The cored wire technology first appeared in the late 1970s. The cored wire technology with the main goal of adding calcium to steel has successfully gone through more than 30 years of history, from being unrecognized to unanimously respected. , From small-scale application to large-scale promotion, from refining, microalloying, alloying and modification of molten steel to desulfurization, spheroidization, inoculation and alloying of molten iron… a series of changes. The result of this change and development has not only revolutionized steelmaking production, but is also playing an increasingly important role in the casting of ductile iron, vermicular iron and gray iron:
1. In terms of steelmaking production. With the development of cored wire technology, many of the original functions of electric furnaces and converters have been abandoned and turned into “steel chemical” tools only for dephosphorization (if necessary) or decarburization, while Refining operations such as deoxidation, desulfurization, alloying, microalloying, and compositional fine-tuning are all performed outside the melting furnace by cored wire technology. Since the 1980s, the wire feeding machine has become the following formula and has been included in the equipment flow of the world’s major steel-producing countries including my country:
Electric Furnace → Refining Furnace → Wire Feeder → Die Casting Equipment
Electric Furnace → Refining Furnace → Wire Feeder → Continuous Casting Machine
Converter→refining furnace→wire feeder→continuous casting machine
2. In cast steel production. The use of cored wire technology to purify molten steel (deoxidation, desulfurization and modification), refine grains, and improve castability and machinability of steel has been recognized by more and more steel foundries including my country. In 2006 alone, Harbin Kedewei Metallurgical New Materials Co., Ltd. used cored wire technology for more than 10 steel foundries belonging to my country’s railway, metallurgy, shipbuilding, machinery, coal and other systems. Most steel foundries use the following equipment processes:
Electric Furnace→Wire Feeding Machine→Die Casting Equipment
Electric Furnace→LF Furnace→Wire Feeding Machine→Die Casting Equipment
3. In terms of cast iron production. There are more and more foundries using cored wire for hot metal desulfurization, spheroidization and inoculation, and the expansion speed is getting faster and faster. Take Germany, which first developed and applied cored wire technology to produce ductile iron, as an example. At the end of 1989, there was only one foundry in the country that used the cored wire method to produce ductile iron. By 2002, there were 56 factories (about 32% of the factory) replaced the original insertion method, pressure plus magnesium method, etc. with the cored wire process.
Summarize:
To produce the most and the best high-quality products at the lowest cost is the eternal goal pursued by steel mills and foundries all over the world. Practices including our country have proved that the cored wire technology is one of the simplest, most rapid and efficient technological means and measures to realize this wish in many aspects of molten steel and molten iron treatment in various countries in the world today.
