Introduction to ferrosilicon
Ferrosilicon is iron alloys made of silicon and iron.
Ferrosilicon is an iron-silicon alloy made from coke, steel scrap, quartz (or silica) as raw material and smelted in an electric furnace. As silicon and oxygen are easily synthesised into silicon dioxide, ferrosilicon is often used as a deoxidiser in steelmaking, and because SiO2 gives off a lot of heat when it is generated, it is also beneficial to raise the temperature of the steel while deoxidising. In the cast iron industry used as inoculant and spheroidizing agent.
The addition of a certain amount of ferrosilicon in cast iron can prevent the formation of carbides in iron, promote the precipitation of graphite and spheroidization, thus in the production of ductile iron, ferrosilicon is an important inoculant (to help precipitate graphite) and spheroidizing agent.
At the same time, ferrosilicon can also be used as alloying elements to join the agent, widely used in low alloy structural steel, spring steel, bearing steel, heat-resistant steel and electrical silicon steel, ferrosilicon in the production of ferroalloys and chemical industry, commonly used as reducing agent. 75# ferrosilicon in the Pijiang method of magnesium refining is often used in the high temperature smelting process of magnesium metal, the CaO. about ferrosilicon, plays a big role in the production of magnesium metal. In addition, the finely ground or atomised ferrosilicon powder can be used as a suspension phase in the mineral processing industry. In the welding rod manufacturing industry it can be used as a coating for welding rods. High ferrosilicon can be used in the chemical industry to manufacture products such as silicones. Of these uses, the steelmaking, foundry and ferroalloy industries are the largest users of ferrosilicon. Together they consume around 90% or more of ferrosilicon. Of the various grades of ferrosilicon, the most widely used by far is 75% ferrosilicon. In the steel industry, approximately 3-5 kg of 75% ferrosilicon is consumed per 1 t of steel produced.
