Tehran International Conference on Refractories, 4-6 May 2004

ADVANCES IN MODERN REFRACTORY CASTABLES

Zhou Ningsheng1, Hu Shuhe1, Zhang Sanhua2 and Liu Jiehua2

1
High Temperature Materials Institute, Henan University of Science and Technology, China
2
Luoyang Institute of Refractories Research, China

Abstract: Recent developments in terms of binding system, new material system, installation method
and pre-cast shapes of refractory castables are introduced and discussed. In authors view, binding
system is advancing on the one hand towards purification to minimize impurity components from
binder materials, and on the other hand stabilization to minimize the structure destroy by
volatility and decomposition of binder materials. Challenges of higher service temperature, slag
resistance, clean steel production and better thermal shock resistance have promoted the booming
of new varieties of castables including MgO based, natural flake graphite containing and
non-oxides like Si3N4, AlON and SiAlON containing castables. Installation technique is developing
towards convenience, simplification and high efficiency. Advancement in installation and dry-out is
of an incentive to the boost of self-flow castables, shotcreting castables, infiltration casting, quick
dry-out castables and pre-cast shapes. Along with the increased adoption of pre-cast shapes of
castables, the boundary between shaped and unshaped is becoming vague.

1. INTRODUCTION

As well known, refractory castables are of the mainstay in monolithic refractories. The share of
monolithic refractories in whole refractories is growing worldwide, mainly attributing to the fact that
more and more brick-laid linings have been and can further be replaced by castables that possess a
variety of advantages over bricks, in terms of production cost, installation efficiency, safety, material
consumption, etc.. As a result of adoption of high quality and high performance raw materials, new
binders, ultra-fine powders and dispersing technology, efficient additives, optimized particle size
distribution in whole range, some non-oxides, advanced installation methods and strengthened R & D
work, the progress of monolithic refractories made in recent years in variety, property, installation and
application is very eye-catching, and can be well represented by a lot of achievements in castables.
Based on authors information and research work, this article highlights recent developments of
refractory castables in binding system, new material system, installation method and pre-cast shapes,
inserted with authors comments to foster the interest and attention of monolithic refractory workers.

2. ADVANCED BINDING AND MATRIX SYSTEM

2.1. Purification and Stabilization Directions in Binding System

To a great extent or even decisively, the workability, dry-out behavior and service performance of
castables depend on their binding system. For better properties and higher service performances to meet
tougher working conditions at high temperatures, binding system has to be improved. It can be
concluded that all efforts made are for the purposes of, on the one hand, purification to minimize
impurity components from binder materials, and on the other hand, stabilization to minimize the
destroy of structure by volatility and decomposition of the binder materials. This purification and
stabilization trend is presented by the fact that the old hydraulic binding by using big amount cement has
been surpassed, time-wise, by chemical, hydraulic + coagulating and coagulating binding, as illustrated
in Fig. 1 [1].
With these points in mind, it is understandable that efforts have been made to reduce the addition of
calcium aluminate cement (CAC)in castables in the Al2O3-SiO2 system, to minimize the unfavorable
influence of CaO. It is seen that since 1970s R & D work on monolithic refractories has been centered on
low cement (LC), ultralow cement (ULC) and non-cement (NC) castables, by using fine clay, ultrafine
oxides, hydratable alumina or sols together with dispersing and setting control technologies to reduce

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cement addition to enable castables with a CaO level 1.0-2.5% for LC, 0.2-1.0 for ULC and under 0.2%
for NC castables, as defined by ASTM criteria[2]. In the trinary system of Al2O3-SiO2-CaO, the
temperature for liquid to occur is considerably lower that in the binary system of Al2O3-SiO2, not to
mention the negative impact of other possible impurities like Fe2O3, TiO2, K2O and Na2O. In the latter
case, liquid may occur at even lower temperatures around 1300C, which is definitely harmful to hot
strength and refractoriness under load.

