DOI 10.

1007/s11148-015-9823-3
Refractories and Industrial Ceramics Vol. 56, No. 3, September, 2015

PRODUCTION AND EQUIPMENT

ENGINEERING, MANUFACTURING, AND SERVICING

OF SHAPED AND UNSHAPED REFRACTORIES BASED ON
HIGHLY CONCENTRATED CERAMIC BINDING SUSPENSIONS1

Yu. E. Pivinskii,2,4 E. M Grishpun,3 and A. M. Gorokhovskii3

Translated from Novye Ogneupory, No. 5, pp. 29 – 39, May, 2015.

Original article submitted March 11, 2015.

An analysis is made of the many years of experience in designing and improving industrial technologies
which use quartz-glass HCBSs (highly concentrated ceramic binding suspensions) and high-alumina compos-
ite HCBSs to make shaped and unshaped refractories that are effective products for customers and sources of
profit for manufacturers. Long before the current boom in nanomaterials, HCBS-based technologies em-
ployed elements that are part of nanotechnologies now in widespread use and are responsible for the high
technical-economic efficiency of these materials. The volume of commercial production (CP) of the
refractories at the OAO “Dinur” jumped 55% from 2013 to 2014. CP volume in the first quarter of 2015 in-
creased by factors of 2.7 and 2.0 compared to the same periods in 2013 and 2014. Over three decades of use of
the above technologies, Dinur has produced roughly 180,000 tons of highly profitable refractories that in cur-
rent prices are worth about 12 billion rubles.
Keywords: HCBS, ceramic concretes, fused quartz, quartz ceramics and refractories, trough mixes, high-alu-
mina refractories, ramming mixes, commercial production (CP), nanoparticles, nanotechnologies.

In the 2007 publication [1], devoted to the 75th anniver-
sary of the Open JSC “Dinur,” it was noted that through no
fault of its own the company lost its near-monopoly on its
main product — dinas — during the 1990s when the intro-
duction of market reforms caused its dinas output to fall
5 – 6-fold. The drop in dinas production accelerated during
subsequent years early in the Twenty-First Century, and the
company’s current output of dinas is less than 10% of the
level reached in the 1980s. Such a precipitous decline in vol-
ume of orders for firm’s dinas products have led to a situa-
tion in which a single tunnel furnace is now used for this pur-
pose and the duration of the firing operation has doubled
(due to the light work load). Given this and the low volume
1 ARE BEING DIVERSIFIED
From the Proceedings of the International Conference of Refrac-
tory Specialists and Metallurgists (March 19 – 20, 2015, Mos-
cow).
2 OOO “NVF Kerambet-Ogneupor,” St. Petersburg, Russia.
3
OAO “Dinur,” Pervouralsk, Sverdlovsk Oblast, Russia.
4
pivinskiy@mail.ru
of orders, dinas production has obviously become unprofit-
able at the plant.
In light of these circumstances, the company realized
that in order to survive it had to extricate itself from this situ-
ation. The challenge it faced was to develop and successfully
introduce new technologies that allow it to manufacture prof-
itable products in large volumes. To a significant extent,
Dinur has managed to achieve these goals through the devel-
opment and mass production of various types of shaped and
unshaped refractories made on the basis of highly concen-
trated ceramic binding suspensions (HCBSs) [1 – 15].
ORIGINS OF THE NEW TECHNOLOGIES
AND THE DIRECTIONS IN WHICH THEY
Several publications of the last decade [1 – 5, 16, 17]
have offered detailed, step-by-step analyses of the chrono-
logical aspects of the research and development work that
led to the creation and practical success of the new branch of

