A Study On The Examination of the Sinter Metallographic Structure

Abstract

Sintering process is carried out domestic and imported iron ore powders, fluxes, coke dust, metallurgical recycling powders and slag forming agents. Nowadays, in order to obtain process and operating parameters that will work with the best sinter quality, extensive researches have been made by iron and steel industry. Sinter quality parameters followed by the sinter blend loaded on the sinter strand and then granulated were examined. We can obtain chemical analysis of the phases by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) technique, but full consistency with images is not always possible and especially SFCA (silico-ferrite of calcium and aluminium) and SFCA-I phases are difficult to distinguish from each other and future studies are required in this field. The mineralogy and microstructure of the sinter plays an important role in determining the physical and metallurgical properties of the iron ore sinter. Mineralogical characterization of sinter phases; it is a complementary tool to conventional physical and metallurgical tests applied to iron ore sinter to evaluate and estimate sinter quality. Measurement techniques used in this study; optical image analysis and X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy distribution spectroscopy (EDS), results from raw data converted to autoquan format will be explained on the new studies on the interpretation of the Rietveld system. Depending on the measurement objectives of each technique, the quantification of the crystal phases, the relationship between the measurement results, the chemical composition of the phases and the relations between the minerals, as well as their advantages and disadvantages will be explained.