(1) Used as a deoxidizer and alloying agent in the steelmaking industry. In order to obtain chemically qualified steel and ensure its quality, deoxidation must be carried out in the final stage of steelmaking. Silicon has a strong chemical affinity with oxygen, so ferrosilicon is a strong oxygen scavenger used in steelmaking for precipitation and diffusion deoxygenation. Adding a certain amount of silicon to steel can significantly improve its strength, hardness, and elasticity. Therefore, ferrosilicon is also used as an alloying agent when smelting structural steel (containing 0.40-1.75% silicon), Tool steel (containing 30-1.8% silicon), spring steel (containing 40-2.8% silicon) and silicon steel for transformers (containing 2.81-4.8% silicon).
In addition, in the steelmaking industry, the use of silicon iron powder, which can release a large amount of heat during the high-temperature burning process of olefins, is often used as a heating agent for steel ingot caps to improve the quality and recovery rate of steel ingots.
(2) Used as an inoculant and spheroidizer in the cast iron industry. Cast iron is an important metal material in modern industry, which is cheaper than steel, easy to melt and smelt, and has excellent casting performance and much better seismic resistance than steel. Especially for ductile iron, its mechanical properties reach or approach those of steel. Adding a certain amount of ferrosilicon to cast iron can prevent the formation of carbides and promote the precipitation and spheroidization of graphite. Therefore, ferrosilicon is an important inoculant (which helps to precipitate graphite) and spheroidizing agent in the production of ductile iron.
(3) Used as a reducing agent in ferroalloy production. Not only does silicon have a high chemical affinity with oxygen, but high silicon ferrosilicon also has a low carbon content. Therefore, high silicon ferrosilicon (or siliceous alloys) is a commonly used reducing agent in the production of low-carbon ferroalloys in the ferroalloy industry.
(4) 75 # ferrosilicon is commonly used in the high-temperature smelting process of magnesium metal by the skin gold method. Magnesium in CaO. Replace MgO. Each ton of metal magnesium produced will consume approximately 1.2 tons of ferrosilicon, which plays a significant role in the production of metal magnesium.
(5）Other uses. After fine grinding or atomization treatment, ferrosilicon powder can be used as a suspended phase in the mineral processing industry. It can be used as a coating for welding rods in the welding rod manufacturing industry. High silicon ferrosilicon can be used in the chemical industry to manufacture products such as silicone.
Among these uses, the steelmaking industry, casting industry, and ferroalloy industry are the largest users of ferrosilicon. They consume over 90% of ferrosilicon in total. Among various grades of ferrosilicon, 75% ferrosilicon is the most widely used. In the steelmaking industry, every ton of steel produced consumes approximately 3-5 kilograms of 75% ferrosilicon. The grade and chemical composition of ferrosilicon.
