Blast Furnace Tap Hole opening

[@kenstevens5065]

On leaving school and before starting my career I worked as a temp employed as sample lad at Appleby Frodingham blast furnaces, UK. Gap years hadn't been invented way back in1968! It was so hot and I couldn't believe how dangerous. This was well before health and safety but I experienced a camaradrie I never witnessed again in my working life.

[@ricardocortez9518]

I worked there from 1981 to 1986. That was the drill that opens the clay plug. Notice the man changing the drill bit after it dulls On the left is a clay gun. Looks like a cannon. Shoots clay into the tap hole after the pour is complete. There’s another tap hole on the other side of the furnace. This was a continuous pour 24 hrs a day Extremely hot and dangerous

[@MeaHeaR]

Can you bieng answer 2 question for me ???

[@Gunbudder]

This is one of those things that has to be done at scale. as far as i know, you can't really run a small DIY blast furnace (like you could with other types of furnaces). it always amazes me how much energy it takes to run a blast furnace. it also reminds me why the strongest unions are metal workers! talk about high risk work

[@NewEverythang]

​@@MeaHeaR спрашивай

[@phuturephunk]

@@Gunbudder This is correct. Not only do you have to do it at scale ( Building a 10-15 story high furnace with matching cowper stoves) but you have to run it for years at a time between rebuild/re-lines to make it economical. That and many times the blast heat is shared between your blast furnace and coking battery, so you run both in tandem. Takes an incredible amount of gas and energy to run effectively and you cannot interrupt it once it gets spun up. To put it in perspective, there was a steel strike either in the 70's or 80's in Australia where, even though the steel shop was shut down, the workers working the blast furnace just kept making hot metal and dumping it in the yard because the workers and union knew that if they ever let the hearth in the furnace go cold, they would have scrapped the entire mill. That is how expensive it is to start and stop these things. Same thing with the blizzard of 78 at Lackawanna in Buffalo. They kept making hot metal and dumping it in the yard because if they stopped, would have scrapped the whole plant.

[@jacobsandler438]

Had seen casting house operation at BF#1 BF#2 personally in 1987-88 on my way back to home after metallurgy classes at junior college (self-organized field trip). Observed how on-duty shift drained slag and iron into different ladles. Common casting houses between furnaces it's standard practice. A few words about its environment of the casting house: hot, stinks of different fumes and gases, very dusty, a lot of small graphite flakes in the air. By the way, those small graphite flakes fly everywhere in the town, they come with the iron, when it's draining through the tap hole.

[@lisk3822]

The guy trying to tap the furnace and the guys trying to coax the pig iron out are nuts. No flame retardant coats, very little protection.

[@jacobsandler438]

In my days at steel mill for areas, where conducted operations with molten stuff the only fire-retardant clothing was a very thick wool cloth pants and jackets, not even coats. For areas with molten iron like similar casting sheds and foundries, operation employees were issued also a thick wool cloth hats, wearing over hard hats. Most of mechanics, electricians didn't get even canvas clothing, and got 100% cotton clothing instead. For canvas clothing were eligible mostly only welders. Fire-retardant gloves are sewn from the same very thick wool cloth and lined with thick pig skin leather like NFL footballs. For most of operational employees issue canvas gloves. Lace-up boots are made from the same pig skin leather and every operation employee was eligible for a pair from a material shop, where all work clothing issue to all employees.

[@mikelastname]

Amazing. Their asbestos suits looked just like jeans and denim jackets - That's some serious PPE right there.

[@yogeeshgarudangiri5148]

lancing with oxygen spoils the tap hole, it's always drilled with a pneumatically operated drilling machine, 40 yrs ago we used mud gun machine for closing the tap hole by Dango Denienthal from Germany( i am not sure about the spellin) , superb machine.

[@user-qr4zu5lq3n]

also us , we using drilling for opening the taphole but sometimes the drilling machine straggle to open it and that happens for short blug with the mud gun or changing N chemistry

[@allawa]

This is really cool I've never seen this before!

[@squa_81]

cool, more like brning hot x)

[@squa_81]

this is what i call badass.