245
1083-4877/15/05603-0245 © 2015 Springer Science+Business Media New York
246
Fig. 1. Launches of Zenith guided missiles of the C-300 class (a, b )
equipped with main antenna housings made of quartz glass (c).
silicate materiology (HCBSs and ceramic concretes). The
technologies that have been developed are founded on the
creation of technical ceramics which are based on quartz
glass and are referred to as quartz ceramics [2, 3, 18, 19].
The Cold War between our country and the United States
began after the Caribbean Crisis (a.k.a. the Cuban Missile
Crisis) in the 1960s. Thus, in connection with the ensuing
arms race and the exceptional importance of the military
problem of developing a new generation of rockets in the
former USSR, those years were marked by the beginning of
intensive R&D work on the invention of heat-resistant mate-
rials for making missile radomes. Glass-plastic radomes
were being used on the “low-speed” (maximum flight veloci-
ties between Mach 2 and Mach 3) missiles that existed at the
time. The development of missiles with a maximum velocity
between Mach 8 and Mach 9 would require the invention of
a radically new heat-resistant, thermally stable inorganic ma-
terial capable of withstanding aerodynamic heating to
1500 – 2000°C for several seconds. In light of the minimal
thermal expansion of quartz glass, it was thought that only
such a material could survive the extreme thermal shock that
the radome would experience during the flight of high-speed
missiles.
To make the semifinished products for the fabrication of
the new radomes, researchers developed a ceramics-based
technology to obtain products made of transparent quartz
glass. The technology entails the crushing and wet grinding
of glass with a low moisture content, slip casting, and firing
of the products under conditions that prevent the formation
of cristobalite in them [18, 19].
One unusual feature of the technology that was devel-
oped to make technical quartz ceramics was the high degree
of compaction of the material during the stage in which the
suspension was formed and the casting operation was carried
out (the porosity of the casting was 10 – 13%). Such low po-
rosity values were not obtained on semifinished products of
any materials during the years when the technology was be-
ing developed. Whereas most of the compaction of the ce-
ramic took place during sintering in the conventional tech-
nology, in the new technology researchers managed to shift
the main compaction process to the stages in which the sus-
pension is prepared and the material is shaped. This made it
possible for the first time to produce strong high-density ce-
ramics with a low sintering temperature and little shrinkage
Yu. E. Pivinskii, E. M Grishpun, and A. M. Gorokhovskii
[18, 19]. That in turn eliminated the undesirable effect of
having cristobalite form in the ceramic.
As regards the specific technology used to make ra-
domes, it turned out to be exceptionally important to be able
to attain the required values for porosity (<10%) and ultimate
flexural strength (40 – 50 MPa) at firing temperatures in the
range 1240 – 1260°C. The amount of shrinkage which oc-
curs in this case is no greater than 0.5 – 0.7% [2]. Thus, the
quartz ceramics that were invented in the 1960s proved to be
ideal for making semifinished products for missile radomes
and continue to be used today [2, 3, 20]. For example,
quartz-ceramic-based main antenna housings are used on the
Zenith guided missiles of the C-300 class (Fig. 1) that “pro-
tect not only the borders of Russia and the nations of the CIS
but many other countries as well” [2, p. 27].
One important feature of the castings made by the
above-described technology is their high mechanical
strength in the dry state, which was the main reason for clas-
sifying the initial suspension as ceramic binders or HCBSs. It
was subsequently shown to be possible to obtain similar sus-
pensions for other oxide- and silicate-based materials
[2, 3, 21]. The HCBSs or artificial ceramic binders that were
obtained in these cases [23, 24] showed themselves to be ef-
fective in the production of cement-free refractory concretes,
which are now referred to as ceramic concretes [25].
The survey [16] showed that in recent years many spe-
cialists in silicate materials science came to the realization
that the technologies developed as far back as the 1960s,
1970s, and 1980s to produce HCBS-based materials actually
included elements of different nanotechnologies. As early as
the second half of the 1960s, the authors of works on quartz
ceramic technology [18, 19] attributed the superior mechani-
cal strength of the castings (the binding properties of the sus-
pensions) to the notion that fused quartz and ultrafine parti-
cles of silica hydrosol, i.e. colloidal-sized (equivalent to
nanoscopic) particles were “activated” during their crushing
in silicic acid. Whereas silica-bearing binders (silica sols,
silicic acid, or ethyl silicate) were introduced into the suspen-
sions in all previous well-known studies of quartz ceramics
to increase the strength of the castings, in HCBS technology
immeasurably more effective binders are synthesized di-
rectly during the wet grinding operation thanks to the limit-
ing concentration of silica and the high temperature - which
help dissolve SiO2 [2, 5, 16, 21]. The HCBS production pro-
cess is accompanied by the formation of not only a certain
amount of silicic acid but also ultrafine (<0.3 mm) silica par-
ticles that are created by the process of dispersion and are
collectively referred to as the “colloidal component” [21].
During the earlier period of research, there was no SI mea-
