Carburization Process for Scrap

a process for producing steel in open-hearth furnaces or in electric furnaces. In this process carbon is introduced into the charge not by cast iron but by high-carbon-content materials (carburizing materials), such as coke, anthracite, coal, or charcoal. When this process is used for producing steel, the metallic part of the charge consists entirely of steel scrap, in contrast to other versions of the open-hearth process, where the charge contains 30–80 percent cast iron. In the semicarburization process the metallic charge contains a small quantity of cast iron (3–5 percent); the balance is steel scrap. Both of these processes are used only when cast iron is not available or is in short supply within a given economic district. Some of the disadvantages of the carburization process for scrap are a lower output than that of other versions of the open-hearth process; a shortened period of furnace trouble-free operation (because of the increased heat consumption and the increased time required to smelt the charge); an increased con-sumption of fuel and of deoxidizers; and usually a higher sulfurcontent of steel (since the sulfur contained in the carburizingmaterials ends up in the steel).