Managing Director Y. TAKEHATA

K. TOKUDA and I. KOBAYASHI

New iron-making process, ITmk3, can produce pure iron nuggets directly from fine ore and fine coal.
ITmk3 is a simple and environment friendly process including less CO2 emission.
The features of the iron nugget are high density, high purity, etc. and it is an excellent iron source for steelmaking.
Because of the successful operation at a pilot plant in US, several projects of commercial-scale plants are being planned in the world.

H. KAMIYA and M. IIJIMA

Controlling the aggregation / dispersion behavior of fine particles in liquid media and their characterization is important science and technology in various engineering fields.
In this review, firstly, the surface treatment method of prepared fine particles, for examples, polymer dispersant adsorption, silane coupling agent and polymer graft condensation, are introduced.
For such kinds of processes, colloid probe atomic force microscope method is very useful to characterize the surface interaction between particles and to analyze the changes of aggregation and dispersion behavior of fine particles in suspension by the surface modifications.
Secondly, the peculiar difficulties in dispersing nanoparticle which are less than 100 nm in
diameter are discussed.
Furthermore, new dispersion techniques including dispersion behavior control during the nanoparticle preparation process by using complex of metal ion and surfactants are discussed.

T. MIKI, M. SATOH, S. UCHIDA and M. SUTOH

When bricks drop off from the cone of BOFs, repairing is necessary to continue the campaign.
Occasionally, the service life is influenced by the dropping off phenomena.
In this study, the cone linings were analyzed with structural analysis technology using F.E.M. to prevent cone bricks from dropping off.
Appropriate material data, analysis model and boundary conditions were necessary to obtain highly precise calculation results.
It was found that stresses produced in cone bricks and cone brick movement depend on cone lining design.
A new design for the cone lining called "Backward Inclined Lining" is presented here which is based on the knowledge about how large stresses and gaps between bricks are produced.
In a practical test, the backward inclined lining bricks didn' t drop off.
Sufficient results were obtained for the new design.

T. KAGEYAMA, Y. NOGAMI, M. KITAMURA and T. IIDA

Al2O3－SiC－C castables are used in metal line castables for the blast furnace main trough　and Al2O3－SiC－C castables containing spinel are used mainly these days to obtain high durability.
However, the latter have the problem that when they are used for a long term as base castables in the main trough, they deteriorate significantly due to the effect of spinel addition.
We investigated deterioration due to the effect of spinel addition and came to the following conclusion: It is highly possible that the causes for deterioration are as follows.
MgO diffuses into the matrix from the spinel grains, accelerates SiC oxidation, generates a low-melting point compound and also regenerates spinel.

T. KAGEYAMA, M. KITAMURA and D. TANAKA

Taphole mix is a refractory with a high percentage of fine grains.
Because the matrix of taphole mix is composed of fine grain raw materials, the properties of the matrix influence taphole mix quality.
In this study we examined several ultra fine powders for taphole mixes and discovered various effects of ultra fine powder addition.

M. NAMBA, H. SASAKI, H. YAMAJI and M. TAKIKAWA

Alumina-silica castables are the standard tundish lining materials.
It is important for the development of tundish lining materials to suppress cracking and peeling.
In actual tundishes, cracks occur after drying and grow.
Therefore, it is important to suppress cracking after drying.
Reducing the amount of mixing water is generally required to suppress cracking during drying.
Because the highest drying temperatures are from 800oC to 1200oC, this report considers suppression of cracking after drying by use of expansion material from the viewpoint of suppressing shrinkage after heating to 1000oC and we study the effect on quality and other properties.

T. OMOTO, T. SUZUKI and H. OGATA

Steel grades which have high Al content for electromagnetic steel sheet change mold powder performance greatly as compared with conventional steel grades because of the reaction between the Al in the molten steel and SiO2 in the powder slag during casting.
This causes casting troubles such as breakouts and reduces casting productivity.
We developed a new mold powder for electromagnetic steel sheets.
Stable slag thickness could be maintained and BO (Break Out) was completely eliminated.
Furthermore casting heats were increased from a single heat with the new mold powder contributing to increase steel productivity.

E. IIDA, K. KANAMARU, W. LIN and T. MATSUNAGA

ZrO2-C materials are commonly used for the submerged entry nozzle (SEN), because they have high corrosion resistance.
Generally the CaO stabilized ZrO2 is used for ZrO2 materials have some problems such as the molten steel penetration and wear damage, especially on the interior surface of SEN.
Therefore, it is very important to prevent the molten steel penetration in ZrO2 material.
In this investigation, it was supposed the molten steel penetration was promoted by generation of ZrC.
Use of MgO stabilized ZrO2-C material was found to prevent ZrC generation effectively.
Based upon this result, we made an actual test of SEN that was reinforced on the inner surface with MgO stabilized ZrO2-C material.
We have obtained good performance results without the molten steel penetration and wear damage.