surement system and thus no nanometers or nano-
technologies. However, the initial technologies that were de-
veloped during and after this period may have in fact con-
tained certain elements of the nanotechnologies that are now
viewed as the foundation for the creation of ceramic binders
or HCBSs. Regardless of the type of raw material (silica,
Engineering, Manufacturing, and Servicing of Shaped and Unshaped Refractories
alumosilicates, oxides and mixtures of oxides, and silicate
glasses) used to obtain HCBSs, their binding properties are
mainly determined not based on weight but on the concentra-
tion of the ultrafine particles (nanoparticles) that contribute
importantly to the total specific surface of the solid phase.
These particles undergo run-in during wet grinding and sub-
sequent stabilization when the concentration in the system is
at the limiting value [2, 5, 16].
The history of development of the technologies used to
make HCBS-based materials over the last 50 years shows
that each stage in this process was accompanied by the cre-
ation of important inventions and the realization of corre-
sponding technical-economic innovations. For example, in
order to elevate the state of the technology from technical
quartz ceramics (which are very expensive as materials and
products for missile and space applications) to refractories
which have a similar chemical composition and the same
high heat resistance, it was necessary to solve the problem of
ramping up production a thousand-fold while reducing the
cost of the materials a hundred-fold [2, 5]. How could this
problem be solved in a way that would make it possible to
create refractories which would be able to survive for more
than 40 years in the ultra-competitive market for such mate-
rials?
Based on the principle of reasonable adequacy, the re-
quirements on the purity (impurity content) of the raw mate-
rial were made less rigorous while still remaining within ac-
ceptable limits; industry also developed and introduced a
fundamentally new plasma reactor to obtain fused quartz
(Fig. 2), which lowered the cost of the raw material
50 – 100-fold. Ball mills having a working volume between
20 and 30 times greater than previous mills were designed,
built, and successfully introduced. The fused-quartz lining
that had been used on such mills was replaced by a high-alu-
mina lining, which increased the number of grinding opera-
tions that could be performed on each lining from 10 – 12 to
500 – 600. The transparent quartz-glass grinding balls were
replaced by high-alumina balls, which are 10 times cheaper
and triple the speed of the grinding operation. Thus, a
100-fold increase in productivity was realized for the HCBS
production stage. In addition, a basically new shaping
method was developed – centrifugal casting [27 – 28]. Cen-
trifugal casting shortened the shaping operation from 20 h to
20 min and increased the service life of the molds by a factor
of 1000. Refractories research subsequently led to the cre-
ation of ceramic-concrete technology, which made it possible
to reduce HCBS consumption by almost half. This develop-
ment not only lowered the cost of ceramic concretes but also
lengthened their service life [1, 2, 4, 5]. The amounts of en-
ergy expended on drying and firing were also reduced. The
technology underwent improvements over the entire 40-year
period and was described in [17, p. 63] as having surpassed
the technology employed to make missile radomes, which in
terms of its main parameters has remained “stuck” at the
level that was reached at the end of the 1970s.
247
Fig. 2. Block of fused quartz obtained in a plasma reactor.
Such important advances and innovations grew out of the
efforts that were made to invent shaped and unshaped
multifunctional ceramic concretes produced on the basis of
high-alumina HCBSs [1, 4, 9]. The volume of production of
these refractories at Dinur is now many times greater than
the output of quartz refractories. It should be mentioned that
the first attempts to produce ceramic concretes were made at
the Pervouralsk Dinas Plant (PDZ) as far back as the begin-
ning of the 1980s. Trial batches of dinas ceramic-concrete
blocks made at the PDZ and at the pilot plant of the Eastern
Institute of Refractories were successfully tested in soaking
pits at the Chelyabinsk Metallurgical Plant and Nizhniy Tagil
Metallurgical Plant (NTMK) [21, p. 249; 29, p. 213].
QUARTZ REFRACTORIES (QUARTZ CERAMICS)
The Podolsk Refractories Plant (PZOI) gained a
near-monopoly on the production of quartz refractories for
steel-casting in the USSR early in the 1970s [2, 3].
The Pervouralsk Dinas Plant began conducting commer-
cial trials on the production of quartz refractories in the
mid-1980s in response to a directive from the Ministry of
Ferrous Metallurgy of the USSR that concerned the fabrica-
tion of sleeves for the rollers of the tandem furnaces used at
the NLMK and the Cherepovets Metallurgical Combine
(CherMK) to heat-treat (anneal) special grades of sheet steel.
Imported refractories of the Masrock grade had previously
been used on these French-built furnaces. The high-precision
sleeves were significantly larger than the tubes and nozzles
employed in casting steel and ranged up to 1800 mm in
length, 230 mm in diameter, and 100 kg in weight. These di-
mensions made the technology used to fabricate the sleeves
much more complex, and attempts made by the PZOI to pro-
duce these sleeves proved unsuccessful. Attempts made by
the PDZ to produce the sleeves by the same technology that
the plant was then using to make quartz refractories also
failed.
At the beginning of these efforts, researchers started us-