Bonding Mode Representative Castables and Binders Commence Time

- Conventional cement bonded castables 1920s

(Silicate cement, Low purity CA cement)
- Pure CA cement bonded castables 1960s
Hydraulic (CA cement with improved purity)
- High Purity CA cement bonded castables 1980s
(High purity CA cement + uf-Al2O3)
- - Al2O3 bonded castables 1980s
- Hydratable Al2O3 bonded castables 1990s

- Phosphate bonded castables 1950s 1960s

[H3PO4 or Al(H2PO4)3 + MgO or CA]
Chemical - Water glass bonded castables 1950s 1960s
[Na2OnSiO2 + Na2SiF6]
- Sulphate, chloride bonded castables 1960s
[Al2(SO4)3 + CA, MgCl2 or MgSO4]

- Polyphosphate bonded castables 1960s 1970s

Polymerization [Na5P3O10 or (NaPO3)6 + MgO, CaO or CA]
- Resin bonded castables 1980s
(Phenol resin, Novalac resin + Cross-linker)

Hydraulic+Coagulating - Lwo cement castables 1970s

( CA cement + Clay, CA cement + uf-SiO2)

- Clay bonded castables 1970s

(Ca-clay or Na-clay + CA)
- Untralow cement castables 1980s
Coagulating (uf-SiO2 + uf-Al2O3 + CA)
- Cement-free castables (non-cement castables) 1980s
(uf-SiO2, uf-Al2O3 + electrolyte, uf-SiO2 + MgO)
- Sol bonded castables 1980
(SiO2 sol, Al2O3 sol + electrolyte)

Fig. 1. Progress in binding system for refractory castables

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It has been reported [3, 4] that with respect to hot strength of castables in the Al2O3-SiO2 system, mullite
formation and mullite bonding are essential, for which CaO or CAC is unwelcome and should be
controlled as low as possible. For the castables in the alumina rich Al2O3-MgO system, used for steel
ladles, purging plugs, lances for injecting metallurgy process, etc., however, CAC is an adequate binder.
The CaO derived from CAC can react with Al2O3 to form CA6, a very refractory phase, decomposed and
melted at 1860C. While for this system, SiO2 must be strictly under control, as it can otherwise greatly
lower the hot strength [5]. For MgO based castables, a coagulating binding in the MgO-SiO2-H2O
system has been well known.
To meet the purification tendency, high purity binder materials for castables have been commercialized
by worldwide reputed companies, for example, microsilica by Elkem, high purity CAC by Lafarge,
reactive alumina untrafines and hydratable alumina by Alcoa and Alcan, chemical binders by
Zschimmer & Schwarz, etc. It is worth pointing out that it would be remiss not to connect the binding
system with specific material system and applications of the castables, but plagued into the argument
whether one being better than the other, like CAC against microsilica, irrespective of in which specific
system they are used.
Coagulating binding is becoming the state-of-the-art one drawing interests and attentions from
monolithic refractory workers and customers. Coagulating binding is caused by Van de Waals
attraction, in some cases also including hydrogen bond, between colloidal particles or superfines with or
close to colloidal dimensions, when they are forced to a close approach or contacting in a dense
solid-water suspension. Sol-gel binders and some super-fine oxide powders in a suspension can give rise
to this kind of binding, with the cooperation of proper retardative accelerator. It confers with such
advantages as (1) Impurity components introduced by coagulating binders are little or none, beneficial
to hot properties and hence leading to higher service temperature. (2) There is not so much hydraulic
product containing structural or compound water as in the case of using hydraulic binders. Reduced
volatility and decomposition is helpful to maintain the structure and strength when subjected to heating
up. (3) High specific surface area and reactiveness of the ultrafines will facilitate sintering and forming
appreciable binding strength. And (4) When well dispersed, the ultrafines can fill in finer avoids to
release the water that otherwise stays there, to reduce water demand and improve flowability and density
of the castables. Good example of using coagulating binding in non-cement castables is what is called
MgOSiO2H2O binding, produced by the interaction of amorphous microsilica, fine MgO and H2O to
form MgOSiO2H2O gel that can give a strong binding strength. During heating up, it dehydrates
mildly in a broad temperature range, with limited mass loss, which imparts the castables with a good
explosion resistance during the first heat-up[6]. Using MgOSiO2H2O coagulating binding brings
about such advantages as (1) Very limited compound water contained in its structure, and hence little
decomposition, making a fast drying-out without explosion possible; (2) It is possible to obviate
impurities from other binders, e.g. Na2O from water glass or sodium polyphosphate and CaO from CAC.
As temperature rises, the SiO2 can react with MgO to produce a high mp. phase forsterite (2MgOSiO2,
mp. 1890C); and (3) Flowability and density of the castables are excellent thanks to adoption of the
microsilica.
2.2. Advantage Matrix Concept
In addition to coarse aggregates, fine sized materials called matrix strongly determines the performance
of a castable, whatsoever rheology, strength, etc. are concerned. Advantage matrix concept has been
well adopted in making high performance castables. It means the chemical and mineralogical
components of a matrix are carefully designed and can be the same as or equivalent to those of the host
materials, without containing detrimental impurity components from the binders. The matrix materials
can react with each other and/or with the host materials to produce new favorable phases acting as
bonding phases, which are compatible with the host materials and enable the castable a high
performance. Examples are many, typically like mullite bonded castables using microsilica as binder
[4], spinel bonded MgO-Al2O3 castables using hydratable alumina as binder [7], CaO-free non-cement
castables using hydratable alumina as binder [8] and forsterite bonded MgO based castable using
MgO-SiO2-H2O binding [9].
We have compared the properties of the Al2O3-MgO ladle castables using CAC and hydratable alumina
respectively as the dominant binder. In the cement free system the improvement in refractoriness and
slag penetration resistance is obvious, as shown in Table 1 and Fig. 2.

