LADLE TREATMENT METHOD FOR CAST IRON – CORED WIRE TREATMENT METHOD

During the 1980s the steel plants’ production needed the integration of elements such as additives and inoculants to improve the metal treatment process.

After a little while iron foundries themselves, producing nodular iron castings, identified the same necessity for ladle treatment of cast iron.

The state of the art regarding the ladle treatment methods though has developed over the years from the Sandwich ladle treatment method to the Tundish ladle treatment method and finally to the Cored wire treatment method.

CORED WIRE METHOD 

In the last few years the Cored wire treatment method has represented the latest innovation in terms of cast iron treatment processes. Such system distinguishes itself from previous methods because:

  • It guarantees bath homogeneity. Thanks to the feeding of a cored wire – containing the exact chemical composition – directly inside the ladle, the magnesium reaction happens repeatedly at the bottom of the ladle once ladle has been filled with liquid cast iron.
  • It ensures control on the alloy quantity inserted in the bath, keeping constant the amount of cored wire injected in the ladle.
  • It allows to monitor each treatment cycle thanks to an integrated automation – time and injection speed of the cored wire controlled by a dedicated software, storage of preconfigured settings of cored wire specifics and treatment specifics for treatments’ repeatability, storage of all treatment cycles for production traceability
  • It ensures the minimum impact of the fumes generated during treatment time thanks to a dedicated hood aspiration.
  • It allows the use over a long period of time of the same treatment ladle as it guarantees again high reproducibility of the treatment processes.

Up to today the Cored wire treatment method represents the most advanced, inexpensive and ecological system used for nodular cast iron production, compacted graphite iron production as well as the most complete system used for SPHEROIDIZATION, INOCULATION, PEARLITIZATION treatments.

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