ing a shaping method that was radically new for ceramics
and refractories – centrifugal casting in metal molds [27].
248
Fig. 3. Sleeves obtained on the basis of a fused-quartz HCBS by
centrifugal casting for use on the rollers of a furnace that heat-treats
special grades of sheet steel.
However, viable semifinished products with a porosity of
25 – 27% could not be obtained by the use (such as at the
PZOI) of suspensions with a relatively low concentration and
a density of 1.72 – 1.76 g/cm3. Sintering of such semifin-
ished products resulted in a rejection rate of 100% even with
the use of relatively low sintering temperatures. Intensive re-
search performed throughout the year 1986 failed to yield
even one usable product. However, the situation changed
dramatically at the end of 1986 after the Yu. E. Pivinskii
Laboratory at the All-Union Institute of Refractories (VIO)
and colleagues at the PDZ began work on introducing a tech-
nology for making quartz-glass HCBSs and subjecting the
resulting products to heat treatment (at 800 – 1000°C) or hy-
drothermal treatment in a steam autoclave [6]. The
roller-manufacturing problem in the USSR was already
solved by the end of 1987 (Fig. 3), with the new rollers now
being more durable than the imported products. The
larger-scale centrifugal casting of certain goods — submers-
ible rollers and protective tubes — was gradually mastered.
This manufacturing technology proved to be exceptionally
effective compared to large-scale casting in gypsum molds at
the PZOI: casting time was shortened by a factor of 50 – 70
and the service life of the molds was increased by a factor
ranging from one hundred to one thousand [1, 2, 4, 8].
Nonetheless, the production of quartz refractories at the
PZOI was not initially regarded as a promising venture, since
leading specialists at the VIO and the VPP “Soyuzogneupor”
(under the Ministry of Ferrous Metallurgy of the USSR) had
already planned out the future growth of the nation’s
refractories industry in the middle of the 1980s and made
projections for the period up to the year 2000. In keeping
with the worldwide trend at the time, those plans emphasized
the use of corundum-graphite refractories for continu-
ous-casting machines. The projections indicated that the use
of quartz refractories on continuous casters would decrease
Yu. E. Pivinskii, E. M Grishpun, and A. M. Gorokhovskii
to 10 – 20% by the end of the 1990s. The PDZ did not share
this view, and at the end of the 1980s it was still planning to
increase its production of quartz refractories. The output of
this product at the time was just 150 – 200 tons a year, but
the target that was chosen for the future was 5000 tons a year
by 1995. Despite the ambitiousness of this plan, it turned out
to be fairly realistic - although the target was reached in 2006
rather than 1995.
In connection with the difficult economic situation that
developed at the PDZ, the company’s output of quartz
refractories relative to the demand began to decline rapidly
during the first half of the 1990s. This occurred not only be-
cause of the need to make highly competitive goods (quartz
refractories were the factory’s main products at the time) but
also because of the increasing demand for this product from
the PDZ. The service properties of the quartz refractories
made by the PDZ were already markedly superior to the
same properties of the analogous products made by the PZOI
[1 – 4]. Ultimately, the factory could not compete and
stopped making quartz refractories at the beginning of the
2000s [2].
As regards quartz refractories for casting steel, the most
important advance in the 1990s was the development of a
technology for the centrifugal casting of refractories having a
ceramic-concrete structure [1 – 5, 28]. It became possible to
obtain a structure that was relatively uniform throughout the
thickness of the product and contained up to 50 – 60% of the
coarse fraction (0.1 – 2.0 mm). This medium-grained con-
crete is characterized by reduced porosity and a fine capillary
structure. At the same time, the cost of making this product
was decreased by introducing discharged material (wastes
generated in the centrifugal casting operation) during wet
grinding. Such a practice not only makes efficient use of fac-
tory wastes, but also significantly intensifies (by a factor of
1.5) the grinding operation and increases the density of the
suspension to 1.93 g/cm3.
Use of the technology just described in the production of
quartz refractories helps account not only for its substantial
economic benefits but also for the increased durability of the
products in service. The company Dinur now makes 100% of
its submersible nozzles and protective tubes under a licens-
ing agreement with the JSC “Karambet-Ogneupor” for the
use of ceramic-concrete technology. The last step in the
changeover of quartz refractory production to this technol-
ogy was completed in 2014, which resulted in a substantial
(by 89%) increase in the output of commercial products in
2014 compared to 2013 (Fig. 4). The specifications of the
technology for making and using quartz refractories have
been reported in numerous publications [1 – 6, 26 – 28].
The substantial and yet-to-be realized potential of quartz
refractories was illustrated by comments published in an arti-
cle that presented the results of factory trials conducted at the
NTMK in 1997 to compare the in-service performance of
quartz-based ceramic-concrete nozzles and similar corun-
dum-graphite products made by the company “Vezuvius”:
“The service life of direct-flow quartz nozzles reached
Engineering, Manufacturing, and Servicing of Shaped and Unshaped Refractories 249

