(1) Used as deoxidizer and alloying agent in steelmaking industry. In order to obtain steel with qualified chemical composition and ensure the quality of steel, deoxidation must be carried out in the final stage of steel making. The chemical affinity between silicon and oxygen is very large, so ferrosilicon is a strong deoxidizer used in steel making for precipitation and diffusion deoxidation. Adding a certain amount of silicon to steel can significantly improve the strength, hardness and elasticity of steel. Therefore, when smelting structural steel (containing silicon 0.40-1.75%), tool steel (containing SiO.30-1.8%), spring steel (containing SiO. 40-2.8%) and transformer silicon steel (containing silicon 2.81-4.8%), Ferrosilicon is also used as an alloying agent.
In addition, in steelmaking industry, ferrosilicon powder is often used as ingot cap heating agent to improve the quality and recovery of ingot.
(2) Used as inoculant and spheroidizing agent in the cast iron industry. Cast iron is an important metal material in modern industry, it is cheaper than steel, easy to melt smelting, has excellent casting performance and much better seismic ability than steel. In particular, the mechanical properties of nodular cast iron reach or approach that of steel. Adding a certain amount of ferrosilicon to cast iron can prevent the formation of carbide in iron and promote the precipitation and spheroidization of graphite, so in the production of nodular cast iron, ferrosilicon is an important inoculant (help precipitate graphite) and spheroidization agent.
(3) Used as reducing agent in ferroalloy production. Not only the chemical affinity between silicon and oxygen is great, but also the high silicon iron silicon has a very low carbon content. Therefore, high silicon ferrosilicon (or siliceous alloy) is a reducing agent commonly used in the production of low carbon ferroalloys in the ferroalloy industry.
(4) For other purposes. Pulverized or atomized ferrosilicon powder can be used as suspension phase in mineral processing industry. It can be used as coating for welding electrode in welding electrode manufacturing industry. High silicon ferrosilicon can be used in the chemical industry to make products such as silicone.
