Improving the Efficiency and Durability of Blast Furnace Air Tuyere Through Different Ceramic Coating Materials

Blast air tuyeres are one of the critical components of a blast furnace that are exposed to severe conditions caused by thermal shocks, mechanical erosion, hot chemical corrosion, wettability caused by penetration of molten cast iron, and cracks caused by the thermal cycle. These factors decrease the lifetime of air tuyeres, causing unpredictable failure and costly production stoppages. The present study investigates the protection performance of three types of atmospheric plasma-sprayed ceramic coatings on air tuyeres against the harsh operating environment. As the substrate of air tuyeres, 99.95% pure copper is coated with Yttria Stabilized Zirconia YSZ8%, alumina-zirconia (AZ) and alumina-magnesia (AM). The performance of these three coatings was evaluated using mechanical wear and erosion tests, chemical hot corrosion tests, micro-hardness adhesion strength tests, and porosity measurements. Based on the results, AZ and AM coatings generally performed better than YSZ8% coating in all above-mentioned tests excluding the adhesion strength test. In the adhesion strength test, the AZ coating performance was found to be close to that of YSZ8% coating. Meanwhile, in the mechanical erosion and wear tests, the AM coating outperformed and underperformed the AZ coating, respectively. The porosity of AZ coating was also close to that of AM coating. Hence, it is expected that the blast air tuyere with AZ and AM coatings can offer better performance in blast furnace due to their superior metallurgical and mechanical properties. However, in practice, the AZ coating outperformed the AM coating in BF due to a three-fold increase in the lifecycle.