Refractories
Fused minerals have hundreds of different applications as refractory materials due to their ability to withstand continuous exposure to the combination of heat, corrosion, abrasion and impact. Choosing the proper refractory material for an application is critical because poor quality materials can lead to excessive maintenance and equipment failure – resulting in recurring downtime, lost production and erosion of profits.
Our refractory materials are used to extend equipment life wherever reliable control or containment of high temperature processes is critical. For every refractory application, Washington Mills offers the optimum solution: a fused material with the ideal chemistry and structure for the type of wear resistant protection required, perfectly suited for use in manufacturing your end-product. We manufacture a wide range of grit sizes in precise, uniform compositions and with desired mechanical strength, chemical stability, thermal conductivity, abrasion and corrosion resistance to meet your application challenges.
Products:
Brown Fused Alumina
Aluminum oxide grain is widely used in dense, high temperature, unshaped refractory products.
Applications:
- ramming and gunning mixes
- castables
- loose grain for the iron, steel and foundry industries
Products: DURALUM RF | DURALUM RF HR | DURALUM RF K-5 DCF
Fused Mullite and Zirconia Mullite
Fused Mullite (Bayer-process alumina and high purity silica) and Zirconia Mullite (fused calcined alumina and zircon sand) are for applications demanding low thermal expansion, excellent thermal shock resistance, excellent hot strength under load, and high resistance to spalling or corrosion.
Applications:
- kilns
- slide gates
- nozzles and lances
- glass industry furnace bricks
- burner pots
- flue gas heat extractors
- setters/saggers for firing electronic substrates
- spark plug bodies
- laboratory ware
- ceramic pressure casting tubes
Products: DURAMUL, DURAMUL E.G , DURAMUL ZR
White Fused Alumina
Fused Bayer process alumina offers added purity at elevated temperatures in bonded products and loose grain; and in lower density form as hollow spheres or bubbles.
Applications:
- light-weight insulating refractories
- high alumina refractory mixes
- applications requiring low thermal conductivity
Products: DURALUM White RF & RF/HD | DURALUM White RF S2 | DURALUM AB
Silicon Carbide
High purity silicon carbide grain (fused quartz and coke) is used in bonded refractory products requiring exceptionally high thermal conductivity, chemical stability, hot strength, and resistance to thermal shock or corrosion from gases, acids, slags and melted metals.
Applications:
- blast furnace linings and stacks
- kiln furniture
- incinerators
- heating elements
Products: CARBOREX No 1 RF | CARBOREX Type “P” | CARBOREX C-5
Fused Spinel
Fused Spinel grain (magnesia and Bayer-process alumina or bauxite) improves slag resistance in castables, and shaped refractories for aluminum and magnesium metal contact.
Applications:
- brick for cement and lime rotary kiln linings
- brick for glass furnace regenerators
- protective coatings on zirconia oxygen sensors in automobile fuel tanks
Products: SP-27 | Bauxite Spinel
Fused Zirconia
Fused Zirconia (monoclinic, calcia-stabilized grain/bubbles and zirconia-alumina-silica grain) offers low thermal conductivity, a high melting point and chemical inertness (in oxidizing and reducing atmospheres).
Applications:
- bioceramics
- automobile engine oxygen sensors
- advanced ceramic tool/die/equipment and component parts
- slide gates and nozzles for the steel industry
- fused cast brick for glass furnaces
- kiln furniture setters for firing electro-ceramics
- nuclear industry construction materials
Products: DURAZON MCG | DURAZON CSB | DURAZON AGG | DURAMUL ZR
Boron Carbide
Boron Carbide is one of the hardest man-made materials. It boasts a finite melting point low enough to permit relatively easy fabrication into shapes, plus chemical inertness and high neutron absorption cross section.
Applications:
- wear parts
- nuclear reactor control rods
- neutron absorbing shielding
- anti-oxidants for carbon-bonded refractory mixes
- armor
Products: Boron Carbide
Fused Mag-Chrome
Fused Mag-Chrome (fused magnesia-chrome grain) has good mechanical strength and volume stability at high temperatures, plus exceptional resistance to corrosion by chemically basic slags.
Applications:
- refractories (brick, castables, plastics, ramming mixes)
- steel and copper industries