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Table 1. Properties of the Al2O3-MgO ladle castables, cement containing vs. cement free
CAC bonded CAC free
110C24h 3.11 3.17
3
B. D., g/cm 1100C3h 3.07 3.10
1600C3h 2.91 3.03
1100C3h 0 +0.05
P.L.C., %
1600C3h +1.07 +0.84
110C24h 9.3 / 55.7 6.3 / 37.5
CMOR / CCS , MPa 1100C3h 15.0 / 69.2 11.9 / 70.6
1600C3h 31.9 / 125.6 22.9 / 92.5
R.U.L. 0.2MPa0.6% 1664.5 1700
Slag resistance Erosion index 100 75.8
Crucible, 1600C 3h Penetration index 100 Trace

To achieve not only excellent high temperature properties but also superior placement properties, Alcoa
put forward a Matrix Advantage System (MAS) concept and developed MAS products [10, 11]. MAS is
a package of fine materials, consisting of reactive alumina, reactive alumina/spinel, CAC, and
dispersing alumina. All these materials have been specifically optimized in particle size distribution
(PSD), morphology and chemistry for the needs of low moisture self-leveling cement bonded alumina
and alumina-spinel castables. Recently the same company has put forward Alcoa Integrated Matrix
(AIM) concept as a part of Alcoa Premixed Matrix concept and can offer commercial AIM products
made of aggregate fines, calcined, reactive and dispersing alumina for use in tabular alumina, spinel or
other high alumina aggregate containing castables [12].

(a) Cement bonded (b)Cement free

Fig. 1. Sections of the two types of castables after crucible slag test at 1600C for 3h

From above it can be seen that for a good behavior of a castable, focal point should be laid on the matrix
in which key materials and additives must be strictly under control, behind which know-hows
controlling PSD, dispersing, flowability, setting and phase assembly at elevated temperatures are of the
key.

