Bessemer Process

: STEEL MAKING
: The Working Of Steel

The bessemer process consists of charging molten pig iron into

a huge, brick-lined pot called the bessemer converter, and then

in blowing a current of air through holes in the bottom of the

vessel into the liquid metal.



The air blast burns the white hot metal, and the temperature increases.

The action is exactly similar to what happens in a fire box under

forced draft. And in both cases some parts of the aterial burn

easier and more quickly than others. Thus it is that some of the

impurities in the pig iron--including the carbon--burn first, and

if the blast is shut off when they are gone but little of the iron

is destroyed. Unfortunately sulphur, one of the most dangerous

impurities, is not expelled in the process.



A bessemer converter is shown in Fig. 1, while Fig. 2 shows the

details of its construction. This shows how the air blast is forced

in from one side, through the trunnion, and up through the metal.

Where the steel is finished the converter is tilted, or swung on

its trunnions, the blast turned off, and the steel poured out of

the top.