Features and Uses of Pig Iron

Sidhu sody
2 min readMar 15, 2017

--

Pig iron is the metallic ore that contains 90% of iron. Pig iron is used for making steel and pure iron units. It has very high carbon content along with silica and another constituent of dross. Pig iron made from smelting iron indulges with the high amount of carbon for further processing steps. When the metal is cool and hardened, the small ingots break into the runner and named as the pig iron. The process of smelting the iron has been used from the ancient time. In this article, I am going to share uses of the big iron:

· Traditionally, pig iron is used in finery forges, pudding furnaces, and steel. In this process, pig iron is melted and strong air is directed over. This helps to dissolve the impurities of iron. The intermediate product of puddling is known as fine metal and refined iron. Many pig iron manufacturers in India use this technique to make the finest steel in the forging process.

· Some pig iron types are suitable for producing ductile iron. Pig iron grades used for the production of ductile iron that may be low in element silicon, manganese, sulphur and phosphorus. Pig iron types are used to dilute all the elements in ductile iron which is a harmful process.

· Pig iron contains low residual, lower nitrogen steel, has a consistent chemistry, promote slag conditions and improve process control.

· Pig iron comes with certified analysis, consistent and uniform shape which is good for the recovery of carbon and silicon. It has lower melting point than a steel crap. A lower melting point combined the dense charge and steel charge make up. Pig iron manufacturers in India have set up charge make up to include the use of foundry grades or pig iron types. They are able to provide the variety of sources in finery forges.

· Being a hot metal, it is used to pour into steelmaking vessel to produce steel, electric arc furnace, induction furnace and basic oxygen furnace. Earlier, it was used for the stainless steel forging, finery forging, puddling furnace and open hearth furnace.

Quality Control for iron making process

The blast furnace for making the iron is highly instrumented and monitored continuously. The chemical content of the various iron received from mines are checked and blend with other iron ore to achieve the charge. The first and most obvious process is pit mining. Depleted mining sites are commonly used for landfills, then covered and landscaped. The process of extracting the iron from the ore produce great amount of poisonous and corrosive gases. These gases are scrubbed and recycled, but few portions of the gases are left into the atmosphere.

Scrap iron and steel in the form of old cars and appliances are also environmental concerns. Most of the material is recycled; however, steel scrap is still essential resources for steelmaking. The difference between pig iron and steel is quantity of carbon in pig iron, as compared to steel.

--

--