The 110T ladles at this mini-mill making rail and structural steel, have average campaigns of 70 heats using brick sidewalls and flat precast bottoms. After every heat, the average amount of steel left in the ladle was approximately 1.18 tons.

To improve yield in the ladle, the formation of the draining vortex must be controlled and delayed. Vesuvius takes a customized, engineered approach with each ladle to understand the fluid dynamics impacting operating conditions, and to design and supply a customized precast bottom that will hold contour, enhance draining and improve yield.

The ELBY™ precast ladle bottom system utilizes two proprietary technologies to improve ladle yield. Computational Fluid Dynamics. CFD simulates the drainage of an individual ladle in order to custom design the ELBY™ bottom, and NUMAX™ MONOLITHIC REFRACTORY SYSTEMS technology maximizes wear resistance to maintain the profile of the yield enhancing geometry.

After ruing 120 campaigns, the performance of the ELBY™ system improved the yield by 55%, reducing the toage lost per heat from 1.18 tons to 0.54 tons. Assuming 12,000 heats per year, this is about 7,700 T of molten saved per year, and a substantial cost saving for the plant.

Link