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3. NEW CASTABLES BASED ON NEW MATERIAL SYSTEM

Weeding through the old to bring forth the new in castables is closely linked with the new requirements
from users. Enlarged application scope and tougher working conditions have laid new demands on
castables with higher service temperature, better resistance to aggressive basic slag attack, lower
contamination in steel and higher thermal and structural spalling resistance to ensure longer service
lives. Correspondingly, in recent years there have come out MgO based castables, natural flake graphite
containing castables, and non-oxide like Si3N4, AlON and Sialon containing castables, which have
drawn wide research interests.
3.1. MgO Based Castables
It is well known that basic refractories possess superior high refractoriness and resistance to basic slag
corrosion, and the most popular basic oxides used for basic refractories are MgO and CaO.
Nevertheless, due to hydration trouble, basic refractories have been over a long time produced and used
prevailingly as shaped products. As monolithics, if there are any, there are chemically bonded ramming
mixes, gunning mixes, coatings and mortars, having to use chemical binders to avoid hydration
problem. Since the success of the aforementioned MgO-SiO2-H2O binding system, non-chemically
bonded MgO based castables with MgO content usually exceeding 75%, including MgO rich,
MgO-Al2O3, MgO-Al2O3-Cr2O3, MgO-ZrO2, MgO-Al2O3-TiO2 and MgO-CaO systems. The direct or
indirect introduction of other components such as SiO2, Al2O3, Cr2O3, ZrO2 and TiO2 is for the purposes
of improving resistance to thermal shock and slag penetration, producing appropriate volume expansion
and promoting sintering [13-16]. As indicated by ref. [15], the thermal shock resistance of MgO-based
castable gets improved with increased zircon and alumina addition respectively. Appropriate addition of
zircon or alumina can improve the slag resistance of the castable. Ref. [16] revealed that adding TiO2
can promote the formation of MA-M2T solid solution in the MgO-Al2O3 castable, and TiO2 can facilitate
the sintering and lower the porosity of the castable.MgO-SiO2 and MgO-Al2O3-SiO2 self-flowing and
pumpable castables suitable for shotcreting have been developed recently [17,18]. Their slag resistance,
by rotary slag test using two kinds of steelmaking slag at 1650C respectively, in comparison with that
of a typical Al2O3-MgO ladle castable is shown in Fig. 3. Their formulations except the Al2O3-MgO
castable are given in Table 2[17] EL-1~4 were placed by self-flowing, while EL-5~7 by vibration. As
can be seen that some of the basic castables with proper additions of microsilica and reactive alumina
perform better than the Al2O3-MgO castable in the slag resistance, exhibiting a good potential of such
basic castables to be used as ladle lining especially in slag zone.
Free-CaO containing basic castable is a new challenge in new monolithic refractories, meaningful to
clean steel making. The real challenge is how to prevent the harsh hydration of CaO. In this respect,
some recent progress has been reported, e.g. (1) Surface carbonization treatment on MgO-CaO clinker
by a so called hydration and carbonization technology to build a thin layer (8-9 m) of CaCO3 on the
surface of the clinker grains, protecting the clinker from hydration, while without negative influence on
the physical properties of the MgO-CaO castable made of 44% such surface treated clinker containing
57% CaO grains in 5-2 mm and the rest being magnesia with 96% MgO [19]. (2) Surface complex
coating, using saturated solution of Al(H2PO4)3-H3PO4 or H2C2O4 solution of 0.5 mol/l as impregnating
solutions to react with the MgO-CaO on surface and then carbonized at 700-800C, the hydration
resistance of the clinker gets thus much improved. MgO-CaO castables with CaO content up to 30%
have been made without hydration problem by using such surface modified clinker, thanks to the
formation of waterproof coatings consisting of Ca3(PO4)2 and AlPO4 or CaC2O4 and CaCO3. Better
physical properties, slag resistance and desulphuration and dephosphorization effect than referenced
MgO castable have been confirmed [20].
The industrialization of such new techs of anti-hydration of CaO containing materials is in ardent
expectation.

