Refractories and insulating materials

Refractory : Refractory materials may be defined as the materials which can withstand high temperature action in the
presence of corrosive fluids such as slags, gases, melts etc. and has high load bearing capacity, thermal shock, abrasion
resistance, remain unmelted and deformed free. Withstand: remain undamaged or unaffected by; resist
Slag is usually a mixture of metal oxides and silicon dioxide. However, slags can contain metal sulphides and elemental metals.
Abrasion resistance means an ability to withstand the wear and tear of friction caused by mechanical parts and instances of repetitive scraping or rubbing.

Characteristic properties of a good refractory

A good refractory should have the following characteristic properties:

i. It should be able to withstand high temperature to which it is liable to be exposed.

ii. it should have high resistance to corrosion by the slag produced in the furnace or by the environment to which the
refractory is to be exposed.
iii. It should have also high resistance to the cutting action of flue gases and flames.
iv. Contraction or expansion of the refractory material by the application of heat and pressure and withdrawal of heat
and pressure should not be sudden rather it should be uniform.
v. It should be able to withstand high pressure, which is to be put on it.
vi. It should be chemically stable under severe conditions of its environment.
vii. It should possess good thermal strength. Abrasion is a process of scraping or wearing down by friction.

viii. It should possess good resistance to abrasion. Permeability is a measure of the ease of passage of liquids or gases or specific
chemicals through the material. Permeability is determined by applying a head and
ix. It should have low permeability. determining the depth of penetration or the amount of liquid or gas passing through
the sample.
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 Classification of refractory

Refractories can be classified broadly into three classes: In chemistry, a silicic acid is any chemical compound containing
(i) Acid refractories, (ii) basic refractories, and (iii) Neutral refractories. the element silicon attached to oxide (=O) and hydroxyl ( OH)
groups
(i) Acid refractories: Acid refractories are composed of acidic materials(aluminium silicate, siliceous acid etc.) and are acidic in
nature. The materials that contain a high proportion of silica; e.g., silica refractories (greater than 92% SiO2 ) and siliceous
refractories (78% to 92% SiO2). These are not attacked by acid slag but basic materials attack them. Some examples of acid
refractories are fire clay bricks, silica bricks, high alumina bricks, corundum bricks, and mullite & sillimenite refractories.
Corundum is the crystalline form of aluminum oxide (Al2O3) and occurs naturally as an igneous and metamorphic mineral and is synthesized artificially by various
high-temperature techniques.
(ii) Basic refractories: Basic refractories are composed basic materials such as of magnesia or magnesium oxide and calcium
oxide etc. as the main component. These are not attacked by basic or neutral media but are attacked by acidic slags. The
common examples of basic refractories are bauxite bricks, magnesite bricks, dolomite bricks, zirconia bricks etc. These
contain large proportion of lime or magnesia or a mixture of these two bases or other metal oxides.

(iii) Neutral refractories: Neutral refractories are not attacked by slightly acidic or slightly basic media. These are used in areas
where slags and atmosphere are either acidic or basic and are chemically stable to both acids and bases. The examples of
such refractories are carbon bricks, graphite bricks, chromite bricks, silicon carbide bricks etc.

