Immersion Pyrometry and Open Hearth Furnace Productivity

The use of platinum thermocouples to measure molten steel temperatures has been well established for many years, and normal steelmaking practice involves the control of tapping temperatures by this means. But in the new melting shop at the Ravenscraig works of Colvilles Limited the author has developed a method of controlling the whole open hearth process on the basis of temperature measurement at fixed intervals of time. The procedure he describes here results in a significant increase in productivity and reduction in cost per ton of steel.