Director, Mr. Dave Collins replies, "We use them because they are tried and tested suitable for the Scunthorpe operating philosophy and provide certainty throughout the campaign".

The XXXVII Ironmaking and Raw Materials Seminar will be conducted in Bahia, Brazil on September 18-21. UCAR has been invited to present a paper that introduces a financial model for investing in hearth technology. The paper is written by UCAR Refractory Systems' General Manager Peter Duncanson and Marketing Director Peter Sylvén. The blast furnace operators looking to meet aggressive growth targets can, with the model described in the paper, conclude that a small initial savings obtained by purchasing a conventional refractory hearth lining is more than offset over time. The model enables operators to predict the full value of their hearth refractory lining investment. For a copy of the paper and the financial Excel sheet, please contact us.

Pirson Refractories, the European installation experts, and UCAR Refractory Systems offer all iron makers a unique possibility in case of lining emergencies:

• 1st assessment within 24 hours after being contacted
• Engineering starting within 24 hours
• Repair scenario utilizing UCAR carbon and graphite material fully available within 48 hours!

For further information about this offer call or email 24 hours a day, 365 days of the year: Phone: +31 (0) 251 27 24 12 Email: smartrepair@pirsonholland.nl