T. GOTOH, E. IIDA, H. TADA and H. TOMIYA

Recently, the load on the ladle lining has been increasing due to the increase in the secondary refining rate of the steel ladle.
High Al2O3 and carbon containing bricks are used for steel ladle linings, but they have insufficiencies such as poor corrosion resistance, heat loss and so on.
Monolithic lining such as Al2O3-MgO castable has good corrosion resistance and less heat loss problem, but it requires installation equipments and careful preheating to avoid the explosion problem.
We have developed "ALTIMA" , an unburned Al2O3-MgO brick to resolve these problems.
This report describes the applications of this new product for the steel ladle lining.

H. TADA, H. TOMIYA and M. YOSHIDA

The ECONOS series of environment friendly carbon containing bricks has several excellent advantages such as little generation of fumes during the heat-up process of furnaces, energy saving effect, and so on.
Therefore, the ECONOS series is mainly used in steel ladles and torpedo ladles by our customers.

T. OMOTO and Y. IWAMOTO

A new series of intense exothermic materials called "HOTMEL" has been developed.
Its functions are mainly dissolving slag and raising molten steel temperature.
It has been used for blast furnace troughs and tundishs.

R. NAKAMURA, P. WHITE, T. KAGEYAMA and M. KITAMURA

For safety and health reasons, resin-bonded taphole mix has generally been used in the blast furnaces of Australia.
Shinagawa Rerfractories Australasia has fulfilled our responsibilities of supplying the taphole mix products over a period of time.
We worked on overall improvement including both formulation and manufacturing technology for the purpose of even better performance, and developed a new taphole mix which could maintain a long taphole length and cast duration even at high levels of productivity.
The taphole mix developed is being used in BlueScope steel works and contributing to stable operation of blast furnace.

H. YAMAJI and K. MATSUBARA

With the increasing interest in the environmental problem, gasification melting furnaces have been developed and utilized with general disposal and incinerating melting technology.
Depending on furnace operating conditions many sorts of refractories are applied.
Stable durability of refractories has been the most important factor.
At our company, we have been continuously responding to various important topics, concerning both refractory materials and engineering for various ash melting furnaces.
This report introduces typical unshaped refractories for various gasification melting furnaces.

K. KYOE and T. SAWA

We have much experience in pre-assembling, and some of the cases are introduced in this report.

R. MCKEW, J. TYLER and R. NAKAMURA

Gunning is a widely used method for the installation of refractory materials in high temperature applications, providing benefits in terms of reducing vessel downtime and installation cost.
Shinagawa has developed a new system in order to minimize dust and rebound loss, which is the disadvantage of gunning.
In this paper, the outline of the new system, and merits in use of this system are described.

E. YOKOGI, K. TAMADA and A. SUMA

Robot spray coating equipment for coating expansion joints of BOF MgO-C bricks is introduced.
This equipment can eliminate expansion joint setting work at the furnace installation site.
Therefore, this equipment could contribute to the shortening of furnace installation time.

H. MORI

Teikoku Yogyo Co.,Ltd. introduces a superior protective refractory product : WALL-GUARD was developed to prevent clinker adhesion on the incinerator furnace side wall and oxidation of the steel parts of ash melting furnaces,etc..

K. SAITOH

In July 2006, Shinagawa Group established their third manufacturing base in Ohio, USA.
SAM Americas, formerly called FMP, is providing US and Canadian Steel Makers with high quality mold powders, such as high viscosity series, developed and manufactured on the basis of Shinagawa's technology.
SAM Americas is planning to extend its business to South American and European countries as a part of worldwide business strategy of Shinagawa Group.
SAM Americas is committed to making the best effort to achieve the company's goal "Customer's Satisfaction."

K. WAKASUGI, T. MITSUBOSHI, H. MINAMIZONO and T. HIRAI

Ozone is used to disinfect water and decompose volatile organic compounds because of its strong oxidizing ability, although it is bad for human health and also the global environment.
It is necessary to decompose the ozone in gas before exhausting to the atmosphere.
Our company has supplied SEKADO-KR as a decomposing catalyst since 1974.
Recently we have developed new types of catalysts to meet the demand for strong catalysts utilizing the newest ozone technology.
Development is reported on in this paper.

T. OHTSUKA and A. KISHIKAWA

In recent years, soil pollution and underground water pollution by heavy metals such as arsenic and lead have become a major problems.
Nippon Sheet Glass Co., Ltd. and Isolite Insulating Products Co., Ltd. developed ADCERA, a heavy metal adsorbent that adsorbs these substances.
We introduce ADCERA as follow.
ADCERA is a grainy product made of an inorganic material that is able to adsorb many kinds of heavy metals like arsenic, lead and chrome.
ADCERA has a high absorption speed and retains its adsorption capability throughout a wide pH range for arsenic.