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25
BOF slag: CaO/SiO2 = 4.58(wt)

Erosion depth, mm
20 18.05
13.63 12.84 13.07
15
11.11 10.23
9.51 9.96
10

0
EL-1 EL-2 EL-3 EL-4 EL-5 EL-6 EL-7 AM
Sample

25
EAF slag: CaO/SiO2 = 1.26 (wt)
20
Erosion depth, mm

15
9.99
10 7.09
6.10 6.06 6.27 5.67
4.16 4.21
5

0
EL-1 EL-2 EL-3 EL-4 EL-5 EL-6 EL-7 AM
Sample

Fig. 3. Slag resistance of the basic castables vs. the Al2O3-MgO castable by rotary slag test

Table 2. Formulation of the MgO based castables(%)

Label EL-1 EL-2 EL-3 EL-4 EL-5 EL-6 EL-7
q-value of Andreassen model 0.25 0.28
MS/RA volume ratio 100/080/2060/4040/60 100/067/3333/67

5-3mm 10 10 10 10 10 10 10
3-1mm 27 27 27 27 27 27 27
Fused MgO
1-0mm 25 25 25 25 27 27 27
44m 28 26.4 24.8 23.2 30 28.4 26.8
Microsilica 971U (MS) 10 8 6 4 6 4 2
Reactive Al2O3 CTC50 (RA) 0 3.6 7.2 10.8 0 3.6 7.2
Water (15.2 vol.%), wt% 5.32 5.25 5.16 5.09 5.19 5.12 5.04

3.2. Non-oxide Containing Castables

Al2O3-SiC-C castable for BF trough lining can probably be accounted as the earliest success of
non-oxide containing castables, with a history of almost 30 years. To introduce natural flake graphite

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into castables is however a recent ambition to challenge graphite containing, carbon bonded and shaped
refractories. This is another big challenge to enrich modern castables. To win the challenge, four
problems, viz. poor wettability with water, no bonding with oxides, segregation and oxidation of the
natural flake graphite in castables have to be successfully tackled. Among the attempting solutions, a
novel, practical and effective approach is so called micro-pellets of graphite [21]. By this approach,
Al2O3-SiC-C castables [21], Al2O3-MgO-C castables [22], MgO-C and MgO-Al2O3-C castables [23]
containing 5% or so natural flake graphite have been developed with properties competitive to the
carbon free castables, while striking improvement in slag penetration resistance. On the current status
and future prospects of carbon containing castables, ref. [24] has made a good review.
Introducing AlON and SiAlON into castables is a new attempt, aiming at improving slag resistance and
thermal shock resistance without causing carbon pick-up concern, when the castables are to be used in
direct contact with molten steel. A research [25] indicated that substitution of the Al2O3 by AlON in the
matrix portion of MgO-Al2O3 castables leads to remarkable improvement of corrosion and penetration
resistance when tested in reducing atmosphere, as shown in Fig. 4 [25]. In oxidizing atmosphere, the
improved slag resistance may be maintained by adding antioxidants, provided the AlON content in the
matrix does not exceed 50% of the total Al2O3. Such results may be attributed to the formation of
MgAlON spinel which has a poor wettability with the slag and can inhibit slag corrosion and
penetration. It is also found that adding AlON in Al2O3-MgO ladle castable is helpful in improving slag
resistance, when tested in a protective atmosphere by carbon embedding to protect the AlON from being
oxidized [26].

16

Penetration
Erosion
12
2
Area /cm

0
0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0
m (AlO N) / m (AlO N)+m (Al 2 O 3 )

Fig. 4. Corroded and penetrated areas of AlON containing castables after

crucible slag test in reducing atmosphere at 1600C for 3 h

A research [27] on iron oxide corrosion resistance of corundum castables containing nitrogen from
added silicon aluminum oxynitride (-Si4Al2O2N6) powder indicated that the resistance of the SiAlON
containing, preferably more than 15%, castable becomes better than that without SiAlON addition.
EPMA analysis revealed that the nitrogen-containing phases located in the matrix are favorable to
hinder the penetration of iron oxide melt.
Breakthrough to be made for carbon, AlON or SiAlON containing castables is to inhibit oxidation or
decomposition of the non-oxides at high temperatures.