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 Some general properties of refractories
❑ Refractoriness: The main properties that a refractory materials possess is refractoriness. It may be defined as the capacity
of a materials to withstand heat at high temperature without deformation, softening or melting. Refractory materials
generally do not have sharp fusion temperature. This is because of the fact that refractory materials are mixtures of
various metallic oxides with some other substances. Therefore, it is a common practice to determine the softening
temperature, rather than fusion temperature.
❑ Softening temperature: Refractory materials are used in most of the industries to perform operations including
metallurgical operation at high temperature. A refractory material should be able to withstand high temperature and must
remain unaffected at that temperature where chemical process including severe corrosive reactions being carried out.
Therefore, a refractory material should possess very high softening temperature. The softening temperature of commonly
used refractory materials is in the range 1600-17000C. Porosity is the percentage of void space in a rock. It is defined as the ratio of the volume of the
voids or pore space divided by the total volume.
❑ Porosity: The important properties of refractory materials such as strength, heat capacity, thermal conductivity, chemical
inertness etc. are directly related to the porosity. The higher is the porosity of the refractory materials more easily the
molten fluxes and gases penetrate through it. Hence the chances of disintegration of the refractory materials enhances
with the increase of porosity. So, greater the porosity greater the susceptibility of the refractory material to chemical attact
by the molten fluxes, gases etc. Lower is the porosity, higher is the compactness of the refractories. So, the mechanical
strength, thermal conductivity, heat capacity and chemical inertness increase with the decrease of porosity of the
refractory material.
❑ Spalling: Spalling may be regarded as the cracking or flaking of refractory bricks because of uneven expansion or
contraction during heating or cooling. Sometimes refractory bricks when subjected to rapid heating or rapid cooling they
undergo flaking or disintegration if they are not properly manufactured. Refractory materials should be able to withstand
spalling. Refractories with highest expansion at a least uniform rate can better withstand spalling. The simple way to
minimize spalling is to heat the refractory material at high temperature and kept for sufficiently long time. At this a number
of processes (such as, mineral inversion) take place in them, which reduce the internal stresses. Page#03
 As a result, there are minimum possibilities of uneven expansion or contraction whey they are subjected to rapid
heating or rapid cooling respectively. Hence spalling can be decreased to a large extent by properly firing the
refractory. Spalling may be caused by the following factors:
(i) thermal agitation:- fluctuation of temperature over a wide range causes thermal agitation in refractory material.
(ii) mechanical cause :- Mechanical causes arise due to careless removal of slag and clinker and are responsible for
spalling.
(iii) structural factors :- Spalling is also cause by structural factors, which create zones of different strength and
expansion coefficients. The creation of zones of different composition and properties results from the reaction of
refractories with fluxes and slag.
❑ Thermal conductivity: Thermal conductivity of the refractory material decreases with the increase of porosity. This is
probably due to the creation of insulation by the entrapped air in the pores. Thus the thermal conductivity of least
porous bricks is highest. However, refractory of same degree of porosity does not have same conductivity. Depending
upon the purpose, sometimes refractory of high thermal conductivity and sometimes refractory of low thermal
conductivity is required. For example, in ordinary furnace the refractory block should have low thermal conductivity.
On the other hand, for the construction of muffle furnace refractory materials of high thermal conductivity are
required. Therefore, for specific purposes the choice of refractory materials is based on conductivity.
❑ Resistance to rapid temperature change: Refractory materials should be able to withstand sudden temperature
changes during the introduction of cold charge or sudden rush of cold air in empty furnace. The refractories having
low thermal expansion and coarse texture have been found to have greater resistance to rapid fluctuations in
temperature. Heating refractory at a very high temperature for a sufficiently long time increases the resistance to
rapid change in the temperature.
A muffle furnace or muffle oven (sometimes retort furnace in historical usage) is a furnace in which the subject material is isolated from the fuel and all of the
products of combustion, including gases and flying ash.

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 Manufacture of refractory
❖ Raw materials: The raw materials used for manufacturing different types of refractories are different. However, fire clay,
bauxite,(Al2O3.nSiO2.nH2O), Kyonite (Al2O3.SiO3), diaspore [AlO(OH)2], magnesite (MgCO3), dolomite (CaCO3+10MgCO3),
quartzite (SiO2), graphite, chromite (Cr2O3.Fe2O3), mica, silicon carbide(SiC) are used as refractory materials and molasses,
starch,saw dust, shellac, gum lime, bentonite, lime calcined gypsum, plastic clay etc. are used as binders.

The manufacturing process of refractories consists of following steps

❖ Calcination: Raw materials particularly the minerals are calcined first at a temperature ranging from 1200-1700OC.
Calcination removes volatile components reduces the strength of mineral thereby it makes the crushing operation easy.
❖ Crushing and grinding: The raw material obtained in the form of big lumps are crushed down to smaller size of the material.
The crushed materials are then ground to proper size in different types of grinding mills such as ball mills, roll mills, hammer
mills etc.
❖ Sizing: The ground materials are graded into coarse, medium and fine fractions with the help multideck sieves. Finer fractions
suitable for blending and mixing operation are passed to the magnetic separator. The coarse fractions are recycled to the
grinding mills for further grinding to the required fitness.
❖ Removal of undesirable impurities: The impurities from the finely ground raw materials are remove by magnetic,
electrostatic and froth flotation processes. This enriches the proportions of chromite, magnesite etc. in the refractories raw
material. Froth flotation is a physicochemical process that separates particles based on differences in surface wettability. Flotation takes place by passing finely dispersed air bubbles through
an aqueous suspension of particles.
❖ Blending and mixing: TO make the molding process easy and get the uniform products a thorough mixing of ground
materials is required. This is done in paddle mills, pug or pan mills etc. Proper blending and mixing produce homogeneous
batch ingredient. This will also provide lubricant during molding and operation and permit the bonding of the mass with
minimum voids.

