Open hearth furnaces aid in removing impurities from pig iron used in steel production. The process involves igniting chemical activity with open flames and hot air. The furnace was the industry standard until the early 1900s, but has since been replaced by more efficient technologies.
Open hearth furnaces are furnaces that are often used in steel production. Designed with a shallow hearth and a lower roof than other furnace designs, the open furnace creates an environment that aids in the removal of impurities from the pig iron used in the steelmaking process. Industrial furnaces of this type have been used as the primary method of steelmaking for several years and is still the most common approach in many areas of the world.
The actual open-hearth furnace operation process allows the cast iron to be positioned so that the combination of open flames and hot air generated within the furnace can ignite the chemical activity needed to produce the steel. Sometimes known as a reverberatory melt furnace, the flames pass over the material as the hot air helps intensify the heat within the hearth to the desirable level. While the essential elements of this approach have been used in limited applications for centuries, the development of a true open hearth oven occurred during the middle part of the 19th century and it became the industry standard within a few decades. For the most part, the open hearth furnace remained the most viable method of making steel until the early 1919s.
One of the main benefits of using an open hearth furnace is the ability to draw impurities out of cast iron as it is subjected to extreme temperatures. The end result is a steel that is more durable and able to withstand greater levels of stress. Thanks to this particular approach to steel production, beams and other types of building materials were produced which allowed the creation of taller buildings, as well as the construction of machinery and other devices containing steel components that could withstand heavy stresses and use .
Over time, the open hearth furnace has lost ground to new technologies that have made it possible to remove impurities and produce higher quality steels, while also reducing production costs. Much of the reduction in production costs is due to the development of more energy efficient alternative methods, such as the electric arc furnace or the oxygen furnace. Although no longer in common use worldwide, the open hearth oven is still used in some countries, although production is normally on a much smaller scale than it was a few decades ago.
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