UrBC, Magnitogorsk, July 31, 2018. MMK Group’s Shlakservis is about to start making a new type of ground-granulated slag mix that is currently unique to Russia and other NIS member states, MMK’s Information & PR Department reports.

The slag is used in the process of steel-pouring at CC machines. Shlakservis has been making this product since 1992 and has had both the granulated slag and the technology patented by the Russian Patent & Trademark Agency. Last year, the company researchers cooperated with casting labs at G.I. Nosov Moscow State Technical University and Peter the Great Saint Petersburg Polytechnic University to develop a new slag composition now known as THERMOISOLIT. The new slag is part of the company’s import substitution program and is being tested at MMK’s CC machine at the moment, with very good results. Once the testing has been completed, the slag mix will get made on a serial scale. A number of other metallurgical companies, including Severstal, grew interested in the new product; Severstal is even testing the new slag at its own premises as well.

Ground-granulated slag is used extensively in the continuous steel-casting sector throughout the world. Unlike slag powders, this variety doesn’t disintegrate into separate layers during storage and transportation, has enhanced heat insulation properties, spreads very smoothly around the liquid metal surface, and gives off considerably less dust and other harmful emissions. Granulated slag also allows for efficient casting of electrotechnical, low-carbon, carbon-bearing, alloyed, and low-alloy steels.