7 – 8 heats, or 270 – 310 tons of steel, during the casting of

steel with a 0.8 – 1.0% manganese content on a four-strand
continuous caster. The service life obtained for blind nozzles
used on a two-strand caster was 6 – 8 heats, or
500 – 600 tons steel. The quartz nozzles were more durable
than the corundum-graphite nozzles when used to cast steel
deoxidized with aluminum [4, pp. 596 – 606].
A similar conclusion was reached in [15], which dis-
cussed comparison tests of quartz-based ceramic-concrete
protective tubes and similar corundum-graphite products
made by Vesuvius. These tests were performed at the NLMK
(Novolipetsk Metallurgical Combine) in 2004. Depending on
the grades of steel being cast, the life of the quartz tubes var- Fig. 4. Dynamics of the growth in the output of quartz steel-casting
ied within the range from 466 to 1406 tons steel, or from 3 to refractories from 2013 to 2014.
9 heats. The tubes’ average service life turned out to be 15%
greater than that of the tubes made by Vesuvius. It should be
pointed out that the MMK (Magnitogorsk Metallurgical
Combine) is the largest consumer of protective quartz tubes
made by Dinur (Fig. 5).

CERAMIC CONCRETES OF HIGH-ALUMINA

AND OTHER COMPOSITIONS

A typical example which illustrates the high level of ef-

fectiveness of the HCBS technologies used to make shaped
and unshaped refractories is the Pervouralsk plant’s produc-
tion of ceramic concretes in the systems Al2O3–SiO2,
Al2O3–SiO2–SiC, and Al2O3–SiO2–SiC–C [4, 5, 9 – 14,
30, 31]. In light of the fact that the production of a range of
types of refractories was already common practice at Russian
plants, the PDZ decided to make such concretes based on the
following considerations. The company wanted to develop a Fig. 5. Protective quartz tube in use at the MMK.
technology that would have better technical-economic indi-
ces and thus produce correspondingly better refractories.
Russia experienced an acute shortage of high-quality Al2O3, 38 – 39% SiO2) for which Td = 1540 – 1650°C [32].
unshaped refractories and complex shaped refractory prod-
Given these circumstances, the main challenge for the PDZ
ucts during the middle of the 1990s, but it was believed that
in using a less expensive raw material (bauxite) was to obtain
effective refractories of these types could be manufactured
finished materials with significantly improved thermo-
based on the same principles as those behind ceramic-con-
mechanical properties and, thus, better service properties as
crete technologies while using raw materials of the appropri-
well. In particular, the company attempted to use the bauxites
ate chemical composition. The factory’s extensive experi-
ence in employing the similar quartz-ceramics technology to obtain refractories with a value for Td that would be simi-
would help it realize these plans relatively quickly. lar to the Td of refractories made of pure or expensive raw
Fired Chinese bauxite with a satisfactorily high (up to materials (andalusite, mullite, mullite-corundum). Accord-
88 – 90%) Al2O3 content was chosen as the main raw mate- ingly. during the latter half of the 1990s we developed,
rial for making high-alumina HCBSs and ceramic concretes. tested, and introduced [2, 4, 5, 7, 16] a new technology that
However, prior to the new PDZ project it had become known made it possible to reach a rather ambitious goal - use inex-
that the presence of significant quantities of impurities pensive raw materials to produce all types of high-quality ce-
caused refractory products or concretes based on Chinese ramic concretes. The key to the new technology was the in-
bauxites to have low values for the indices that characterize troduction of a 10 – 12% addition of highly dispersed quartz
the temperatures at which the materials deform under load glass (HDQG) to the bauxite HCBS. The thus-modified
(Td = 1370 – 1440°C) [32]. In light of this, the price for 1 ton HCBS was then introduced into the charge used for the
of bauxite on the world market did not rise above $100 wet-grinding operation in one of two forms: discharged ma-
(U.S.) during the 1990s. That price was 5 – 6 times lower terial, i.e. wastes formed during the production of quartz
than the price for the higher-purity andalusite (59 – 60% refractories by centrifugal casting; a previously prepared
250
Fig. 6. Section that makes ceramic-concrete mixes.
highly dispersed (dmax = 30 – 40 mm) suspension of fused
quartz. When the effect of selective comminution [4, 7] is
taken into account, it turns out that the size of the HDQG
particles in the final suspension is no greater than 2 – 3 mm
and that a significant percentage of those particles (up to
5 – 10%) are actually in the nanodispersed state. The fact
that wet grinding of the bauxite HCBS and the HDQG takes
place in the alkaline range of pH increases the percentage of
dissolved silica, since the latter is the most active of the com-
