MIT venturi vacuum degassing for steel

Developed at MIT mechanical engineering in the 1940s. Brief in-passing reference within the BOF→tundish process flow.

After the BOF converter, you may do argon bubbling to get even lower carbon. You can do degassing — actually pulling a vacuum using this venturi technique that was developed at MIT mechanical engineering in the 1940s. You can degas the steel, pour it into a ladle, transport it by the cranes into a tundish, which is stationary, a holding vessel, and they control the rate of casting into this little vibrating copper mold which might be about 10 feet high, water-cooled copper. The steel comes out red hot and you actually can bend it with rolls, turn it horizontal and cut it off into big slabs about 10 inches thick.

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