Runner on F12 was made of castable. The wear was quite severe and every 6 weeks a major repair was required, resulting in several hours load reduction to cure the castable. The steel retainer plate closing the end of the runner was quickly worn out and needed to be changed regularly, also every 4-6 weeks.
To improve the lifespan, some work was started that completely changed the concept of the runner, replacing the casted refractory with a long carbon block and pre-cast refractory. The design of the end-piece was improved with higher grade refractory, longer resistance to SiMn (Alumina chrome) and optimized shape. An upgrade of the locking system has also been implemented since. A bar that goes through the casing and the pre-cast holds in place without the need to repair the steel retainer, making even longer lifetime.
The end piece can now be kept in place more than to 3 months. The last one installed with new locking bar has been in place since October 22 and still looks good. Once this block will have to be changed, another improvement will be implemented with a new shape a bit wider to cover the full runner width.
Pictured: Allen Rush – Supervisor Operations, Mitch Gillian – Manager Plant Operations, Scott McCartney – Manager of Operations, Ray Baker – Senior Process Engineer, Nicolas Benaily – Manager Process Technology and Development.