ponents in regard to being responsible for the binding prop-
erties of suspensions of the colloidal component.
One very important technological feature of the new
technology came to light early in its development and practi-
cal introduction. In contrast to a grinding operation that is
carried out in multiple stages (and is therefore very inconve-
nient from the technological standpoint) — such as the
grinding of bauxite-based HCBSs — the addition of HDQG
to the charge makes it possible to complete the same process
in one step and thus significantly shorten the time required
for wet grinding [1, 2, 4, 7]. In addition to the advantages al-
ready mentioned, the new technology thus achieves the main
original goal - improve the thermomechanical characteristics
of ceramic concretes. This improvement is realized as a re-
sult of the following. During the firing (of new products) or
during service at high temperatures (for unshaped
refractories) within the temperature range 1200 – 1250°C,
mullite is formed in matrix systems that are based on HCBS
and contain HDQG. The mullitization process is accompa-
nied by an increase in the volume of the material, which
compensates for the shrinkage effects that are usually seen at
such temperatures. Depending on the type, content, and pro-
portions of the refractory fillers (bauxite, electrocorundum,
silicon carbide), the use of HCBSs of a composite composi-
tion (bauxite + HDQG) has made it possible to increase Td to
1600 – 1680°C, i.e. to the value of Td obtained for mullite-
corundum and mullite refractories produced with the use of
pure and expensive raw materials.
The invention of composite HCBSs (bauxite + HDQG)
has led to the development of technologies for making highly
effective shaped and unshaped high-alumina materials of dif-
ferent classes. In addition to existing processes for
Yu. E. Pivinskii, E. M Grishpun, and A. M. Gorokhovskii
vibroforming, new methods have been developed for form-
ing and laying ceramic concretes — static pressing,
vibro-tamping (ramming), and guniting. Unlike the new for-
eign-made refractory concretes that are prepared with purer
and costlier synthetic materials, the ceramic concretes pro-
duced by the above-described technology are made more du-
rable through the use of conventional and relatively inexpen-
sive raw materials. This is achieved thanks to specific fea-
tures of the technology that make it possible to obtain
high-density refractories with a fine capillary structure that is
impermeable to melts.
Throughout most of the 20-year period that it took for
specially organized sections at the plant to fully master the
technology for making high-alumina ceramic concretes in
accordance with the licensing agreement concluded with
Karambet-Ogneupor (Fig. 6), the company has managed to
mass-produce many different types of shaped refractories
and unshaped refractories (mixes to make and repair mono-
lithic linings). These refractories can be classified into sev-
eral groups in accordance with the specifics of the technol-
ogy and the areas of application of the products:
1 — refractory mixes to make and repair monolithic lin-
ings (vibrocast and plastic ramming mixes for the troughs of
blast furnaces and other high-temperature equipment);
gunite-mixes for their repair;
2 — large shaped refractories that can be obtained by
vibroforming - the well blocks of tundishes and steel-pouring
ladles, burner blocks, baffles, tundish impact pads, etc.
3 — HCBS-based pressed refractories and refractory fill-
ers used in casting operations. Refractories MKTP-8m,
MKBU-80, and other grades are the materials most com-
monly used to line high-temperature equipment, including
mixing-car ladles.
The technology used at the PDZ to make high-alumina
ceramic concretes was initially developed in 1996 for mak-
ing the well blocks of tundishes [4]. The blocks were formed
both by vibroforming (with the use of an auxiliary weight)
and by static pressing on friction presses. The service life of
these products turned out to be comparable to that of similar
foreign-made corundum blocks. In addition to the well
blocks, in 1997 the technology was used for the first time to
also make batches of refractory ramming mixes for the
monolithic lining of furnace troughs. The initial batches of
vibrocast trough mixes were produced at the end of 1998.
The trough linings made with these mixes at the NTMK
lasted several years without capital repairs [1].
It should be noted that the first batches of trough ram-
ming mixes tested at the NTMK in lining repairs proved to
be more effective than the analogous mixes made previously
by the company “Plibriko” for the PDZ. The PDZ subse-
quently came up with a new composition for ceramic con-
cretes (an oxide-carbide-based composition) and a new tech-
nology for their vibro-placement. Electrocorundum and sili-
