Industry: Ferrous

Description of Equipment: Large steel ladles with stainless steel retention ring covered with hand-packed refractory.

Problem: Insufficient life span and excessive maintenance of the retention ring and refractory (about 100 heats).

Solution: Thermblock ladle lip rings.

Product Being Replaced: Conventional castable refractory material and stainless steel retention ring

Savings Using Thermbond: Thermbond now provides the customer with 500-1000 heats before replacement is required – five to ten times the life of the previous solution. The high-wire addition to the precast shape provides additional mechanical strength and heat resistance to the material. Previous refractory installation took 48 hours and a team of five people, while Thermbond’s solution takes 6 hours and requires only 2 people.

Products Applied: 6 Thermblock Precast Ladle Lip Ring Shapes per set.

Equipment Used: Socket Wrench and overhead crane.

Scope of Work: A template is used to cut holes in the top of the ladle. This is a onetime process. Using the holes, the lip ring segments are bolted to the ladle. A simple, clean, and fast installation.

Installation Date: 12/2017

Follow Up: 12/2018- The lip rings continue to perform well. The wear is consistent with our projection of 500-1000 heats. An additional benefit is the lip ring is maintaining excellent ladle brick compression throughout the life of the application.