Furnaces: Improving low cement castables by non-wetting additives

Aluminosilicate castables, which are widely used in aluminum transformation furnaces, are susceptible to chemical reactions between molten aluminum an d the furnace refractory lining. To prevent those reactions, commercial add itives such as BaSO4, CaF2, and AlF3 are generally added in castables. This article presents and analyzes the effect of various amounts of the above a dditives as well as the influence of pre-firing temperatures on the corrosi on behavior of an aluminosilicate low cement castable matrix in contact wit h liquid Al-5%Mg alloy.