con carbide began to be used as fillers, which increased the
service life of the vibrocast trough lining (before the first re-
pair) to 140,000 tons. An oxide-carbide-carbon ceramic con-
Engineering, Manufacturing, and Servicing of Shaped and Unshaped Refractories
crete was developed later along with a technology for mak-
ing it. The length of service to the first repair was increased
to 200,000 – 250,000 tons when this concrete was intro-
duced. In 2002, one of the troughs on the third blast furnace
at the NTMK set a record for the length of service before the
first repair — 305,000 tons of vanadium pig iron [1, 4,
p. 647].
From a technical-economic standpoint, trough ramming
mixes made in large volumes have proven to be the most ef-
fective unshaped refractories [1, 4, 9 – 14]. The data from
[31] shown in Table 1 characterizes the performance indices
of trough-grade ceramic-concrete ramming mixes of the sys-
tem Al2O3–SiO2–SiC–C at several leading metallurgical con-
cerns in the Russian Federation. These mixes are used to line
main troughs as well as transfer troughs and rocking runners.
It should be pointed out that the geographic area in which the
rammed mixes are being used recently expanded with the re-
ceipt of new orders from Ural Steel and Severstal. Refractory
mixes based on HCBS are being successfully used to line in-
duction furnaces in the aluminum industry. Ceramic con-
cretes of the indicated composition are considerably superior
to the traditional mixes in terms of their performance charac-
teristics. The use of high-alumina ceramic concretes in mag-
nesium production is especially promising [1].
Dense heat-resistant mullite-corundum refractories of
grade MKTP-85 rank first in terms of volume of production
among the shaped ceramic concretes that are made. Due to
their high resistance to heat and their strength, these products
turn out to be significantly more durable in service than simi-
TABLE 1. Performance Indices of Ceramic-Concrete Ramming Mixes for Troughs
Manufacturer Areas of application
NLMK:
BF-4 (2000 m3) Main troughs, transfer troughs, and rocking
runners; ramming of casting boxes, skimmer
plates, dams, and spouts
BF-5 (3200 m3) Transfer troughs, ramming of casting boxes,
skimmer plates, dams, and spouts
BF-6 (3200 m3) Main troughs, transfer troughs, and rocking
runners; ramming of casting boxes, skimmer
plates, dams, and spouts
NTMK (vanadium pig iron):
BF-5 (2200 m3) Transfer troughs
BF-6 (2200 m 3) Rocking runners
ZSMK:
BF-1, BF-2, BF-3 Used as a repair mix for transfer troughs and
(2200 – 3600 m3) used to ram the linings of the casting boxes,
slag and pig-iron dams, and skimmer plates
ChMK:
BF-1, BF-4, BF-5 Transfer troughs
* With one hot repair done by guniting mix VGMT-16.
** With one hot repair done by injecting mix VGMN.
251
lar refractories produced by other manufacturers. Table 2
shows certain areas of application and performance charac-
teristics of MKTP-85 refractories described in [30].
The volume of production of high-alumina HCBS-based
compositions is considerably greater than that of quartz
refractories. Figure 7 shows the overall dynamics of growth
in the output of all types of refractories made at Dinur by the
HCBS technology. It follows from the table that output in-
creases substantially every six months, and it grew by 55%
from 2013 to 2014. An even greater increase in output has
been registered in the first quarter of 2015 (Fig. 8). It grew
by factors of 2.7 and 2.0 compared to the corresponding peri-
ods in 2013 and 2014.
The appreciable rates of growth in the volume of produc-
tion and technical-economic indices of the refractories made
at Dinur by HCBS technologies are shown by the data pre-
sented in the article [1]: “Records were set in 2006 for the
output of quartz refractories (~5500 tons) and shaped and
unshaped ceramic concretes produced on the basis of baux-
ite-bearing HCBSs (~11000 tons). ...The total volume of pro-
duction was 82% higher in 2006 than in 2004. The types of
products just mentioned account for 25 – 35% of the total
output of commercial products and as much as 50 – 60% of
the profits of the PDZ.” It should be mentioned that over al-
most three decades Dinur has used HCBS technologies to
make roughly 180,000 tons of highly profitable refractories.
In current prices, that output in equivalent to approximately
12 billion rubles. The profits made from the production of
HCBS-based refractories amount to at least 50% of Dinur’s
Average length of service Unit consumption of trough mix,
between repairs, tons pig iron kg/ton pig iron
35000 – 40000 Main troughs 0.42 – 0.54*
Transfer troughs 0.04 – 0.11
Used as a repair mix Transfer troughs 0.04 – 0.11
35000 – 40000 Main troughs 0.42 – 0.54*
Transfer troughs 0.04 – 0.11
250000 – 270000 0.08 – 0.12
As a repair mix, 50000 – 70000 0.15 – 0.17
— 0.10 – 0.12**
— 0.08 – 0.12
252 Yu. E. Pivinskii, E. M Grishpun, and A. M. Gorokhovskii

