Influence of properties of fluxing materials on the flow of melt formed in the sintering process

Partial melting of raw materials and flow of the formed melt are essential phenomena for the agglomeration in the sintering bed of iron ores. A new experimental technique has been proposed which enables us to detect the macroscopic flow of melt formed during heating. Using this technique, the effects of the kind and particle size of fluxing materials and basicity of the mixture of raw materials were examined. Especially, it lays emphasis on the dolomite addition which will be effective to lower the slag ratio in the blast furnace operation by its replacement of serpentine. The present paper mainly describes the results of the melt-formation behavior in the cases using different types and particle sizes of dolomite samples comparing to those using serpentine. Further, a noteworthy phenomenon is pointed out that CaO component separated from MgO during heating course of dolomite tends to react with hematite and forms melt at lower temperature under certain conditions.