According to the statistical report of The World Steel Association (Worldsteel), global steel demand will increase by 2.2% to 1,896.4 Mt in 2022. This opportunity also presents a challenge that steel manufacturers must seek ways to enhance the steel manufacturing process towards finished steel to catch up with the fast growth of steel demand all over the world. As a result, the demand for scrap recycling also increased sharply in recent years.
However, large scrap material treatment is among one of the most cost-ineffective and time-consuming steps of the total process that steel manufacturers shall need to take into consideration.
In this blog, let us walk you through why Thermic Lance is a good fit for cutting large scrap materials and how using Thermic Lance can affect the daily production line with a long-term impact.
Large Scrap Materials Treatment Process in The Steel Mill
Heading towards sustainable development following The 17 SDGs, many countries are actively encouraging recycling scrap materials to treat them not as waste, but as merchandise.
In the scrapyards, after scrap materials are assembled altogether by huge cranes at the terminal point, the operation workers will utilize scrap metal shredder machines to cut large chunks of scraps into pieces, which will then be recycled.
But in the steel mill, before being sent to Electric Furnace (EF) where recycled steels are used as input materials, large-sized scraps need to be treated with proper processes as follows.
- Step 1. Sorting
- Step 2. Classifying
- Step 3. Cutting
- Step 4. Re-melting
Among the above 4 steps, the most strenuous part must probably go to cutting (Step 3) where appropriate machines and equipment are necessarily required.
Here’s a quick solution - use oxygen cutting mechanism to slice down even the heaviest gauge scraps available in your steel mill.
Overview of Oxygen Cutting Mechanism
What exactly is oxygen cutting mechanism? That's the question we get frequently and here's our brief explanation.
The method of melting and cutting metal materials with oxygen works on the principle that the tip of a steel pipe is heated and oxygen is blown into it, then metal materials will burn violently under the high-temperature flame generated by a chemical reaction between iron and oxygen.
Thermic Lance is an example of this mechanism in particular. Just spend a few minutes reading the next section of this blog to learn how Thermic Lance can make your production line more effective.
What Makes Thermic Lance A Good Fit for Cutting Large Scrap Materials?
1. Easy Ignition: We can use an acetylene torch to heat one end of Thermic Lance, then blow oxygen into it to begin cutting. This way, flames can be ignited very quickly with sharp cuts into large scrap materials such as iron castings, stainless steel, brass, non-ferrous metals, refractory materials, concrete, ceramic or natural stones, etc.
2. Powerful and Speedy Metal Cutting: By inserting steel wires or a combination of steel wires and inner pipes inside Thermic Lance, pressurized oxygen produces a powerful burning temperature up to 4,000°C without noise or vibration to quickly cut large scrap materials via Fe + O2 → Fe2O3 + Heat reaction.
3. Easy-to-use Operation:
With below simple auxiliary devices at disposals, the operation workers can blow oxygen into Thermic Lance to heat and cut large scrap materials with much simpler training instructions:
- Lance Holder
- Air Valve
- Oxygen Hose
- Oxygen Cylinder
- Oxygen Regulator
- Safety Tool
Let us connect you with our technical engineers for more information about how to use Thermic Lance in an easy way by clicking here.
4. Various Standard and Custom-Made Dimensions
With the standard and custom-made outside diameter and weight, Thermic Lance offers a wide variety of selections for steel manufacturers to consider for a good performance of large scrap cutting in the electric furnace of the steel mill. You can see Thermic Lance's standard measurement right here below.
|
Outside Diameter |
Inner Diameter (mm) |
Weight (kg/m) |
| 12.9 | 2.8 | 0.794 |
| 13.8 | 2.8 | 0.903 |
| 16.0 | 3.0 | 1.250 |
| 17.3 | 4.5 | 1.470 |
| 21.4 | 6.5 | 2.130 |
| 21.7 | 6.5 | 2.300 |
| 26.5 | 6.5 | 3.330 |
| 27.2 | 6.0 | 3.630 |
| (Since Daiwa Thermic Lance is available in many different standard sizes as well as custom sizes, you can still place an order with the sizes that best suit your needs) | ||
In general, steel manufacturing management is a marathon journey that needs a significant amount of effort and time to boost productivity. We hope that whether you are a member or a corporate key person in the organization, you are still able to make a sensible decision in determining what should keep and what should remove in the total process. Keep us company on your path to success by subscribing here for Daiwa Lance's weekly blog.
