Application of Al-free deoxidizer in rail steel manufacture

Abstract

Because there are a lot of influences of alumina inclusions on the performance of rail steel, it is reasonable to adopt the deoxidization method with Al-free deoxidizer. According to the characteristics of Al-free deoxidization process, the control of aluminum content, the deoxidization with ladle furnace(LF) slag, the deoxidization process under vacuum by carbon, and the inclusions modification technology by calcium treatment were studied. All of them were applied to practical production. The results indicate that the adoption of Al-free deoxidization process leads to the total oxygen content in the steel below 20 ppm, which meets the requirement of clean rail steel.