What Is The Use Of Ferrosilicon?

Ferrosilicon is widely used in industrial production such as the steel industry and the foundry industry. They consume more than 90% of ferrosilicon. Among various grades of ferrosilicon, 75% ferrosilicon is the most widely used. In the steel industry, about 3-5kg of 75% ferrosilicon is consumed for every ton of steel produced.
 
(1) Used as a deoxidizer and alloy in the steelmaking industry

Adding a certain amount of silicon to steel can significantly improve the strength, hardness and elasticity of the steel, increase the magnetic permeability of the steel, and reduce the hysteresis loss of transformer steel. In order to obtain steel with qualified chemical composition and ensure the quality of the steel, deoxidation must be carried out in the final stage of steelmaking. Silicon and oxygen have a strong chemical affinity, so ferrosilicon has a strong precipitation and diffusion deoxidation effect on the oxides in the steel.

Adding a certain amount of silicon to steel can significantly improve the strength, hardness and flexibility of the steel. Therefore, ferrosilicon is also used as an alloy when smelting structural steel (containing SiO300-70%), tool steel (containing SiO.30-1.8%), spring steel (containing SiO00-2.8%) and silicon steel for transformers (containing silicon 2.81-4.8%). In addition, in the steel industry, ferrosilicon powder is often used as a heating agent for steel ingots to improve the quality and recovery rate of steel ingots by taking advantage of the characteristic that olefins can release a large amount of heat at high temperatures.

(2) Used as an inoculant and spheroidizer in the cast iron industry

Cast iron is an important metal material in modern industry. It is cheaper than steel, easier to melt, has excellent casting performance, and is much more resistant to earthquakes than steel, especially ductile iron, whose mechanical properties reach or approach the mechanical behavior of steel. Adding a certain amount of ferrosilicon to cast iron can prevent the formation of carbides in iron and promote the precipitation and spheroidization of graphite. Therefore, in the production of ductile iron, ferrosilicon is an important inoculant (which helps the precipitation of graphite) and spheroidizer.

 
(3) Used as a reducing agent in the production of black alloys

Not only do silicon and oxygen have a great chemical affinity, but the carbon content of high-silicon ferrosilicon is also very low. Therefore, high-silicon ferrosilicon (or siliceous alloy) is a commonly used reducing agent in the production of low-carbon ferroalloys in the ferroalloy industry. Ferrosilicon can be added to cast iron as a ductile iron inoculant, and can prevent the formation of carbides, promote the precipitation and spheroidization of graphite, and improve the performance of cast iron.

(4) Other uses of ferro silicon

Ground or atomized ferrosilicon powder can be used as a suspension phase in the mineral processing industry and as an electrode coating in the electrode manufacturing industry. High-silicon ferrosilicon can be used to manufacture products such as organic silicon in the chemical industry, to prepare semiconductor pure silicon in the electrical industry, and to manufacture organic silicon in the chemical industry. In the steel industry, about 3 to 5 kilograms of 75% ferrosilicon are consumed for every ton of steel produced.
 

Overview of Ferrosilicon

Ferrosilicon is an alloy of iron and silicon. Ferrosilicon is an iron-silicon alloy smelted in an electric furnace using coke, scrap steel, and quartz (or silica) as raw materials. Common forms of ferrosilicon include ferrosilicon particles, ferrosilicon powder, and ferrosilicon slag. Specific models include ferrosilicon 75, ferrosilicon 70, ferrosilicon 65, and ferrosilicon 45. The specifications are mainly divided according to the different impurity content in ferrosilicon, and each specification has its own different uses.
   

Ferrosilicon Production Process

The ferrosilicon production process is to reduce sand or silicon dioxide (Si) with coke/coal (C), and then react with iron (Fe) available in the waste. The carbon in the coal needs to be deoxidized, leaving pure silicon and iron products.
Ferrosilicon production can also use a submerged arc furnace to melt quartz with scrap steel and a reducing agent to form a hot liquid alloy, which is collected in a sand bed. After cooling, the product is broken into small pieces and further crushed into the required size.
 

Advanced Ferrosilicon Producer

Zhenan International has 20 years of experience in ferrosilicon production. With excellent quality and stable output, we have received more and more orders in domestic and foreign markets. Zhenan Metallurgical's users are mainly manufacturers from Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, India, the United Arab Emirates, Brazil and other countries. Our ferrosilicon products are widely used in steel manufacturing and casting processes. With high-quality products and reliable services, Zhen An International has won a good reputation in the industry. The company's ferrosilicon products have been certified by well-known institutions such as SGS, BV, ISO 9001, etc.