4. DEVELOPMENT IN INSTALLATION AND DRY - OUT

Installation of castables is developing towards higher mechanization and higher efficiency, while
dry-out of the installed linings towards speedy or even dry-out free, all these being for the purposes of
labor saving, time saving and facility saving. This trend has led to a boost in self-flowing castables,

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pumpable castables, shotcreting castables, infiltration casting, fast dry-out castables and pre-cast shapes
of castables.
It has increasingly become aware of that the performance of a castable is implicated with installation,
curing and drying-out, and the implementation of these should be based on a scientific and reasonable
schedule. Researchers and engineers are therefore paying more attention to the rheological behavior and
thermal behavior of castables during placement, curing and heating-up, which are meaningful to making
optimized schedules for the castables to perform to their maximum capability.
4.1. Self-Flowing Castables
The advantages of using self-flowing castables are becoming obvious, and can be highlighted as (1)
They can flow, degas, level and densify under the effect of gravity and level difference, without
applying external force like poker vibrator or attached vibrator; (2) Smaller pore size and more uniform
pore size distribution, in comparison to vibration castables; (3) Adaptable to pumping and shotcreting to
increase installation efficiency and save labour; (4) Suitable for new lining or repairing complex
configurations, thin linings and spaces in which there are dense distributed anchors; and (5) Competitive
to vibration castables in properties. Hence, the application of self-flowing castables is increasing and the
scope is expanding to have reached for example BF troughs, safety and working linings of iron and steel
ladles, tundish safety linings, roofs, walls and protective linings of water-cooled pipes of heating
furnaces for steel rolling, linings with complicated shape or thin and narrow configurations and
repairing or re-lining on residual old linings, etc..
The conjecture or believe that self-flowing castables may not competitive with vibration castables in
properties is antiquated. Through optimization of PSD and matrix composition, self-flowing castables
can challenge vibration castables in same material system in terms of water demand, density, cold and
hot strengths, etc. In some cases, self-flowing castables can perform even better. Publications are many
to this point from Elkem, Alcoa, Larfage, etc..
4.2. Castables for Shotcreting
Refractory shotcreting originates from concrete industry in which installation by shotcreting has
practiced over some 50 years. Since 1890s, in refractories installations, this technique has also been
adopted. Demands on reduction or avoidance of dust, increasing working efficiency and reducing
rebound loss in gunning installations have added importance to this advanced installation technique.
The emersion of self-flowing castables promoted the boost of pumpable castables, double-piston
pumping technique provided technical support to material transportation during shotcreting, and flash
setting and rheology adjusting agents contributed to the effectiveness.
The purport of refractory shotcreting is to prepare a wet mixed mixture of refractory aggregates,
powders, binder, additive and water, namely a real castable, transport the castable by a pumping device
to the nozzle where flash setting agent solution may or may not inserted by compressed air, depending
on the rheology of the castable, then the mass is gunned to the target by compressed air, as schematically
shown in Fig. 5. Nowadays, gunning using cold materials has been shifted from slurry gunning, dry
gunning, semi-dry gunning to wet gunning, or shotcreting.
Due to the following advantages, this method has been applied in many countries, especially the labor
costly ones like in Japan, North America, Europe, Australia, etc., not only for making new linings but
also repairs in BFs, BF troughs, torpedo cars, iron and steel ladles, tundish, heating furnaces,
incinerators, cyclones of cement kiln system, etc..
1. Top size of the mix can go up to 8 mm, as large as in many self flowing or vibration castables;
2. Higher efficiency than manual operating installations;
3. Formless and long distance material transporting possible;
4. Dust free, leading to improved working environment;
5. Little rebound loss and reduced material waste;
Nevertheless, there remain some unsatisfactions. In some cases, it is found that physical properties of
shotcreted bodies are more or less inferior to vibrated castables [17, 18], which is probably implicated
with the entrapped air and the used accelerators.

