8th International Congress on Science and Technology of Ironmaking - ICSTI 2018

> Primarily used in the high heat zones of the furnace the copper stave has proved to be a hugely popular choice for blast furnace cooling. Despite its many successes, some plants have suffered with copper stave problems in two particular areas: stave bending (leading to water leaks at back of the stave) and stave wear (erosion on the hot face). The root causes of these failures can be defined by a number of factors including the furnace profile, the design and fixing of the stave, and the operation of the furnace. Primetals has had great success with copper staves, but understands the need to develop solutions for those plants with problems, and to provide a more robust solution to take copper staves to the next generation. This paper will describe the technology that Primetals’ blast furnace technology team have developed.