Fig. 8. Output under the licensing agreement at the OAO Dinur dur-
Fig. 7. Dynamics of the growth in output at the OAO Dinur during
ing the first quarter of 2013 (1 ), first quarter of 2014 (2 ), first quar-
2013 and 2014 under the licensing agreement with NVF “Keram-
ter of 2015 (3 ), and fourth quarter of 2014 (4 ).
bet-Ogneupor.”.

total profit. In light of the growth rates indicated in Fig. 8, it
is quite possible that the yearly output of HCBS-based prod-
ucts at Dinur could reach 750 – 800 million rubles in 2015.
The production of all types of refractories that are based
on HCBS is very profitable. It would therefore take no more
than six months to recover investments that are made to in-
crease production capacity. In addition, all HCBS-based
products are environmentally clean (thanks to the use of wet
processes instead of dry processes), do not generate waste,
and are characterized by a low rejection rate.
Thus, the main principles that underlie HCBS technolo-
gies have been put to practical use in the first large-scale pro-
duction of different types of shaped and unshaped
refractories in Russia. The practical application of essentially
new science-intensive technologies and the production of
new materials based on them in response to the challenges
associated with establishing a market economy in this coun-
try has allowed the company to become Russia’s leader in
the manufacture of a wide range of refractories that are new
to its product mix. The competitive advantages of HCBS-

TABLE 2. Performance Indices of MKTP-85 Mullite-Corundum Refractories

Manufacturer Shop, casting method, type of equipment Areas of application Thickness of lining, mm Service life, heats

Vyksunskii MZ (now uses MS, ingot molds, bottom injection, Walls 150 70 – 75
carbon-bearing refractories) 130-ton ladles Bottom 250
Gur’evskii MZ MS, ingot molds, bottom injection, Walls 187 75 – 80
100-ton ladles Bottom 250 120
ZSMK BOF-2, MFU, casting into ingot molds, Slag zone 200 30 – 35
350-ton steel-pouring ladles
BOF-1, MFU, casting into ingot molds, Slag zone 150 42 – 51
160-ton pouring ladles
Stal’-NK (on reserve status) ESS, bottom injection, 55-ton Walls 120 – 150 51 – 61
Steel-pouring ladles Bottom 250
NTMK BOF-2, hot-metal ladles Slag zone 150 405 – 491*
ZSMK Lime shop, 200-ton shaft furnace No. 10 Calcining zone 230 Wear after 41 months
5 – 10 mm**
ZSMK, Vysokaya Gora GOK, Sinter plant, ignition hearths of sintering Roof 200 (300 counting 17 – 25 months***
Sorskii GOK machines the suspended part)
MMK (now uses KGI) BOF shop, continuous caster, tundish Slag zone of stopper 60 8
Chelyabinsk Zinc Plant Zinc-concentrate roasting shop, furnace Calcining zone 114 Furnace
has been in use since
November 2006
* Casts.
** The lining is still in use.
*** Removed from service In accordance with the preventive-maintenance schedule.
Engineering, Manufacturing, and Servicing of Shaped and Unshaped Refractories
based refractories, the demand that exists for them, and their
excellent future prospects are demonstrated by the fact that
the output of these products grew 55% from 2013 to 2014.
An even larger increase in output has been recorded in the
first quarter of 2015 — the volume of production in the quar-
ter rose by factors of 2.7 and 2.0 over the corresponding peri-
ods in 2013 and 2014.
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