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Wet mixed castable Setting accelerator

Hose Gunning
Hopper Pump Nozzle

Compressed air Target

Fig. 5. Schematic of shotcreting

4.3. Infiltration Placement

Infiltration casting is an innovative new monolithic placement technology. InfilCast is the trademark
for infiltration placement held by Alcoa. Infiltration casting consists of two parts, firstly a mold or a
space is filled with dry coarse ball shaped aggregates, e.g. Tabular Alumina or spinel balls to form a
skeleton. Then the voids in the skeleton are filled with a self-flowing fine grained castable with a top
size under 1 mm. The coarse portion accounts for 60%, and the fine portion 40%, with a water addition
about 9%, which can infiltrate into the voids to densify the whole body [12, 28]. This technology has
been applied in steel ladle bottom, e.g. in an EAF steel plant, the monolithic bottom of its 130 t ladle,
350 mm in thickness lined by using InfilCast, achieved a life of 862 heats including 3 repairs before it
was wrecked. The specific consumption was 0.16 kg castable/ t. steel [28]. 
4.4. Castables Adapting to Fast Heating-up
To curtail time for curing and drying-out, what castables usually need to develop strength and dewater,
some castables have to be able of being fast curing and heating-up. To reach this goal, following
approaches have been adopted with success, i.e. adding additives like Al powders or organic substances
that can react with water to yield H2 or N2 gas, adding organic fibers, adopting more coagulating or
chemical binders than hydraulic binders and PSD modification, all these are to produce fine channels
inside the castables to facilitate the escape of water vapor without destroying castable structure. For this
purpose, research interests are also given to the investigation on dewatering behavior of castables during
curing and heating-up.
4.5. Pre-Cast Shapes of Castables
As time is money, more and more customers prefer using pre-cast shapes of castables (PCSC) to on-site
casting, in order to shorten turndown time for installation, curing and drying-out, and consequently to
increase the circulation and utilization ratio of thermal equipment. Recent years have seen that increased
varieties of PCSC have been developed and used. The list can be very long, with the following listed
being popular ones, for e.g. BF troughs, tapping troughs of BOF or EAF, EAF roofs, purging plugs, well
blocks, impacting pads for ladles, tundish weirs and impacting blocks, burners, regenerating blocks,
outer lining of water-cooling pipes and abrasion resistant trail blocks for heating furnaces, etc. Good
results using PCSC have been achieved recently in ladle linings. For instance, in the steel plant of north
Chinas Benxi Iron and Steel Co., the barrel working lining of its 160 t refining ladle has adopted
pre-cast shapes of Al2O3-MgO castable, with upper thickness 150 mm and lower thickness 180 mm. A
life of around 130 heats without repair has been achieved, under the conditions of averaged tapping
temperature 1660-1720C, averaged holding time 80 min, and refining by RH(~10%), LF (~20%) and
AHF(~70%), better than brick or on-site casting linings.
Another example is found in ref. [29], achieved by Lafarge Refractories GmbH, Germany and
Stahlwerk Bous/Saar GmbH, where the disadvantages of the monolithic wear lining were eliminated by
using the so-called quasi-monolithic bottom set up with pre-cast and dried segments consisting of
alumina-spinel castable with top size 20 mm. They are put onto the bottom as a puzzle and spilled with
each other. The joints are cast with a self-flowing alumina-spinel castable with top size 7 mm. The joint
blocks can resist the mechanical erosion and adsorb the internal stress from the pre-cast segments. An

