Improvements in the production of steel in open hearth furnaces or top blown converters

摘要

Steel is produced in an open hearth furnace or a top blown converter by initially directing on to a charge of solid or molten ferrous scrap a flame fed by streams of gaseous carbonaceous fuel and preheated oxygen, the proportions of oxygen to fuel being adjusted for complete combustion in initial stages and refining in later stages as required. The oxygen is preferably preheated by using the lance described in Specification 1,003,514, wherein part of the fuel supplied through annulus 12 surrounding a water-cooled nose portion 11 is entrained on escaping through orifices 14, in an outwardly flared annular stream of oxygen passing through Venturi 16 and internally burnt.