Open Hearth Furnace:
1. Intro:
An open-hearth furnace is any of several kinds of industrial furnace in which excess carbon and other
impurities are burnt out of pig iron to produce steel. Because steel is difficult to manufacture owing to
its high melting point, normal fuels and furnaces were insufficient for mass production of steel, and the
open-hearth type of furnace was one of several technologies developed in the nineteenth century to
overcome this difficulty. Compared with the Bessemer process, which it displaced, its main advantages
were that it did not expose the steel to excessive nitrogen (which would cause the steel to become
brittle), was easier to control, and permitted the melting and refining of large amounts of scrap iron and
steel. The open-hearth furnace was first developed by German-born engineer Carl Wilhelm Siemens. In
1865, the French engineer Pierre-Émile Martin took out a license from Siemens and first applied his
regenerative furnace for making steel. Their process was known as the Siemens–Martin process or
Martin–Siemens process, and the furnace as an "open-hearth" furnace.
2. Evolution Of Open hearth:
Carl Wilhelm Siemens developed the Siemens regenerative furnace in the 1850s, and claimed in 1857 to
be recovering enough heat to save 70–80% of the fuel. This furnace operates at a high temperature by
using regenerative preheating of fuel and air for combustion. In regenerative preheating, the exhaust
gases from the furnace are pumped into a chamber containing bricks, where heat is transferred from
the gases to the bricks. The flow of the furnace is then reversed so that fuel and air pass through the
chamber and are heated by the bricks. Through this method, an open-hearth furnace can reach
temperatures high enough to melt steel, but Siemens did not initially use it for that. In 1865, the French
engineer Pierre-Émile Martin took out a license from Siemens and first applied his regenerative furnace
for making steel. The most appealing characteristic of the Siemens regenerative furnace is the rapi d
production of large quantities of basic steel, used for example to construct high-rise buildings.[5] The
usual size of furnaces is 50 to 100 tons, but for some special processes they may have a capacity of 250
or even 500 tons.
3. Construction:
The general design of the Siemens Open Hearth furnace of the ordinary and most general type, is that
shown in Figs. II. and III., of which Fig. II. is a longitudinal and Fig. III. across sectional 'elevation. The
furnace comprises three main parts : (1) Furnace proper or laboratory part of furnace. (2) Regenerative
chamber. (3) Flues and valves for reversals. The third part, viz., the flues and valves for reversals, will be
considered when dealing with the Open. Hearth Siemens furnace erected at Lithgow. ' The roof, sides,
and ends of the furnace proper or laboratory, are constructed of the most refractory silica brick, of
which the best known is perhaps the south Wales silica. brick, made from the Dina’s rock and comp9sed
almost entirely of silica. A brick of such composition is necessary, as the heat attained in this part of the
furnace is intense and would readily melt ordinary fire clay bricks. The hearth,. which has to stand more
wear and tear than any other portion of the furnace, being the bed upon w hich the molten metal lies
during its conversion from pig iron to steel, consists of steel plates upon which is laid a course of fire
bricks, and upon this the hearth material proper, which in the acid Siemens process consists of pure'
white sand, containing about 97·5 per cent of silica, and the remainder alumina, which is fritted down in
successive layers to a depth of twelve, inches more. In the basic Siemens process this hearth consists Of
a rammed-in mixture of roasted dolomite and tar. The charging of the furnace is carried out through
three doors at the back; while the tapping is effected through a tapping hole which passes through the
front of the furnace and intercepts the hearth at its lowest part.
4. Working Principle:
The open-hearth furnace (OHF) uses the heat of combustion of gaseous or liquid fuels to convert a
charge of scrap and liquid blast-furnace iron to liquid steel. The high flame temperature required for
melting is obtained by preheating the combustion air and, sometimes, the fuel gas. This furnace
operates at a high temperature by using regenerative preheating of fuel and air for combustion. In
regenerative preheating, the exhaust gases from the furnace are pumped into a chamber containing
bricks, where heat is transferred from the gases to the bricks. The flow of the furnace is then reversed so
that fuel and air pass through the chamber and are heated by the bricks.
5. process:
The open-hearth process is a batch process and a batch is called a "heat". The furnace can carry out 28
cycles. The furnace is first inspected for possible damage. Once it is ready or repaired, it is charged with
light scrap, such as sheet metal, shredded vehicles or waste metal. The furnace is heated using burning
gas. Once the charge has melted, heavy scrap, such as building, construction or steel milling scrap is
added, together with pig iron from blast furnaces. Once all the steel has melted, slag-forming agents
such as limestone are added. The oxygen in iron oxide and other impurities decarburizes the pig iron by
burning excess carbon away, forming steel. To increase the oxygen content of the heat, iron ore can be
added. The process is far slower than that of the Bessemer converter and thus easier to control and
sample for quality assessment. Preparing a heat usually takes ei ght to eight and a half hours, and longer
to finish the conversion into steel. As the process is slow, it is not necessary to burn all the carbon away
as in the Bessemer process, but the process can be terminated at any given point when the desired
carbon content has been achieved. The furnace is tapped in the same way a blast furnace is tapped; a
hole is drilled in the side of the hearth and the raw steel flows out. Once all the steel has been tapped,
the slag is skimmed away. The raw steel may be cast into ingots, a process called teeming, or it may be
used in continuous casting in the rolling mill. The regenerators are the distinctive feature of the furnace
and consist of fire-brick flues filled with bricks set on edge and arranged in such a way as to have a great
number of small passages between them. The bricks absorb most of the heat from the outgoing waste
gases and return it later to the incoming cold gases for combustion.
6. Advantages & drawbacks:
more batches than other one.
The Siemens–Martin process complemented rather than replaced the Bessemer process. It is slower and
thus easier to control, allowing production of better product. It also permits the melting and refining of
large amounts of scrap steel, further lowering steel production costs and recycling an otherwise
troublesome waste material. One of its important drawbacks is that melting and refining a charge takes
several hours. This was an advantage in the early 20th century, as it gave plant chemists time to analyze
the steel and decide how much longer to refine it. But by about 1975, electronic instruments such as
atomic absorption spectrophotometers had made analysis of the steel much easier and faster. The work
environment around an open-hearth furnace is said to be extremely dangerous, although that may be
even more true of the environment around a basic oxygen or electric arc furnace. On the one hand, the
process achieves lesser economies of scale than the Bessemer, so its steel was costlier in former's
heyday, but on the other, it was more suitable for countries which couldn't produce lots of steel anyway
due to limitations of natural resources.
references:
[Link]
K. Barraclough, Steelmaking 1850-1900 (Institute of Metals, London 1990), 137-203.
Philippe Mioche, « Et l'acier créa l'Europe », Matériaux pour l'histoire de notre temps, vol. 47, 1997, p.
29-36.
Basic Open Hearth Steelmaking, with Supplement on Oxygen in Steelmaking, third edition (The Seely W.
Mudd Series) The American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical, and Petroleum Engineers (1964). Gerhard,
Derge. ASIN B00IJLRL40.
A Study of the Open Hearth: A Treatise on the Open Hearth Furnace and the Manufacture of Open
Hearth Steel. Harbison-Walker Refractories Company. (2015), 102 pag, ISBN 1341212122, ISBN 978-
1341212123
L. I. M. Turner University Of Sydney Basil, “The Siemens Open Hearth Steel Furnace,” Sydney University
Engineering Society, Sydney, Australia, B012176480X003715, Jul. 1900 [Online]. Available:
[Link] [Accessed: Jul. 15, 2023]
