Refractories

Unleashing ceramic potential through root cause analysis, plus more inside March 2024 ACerS Bulletin

By Lisa McDonald / February 29, 2024

The March 2024 issue of the ACerS Bulletin—featuring methods and procedures to determine the root cause of material failures and behavior—is now available online. Plus—Zachariasen and the Manhattan Project.

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Developing cement-free refractories: Geopolymer binders show potential in high-temperature alumina castables

By Lisa McDonald / September 19, 2023

Geopolymers are emerging as a promising alternative to cement binders in refractories. In a recent study, researchers in Brazil identified a new geopolymer composition that could serve as a binder in high-temperature alumina castables.

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Ceramics and ceramists on the Manhattan Project: A narrative of activities at MIT

By Lisa McDonald / September 5, 2023

There are many hidden stories of the people who worked on the Manhattan Project, which resulted in the world’s first atomic bombs. In 1990, the late ACerS Fellows Osgood J. Whittemore and Louis R. McCreight published an article uncovering some of this history by describing research conducted at Massachusetts Institute of Technology to develop refractory crucibles for nuclear metals processing.

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Effects of expanded graphite content on the performance of magnesia carbon bricks

By Lisa McDonald / July 11, 2023

Magnesia carbon bricks are widely used in steelmaking because of their excellent thermal, chemical, and mechanical properties. These bricks can be fabricated using various carbon sources. In a recent paper, researchers at Changwon National University investigated the effects of expanded graphite content on MgO–C bricks.

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Refractories Symposium resumes in St. Louis with sustainability theme

By Eileen De Guire / April 5, 2023

ACerS St. Louis Section and Refractory Ceramics Division held the 58th Annual Symposium on Refractories in St. Louis, Mo., March 28–30, 2023. About 220 members of the refractory ceramics community attended the meeting, which focused on the theme of sustainability.

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Ensuring safe production of metal goods: A review of alumina spinel castables for steel ladles

By Lisa McDonald / September 9, 2022

Alumina spinel castables play an important role in the steel industry as lining for the ladle sidewalls and bottom. A new review paper published in International Journal of Applied Ceramic Technology provides a detailed overview of these castables, including how various parameters affect their properties and performance.

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New test method for aluminosilicate refractories offers better insight into real-world alkali attack mechanisms

By Lisa McDonald / June 3, 2022

The common way to test alkali resistance of aluminosilicate refractories is based solely on visual observation after exposure to alkali vapor. Allied Mineral Products researchers explored a new procedure that would subject refractories to both visual analysis and formal analytical testing after exposure to alkali slag and vapor.

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Refractories: The workhorses of high-temperature materials manufacturing

By Jonathon Foreman / April 8, 2022

Refractory ceramics are integral to ensuring the smooth operation of numerous essential industries, and researchers are continually investigating new materials and processing techniques to improve refractory performance. Several recent collections curated by ACerS highlights some of the latest research in this field.

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Refractory professionals gather in Chicago to celebrate the return of UNITECR

By Lisa McDonald / March 22, 2022

Originally scheduled to take place in 2021, the Unified International Technical Conference on Refractories took place March 15–18, 2022, in Chicago, Ill. People from 28 countries gathered to attend the hybrid conference, which featured much discussion of challenges and opportunities resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic.

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A shocking development—electrodynamic fragmentation could provide high-quality recycled materials for the refractory industry

By Lisa McDonald / March 18, 2022

Recycling and reusing waste materials is one approach the refractories industry is pursuing to improve sustainability. Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Building Physics have explored the potential of electrodynamic fragmentation to recycle composites, and their recent study looks specifically at the potential of this technique applied to refractory materials.

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