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❖ Moulding: Moulding means giving shape to the refractories. The methods applied for giving shape to the refractories are
quite similar to those used for ceramic wares. The commonly used methods are soft mud process, stiff process, dry
pressing, and slip casting etc.
❖ Drying: To bring the plasticity 10-20% moisture is kept in the mixed raw materials. Before firing the shaped articles these
moistures are removed very slowly, so that no voids are left in the refractory and no cracks are produced during removal of
moister. The commonly used drying process are hot floor drying, tunnel drying and controlled humidity drying process.
❖ Firing or burning: Firing is the last step of the manufacturing refractories. The function of firing or burning are vitrification
and development of stable materials. During firing the following changes usually occur:
(i) water removed completely,
(ii) Calcinations of carbonate salts take place.
(iii) ferrous ion undergoes oxidation to brown coloured ferric ion and
(iv) Shrinkage in volume (up to 30%) takes place.
In case of large shrinkage internal stress may develop and cause cracking in the refractories. The larger shrinkage may be
avoided by appropriate sizing and pressing. For firing of refractories different types of kilns are used such as down draught
kilns, continuous chamber kilns, tunnel kilns etc.

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 Lubricant
The friction is a force between two surfaces that holds back the movement of a sliding or slipping object across each other.
The detrimental effects of friction can be specified as follows
1) It opposes the motion of the body
2) There is loss of power owing to work done against the friction
3) There may the loss of materials and
4) There is increase of temperature, which in turn have it own harmful effect.

Lubricants: Fluid which is introduced in between moving parts in order to reduce the friction, generated heat & wear and
tear of machine parts are called Lubricants. Wear and tear: the loss or damage that occurs to something in the course of normal use
Lubrication is the process of reducing the frictional resistance between two solid surfaces by using a third substance, which
takes interposition between the two solid surfaces and offers less resistance to the sliding surfaces.

Functions of lubricants :
1) Reduces the frictional resistance.
2) Reduces wear & tear, surface deformation
3) Acts as a coolant Coolant: a liquid or gas that is used to remove heat from something.
4) Provides protection against corrosion
5) Acts as a seal in some cases Sealing is the surface-to-surface joining technique of materials using a substance which usually is of a different type, and
which adheres to the surfaces of the two adherents to be joined, transferring the forces from one adherent to the other.
6) Improves the efficiency of the machine

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 Classification of lubricants
The substance, which is used to hold energy dissipation and surface wear to a minimum level in all different types of machines,
is known as lubricants. Depending on the physical states, lubricants may be classified into four classes.
1) Solid lubricants: The common example of solid lubricants are graphite, chalk, talc, mica, Teflon, soap, gold etc.
2) Semi-solid lubricants: The common examples of semi-solid lubricants are grease, Vaseline, foam etc.
3) Liquid lubricant: The examples of liquid lubricants are vegetable oil, mineral oil, animal oil, synthetic oil etc.
4) Gaseous lubricants: the common example of gaseous lubricant is air.
Preparation of grease
Grease is a semisolid lubricant. Grease generally consists of a soap emulsified with mineral or vegetable oil. Greases are
prepared by Saponification of fat with alkali followed by addition of hot lubricating oil with constant stirring. Consistency of
grease is governed by amount of oil added. Greases are generally prepared by dispersing jelling agents in lubricating oil, which
are generally petroleum fractions. The jelling agents are commonly employed soaps of Ca, Na, Li, Al, Ba, Pb, Mg and K. The
fatty acids used for jell preparation are oleic acid, stearic acid, palmitic acids etc. In grease the percentage of soap generally
veries from 7-18%. In special grease, such as thixiotropic jells, metallic soaps are used as the fibrils and structural elements. \
Advantages of grease or semi-solid lubricant:
1) Greases do not require much attention like oils and are more convenient in use.
2) Greases are capable of supporting greater load at lower speed due to their high shear resistance.
Disadvantage:
1) Greases show higher coefficient of friction than oils. For this reason greater amount of work is required for shearing the
lubricating oils. Therefore, wherever possible it is better to use oil instead of grease.
2) Grease cannot effectively dissipate heat like oil,. Grease lubricated bearing works at relatively higher temperature as
compared to oil lubricated bearings.
3) Grease on storage tends to decompose and separates oils and soap.
4) On constant use, oil in the greases volatilizes off because of higher temperature works. Page#08