Resumen de Smelting point? An update on major refractories for glass smelters

Industrial Minerals

• The biggest application area for fused cast refractories, mostly AZS and aluminas, is in smelters used to produce glass for large volume markets, like containers and flat glass. Some speciality glass production also uses high-zirconia fused cast (HZFC) refractories, typically in the making of FPD glass (particularly with Corning's fusion technology, but also in the float process), due to the requirement for the glass to be of very high quality.

  As an alternative to chrome-based refractories, AZS-molybdenum (Mo) composite fused cast blocks have emerged from the R&D departments of some major western refractory producers. In these materials, a molybdenum sheet is embedded into the fused cast block, a few millimetres beneath the surface. After the wearing down of the AZS surface layer, the molybdenum sheet is directly exposed to the glass contact, providing long term protection to the rest of AZS block. Molybdenum is used because it is a refractory metal with extremely high resistance to glass corrosion.