[@blockstacker5614]

Those mechanical arms are amazing

[@carlmorgan8452]

Only way to go

[@ricardocortez9518]

The iron comes down the trough to a tilting runner that shifts the iron to torpedo copalas under the floor which are moved by train

[@gragor11]

Looks like a precarious spot to change a drill bit

[@jondvorak6604]

did this job for 40 years. Made some crazy good money but the work was hot and hard but worth it

[@ALNunnery]

@@jondvorak6604 imma 3rd generation truck driver .28 yrs now . Papaw started a fleet of trucks hauling steel outta ARMCO steel in Ashland KY. . I was born and raised in trucking going in and out of them steel mills all summer long in between school I got to go in a bunch of them... Look back in the '80s and '70s they didn't have all these strict rules about riders and trucks coming into the Mills and such.. I love getting to go in the steel mills... You worked a hard job sir.... Preciate-It Greatly

[@faizanali-nk7qp]

Is this from Jindal steel and power limited because in same blast furnace I have worked.

[@ricardocortez9518]

The drill and the mud gun were hydraulic. I was a Electrician there. I was so happy I didn’t have to get real close. Except to change a thermostat that checks iron temperature

[@Blackcountrysteam]

Surprised you never been up close as an Electrician at Bilston, Elizabeth and I had some close encounters the one I recall best was when the clay gun refused to move and the tap hole counld'nt be plugged gota bit warm on that job

[@jaycousland9835]

Impressive!Is iron ever held in the furnace like in a cupola,or is it always an open stream?

[@joedixon1821]

Held between casts and occasionally for a few hours at a time . Any time that furnace has any wind on it , it is making iron . Whether the hole is open or not

[@marlisvontoggenburg2613]

Der Hochofen. Koks, Erz und Sauerstoff

[@simzeero]

would love to visit a plant and see this live

[@dask1516]

Is this old inland in east Chicago? I was there in the early 2000's I was on the construction crew that build the new cooling tower they put it on the old Open hearth slab.. used to be LTV steel I don't know if that's still in operation or not

[@RETIREDAMATUER]

Ltv hasn’t been around for quite some time, pretty sure they were based out of Cleveland Ohio my papaw was a hot metal crane operator there and I have several dog tags and paperwork from the old ltv

[@markramsay6399]

wow! I recall Redcar (Uk)

[@johnr3310]

why pre lance the hole? That has to be a huge furnace though just from the visible tuyeres.

[@Robertx19]

I sometimes wonder, during normal operation is there enough insulation to where you can go up and touch the furnace?

[@Highland_Moo]

I doubt it…..it’d be like touching Satan’s anus!

[@UriNierer]

if you wear the right gloves, ofcourse you can touch it

[@Robertx19]

@@UriNierer bucket list item acquired

[@ricardocortez9518]

The noise you hear is the hot air from the stoves That’s the mud gun !!!

[@osmariobrito7776]

O que eles estão fazendo aí? É o processo de limpeza do alto-forno?

[@NewEverythang]

Сверлят отверстие в огнеупорной массе, для того чтобы высвободить продукты плавки из печи, которые в ней скопились.

[@osmariobrito7776]

@@NewEverythang Ah! Ok! Agradeço-lhe pela explicação. Boa noite.

[@douro20]

Dneprohydromach drill?

[@dingur1212]

I'm familiar with Dneprohydromach but this one actually is TMT great machine

[@wayneheigl5549]

those men have balls of steel , lol lol . just getting that close to it is so dangerous.

[@abelregaw8768]

I would like to know more what is the purpose of tapping?

[@Blackcountrysteam]

purpose of tapping ? It's done to release the iron from the furnace, the iron then is taken off for the next proccess wherI worked it was taken into the melfting shopwhere it was kept in two large rotary furnace and then drawn off to be added into the open hearth furneces

[@ThumperKJFK]

Question, What is that low frequency Booom that we keep hearing? Very impressive video. Thank you.

[@shermanyoung8185]

That's the sound of the molten iron coming out under pressure makein contact with the cooler open air 😎

[@dingur1212]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/gl7FqWate62Cm8k There is the answer ;)

[@ricardocortez9518]

East Chicago Indiana.

[@bulgingbattery2050]

It's important to stack hazard resistance.

