Abstract

Soft purging has turned into an indispensable process step in Secondary Metallurgy for the production of low inclusion steel grades. The effectiveness of soft purging depends considerably on the design of the purging plugs used for this purpose. Water modeling studies comparing different plug designs have been carried out and the main parameters for optimum soft purging have been identified. Based on these parameters a quantitative description and ranking of the suitability of several plug types for soft purging will be given. Finally a roadmap for the development of improved soft purging plugs will be outlined.