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average life of 542 heats was achieved with 19 repairs by casting with self-flowing alumina-spinel
castable, which led to cost savings of 32%. Smaller physical load on workers was also experienced.
4.6. More Attentions to Installation, Curing and Drying-Out
Whether castables can perform to the utmost of their capacities is greatly dependent of installation,
curing and drying-out, in particular the large and thick linings or pre-cast blocks made of dense and high
strength castables. During these processes physical and chemical changes will occur, To make clear and
understand the rheological and thermal behaviors during installation, curing and drying-out and the
connection with their binding system and compositions is meaningful to learning their behaviors and to
adopting adequate processing parameters, also helpful to the design and optimization of their properties.
As pointed out, the quality assurance is not just through the manufacturing process, but also through the
installation and dry-out as well [30].
A significant difference between unshaped and fired shaped refractories lies in that the latter, when as
received, have subjected to firing and stabilized physical and chemical properties, while the former are
merely a mixture of raw materials, and can only reach the designed properties via installation, curing,
drying-out and subjecting to service conditions for thermal reactions to happen. To avoid
out-of-controlling or accidents in the processes, in terms of setting time, green body strength, explosion,
strength development and volume stability, many conducted or on-going researches have investigated
into such things as flow and flow decay with time elapse, setting and hardening time, dewatering,
compounding and decomposing reactions, strength development, volume change, microstructure
evolution, etc. The stories can be traced out in proceedings of the biannual Unified International
Technical Conference on Refractories (UNITECR), since 1989.

5. THE TREND OF SHAPED MONOLITHICS

As mentioned before, increasing adoption of PCSC has become a new trend worth of attention and
further efforts. To understand this, the following points are worth of bearing in mind.
 Pre-cast shapes can, in many cases, used as alternatives of bricks or castables to simplify the
installation. In-plant mixing, casting or ramming and related facilities can thus be saved.
2. As casing, curing, drying and first heat-up have been carried out in manufacture under
controlled conditions, time can be saved for consumers to increase the circulation.
3. More user friendly, as lining with pre-cast shapes is independent of environmental and climate
conditions. Sometimes, in-plant casting under natural conditions in stove-like summer or
ice-cold winter is infeasible.
4. Complicated configurations or shapes and big (more than 10 t) or small (less than 1 kg) sizes of
castables can be fabricated by casting, which may otherwise hardly be made by pressing.
5. Top size in castables can be much larger than in bricks.
6. Less tough requirements on in-plant drying-out schedule.
This virtual trend of shaped monolithics brings good ways for refractory manufactures to insert added
values in the PCSC products and hopefully to obtain more profits rewardingly. By pre-casting, which, in
some way, can be taken as an additional shaping approach, more shaped refractories, more complicated
in shape, heavier in weight, larger in volume and possibly better in service performance, can be
produced. It can be said that more unshaped refractories are becoming shaped. The boundary between
shaped and unshaped refractories are getting vague. We therefore would like to make an appeal that
now and in the future Unshaped refractories should be called Monolithic refractories.

6. SUMMARY

To show the progress and prosperity of modern refractory castables, remarkable technical evolution,
trend and challenge, in terms of binding system, new material system, installation technique, the trend of
shaped monolithics, etc., are summarized and discussed in this article. Facts and discussions indicate
that binding system is advancing on the one hand towards purification to minimize impurity
components from binder materials, and on the other hand stabilization to minimize the structure
destroy by volatility and decomposition of binder materials. Challenges of higher service temperature,

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slag resistance, clean steel production and better thermal shock resistance have promoted the booming
of new varieties of castables including MgO based, natural flake graphite containing and non-oxides like
Si3N4, AlON and SiAlON containing castables. Installation technique is developing towards
convenience, simplification and high efficiency to be less man-power and time consuming.
Advancement in installation and dry-out is of an incentive to the boost of self-flow castables, quick
dry-out castables, shotcreting castables, infiltration casting and pre-cast shapes. Along with the
increased adoption of pre-cast shapes of castables, the watershed between shaped and unshaped is
becoming obscure.

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