[@windlockatc]

Especially when you are running the controls. Everyone else needs DPS.

[@bulgingbattery2050]

@@windlockatc Everyone goes up to the 2nd floor when Major Williams comes out so his riot foam seeker mines can't get you, and DPS him until he's down.

[@windlockatc]

@@bulgingbattery2050 thats what my Clan does. And the Furance is my favorite level too.

[@bulgingbattery2050]

@@windlockatc We usually have 1 healer, 1 crowd control, and everyone else DPS. CC uses decoy and riot foam.

[@GFSwinger1693]

Everytime there is a big boom the guy holding the camera shakes.

[@dingur1212]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/gl7FqWate62Cm8k that's why

[@jondvorak6604]

they are breaking up slag in the pit with a wrecking ball and a crane with a big magnet dropping the ball.

[@shadrackekowmoses1358]

how does the molten iron formef

[@rovhalgrencparselstedt8343]

There are several videos here on youtube that explains the processes taking place inside a blast furnace.

[@TheMNrailfan227]

Is this blast furnace B?

[@rovhalgrencparselstedt8343]

No. By 2019 HFB had as far as i know already been shut down and abandoned for 15-20 years. And if i'm not mistaken HFB, HF6(which was demolished a few years ago) and Beth steel all shut down around the same time period, way before camcorders with this sorta image quality even existed outside of tv broadcast studios. To see HFB and HF6 in action, you can look up PierreG or whatever his name was here on youtube, and you will find the image quality of the camcorder he used is about as good as a half worn out VHS tape. His videos basically depict the last pour before the furnaces shut down for good.

[@RailFanRob]

where is this? very cool by the way!!!

[@dingur1212]

Bhilai, India

[@joeyfrench4517]

It’s the molten iron

[@alesduron5183]

Where is it?

[@bulgingbattery2050]

You can get 10% hazard resistance on your mask, chest piece, holster, backpack, gloves and kneepads. Plus another 10% from your SHD levels. 3 pieces of eclipse protocol gearset gives 30% on top of all of that, so you can easily reach 100% hazard resistance to gain immunity to status effects for when the boss comes out.

[@Trident_Euclid]

@@bulgingbattery2050 lmao

[@stevegauthier6694]

Belgium

[@dingur1212]

Bhiai, India

[@Yug8834]

Bhilai steel plant, India

[@triple6758]

So this will make Pigs, correct?

[@Blackcountrysteam]

Maybe thats one use

[@Applyonline2027]

tap hole 01

[@ricardocortez9518]

#7 BF. Inland Steel. Not Mittal

[@generalpatton838]

Make America Great Again

[@blueblade455]

I'm confused as to why feminists never want this kind of job.

[@davidowens5898]

Yer kidding right? Why would any woman want a job like this? Moreover, wtf does not wanting this job have to do with feminism? You're mixing your prejudices: Had any babies lately? Spent 9 months pregnant? Nursed a baby? Spent 18 years caring for it? Putting up with your husbands non-sop bullshit? No? I didn't think so. I wouldn't want that job either. Being a father was difficult enough.

[@jabazAhmad-nu3ui]

JABAJAHMAD

[@BigAusYT]

worst helper ive ever seen cant even burn the hole open smh!

[@timothyroatenberry1274]

The steel mill I work for, if you where gay you better keep it two yourself, or you might wind up in a full slag pot !

[@Blackcountrysteam]

really

[@gary851]

gay mile... 1000 man... all gay... steel industry... so gay... so important

[@jondvorak6604]

you would NOT last 5 minutes on a blast furnace. I was a millwright on one for 40 years and we had a LOT of newbees run off the first time they tapped the furnace and never come back. Quit first day on the job they got so scared.

[@gary851]

@@jondvorak6604 I don't question it, it is hard demanding and important job and i have great respect for hard working people. It is just common knowledge that pretty much everyone who works in steel industry is gay - nothing wrong with that. As to what you wrote, some man run because work was to hard and most run because they probably weren't gay.

[@blueblade455]

@@gary851 You must work for the New York Times then. That's ok, it is a job I guess for most male feminists who work there. Spreading everyday lies and propaganda.

[@ricardocortez9518]

Sad comment many people die there