PROJECTION BY SHOTCRETTING TECHNOLOGY OF CEMENT-FREE CONCRETE

Since 2015, Refractarios Alfran has been applying its concrete without cement (from the alfranjet drytech range) via shotcreting to increase thicknesses on the bricks of the torpedo cars at Arcelo Mittal in Asturias, in order to extent the lifetime of the original coating. These works involve first cleaning the surface of the worn down, to then be ably to apply the concrete without any metal anchoring directly on the worn down brick, with an average thickness of 70 mm. Alfran’s installation contributed several important improvements compared to traditional gunning methods: improved performance with cycles of over 500 equivalent runs and around 80,000 tons of transported pig iron, compared to 350 equivalent runs and 55,000 tons averages achieved using traditional gunning; eliminating intermediary downtime to repair openings; increased durability of the brick due to improved protection; reduction in installation times due to increased speed; reduced drying time since the concrete is installed without cement; improvement in conditions due to reduced dust and refuse; among many others. With this innovation by Alfran, Arcelo Mittal Asturias was able to considerably improve the transportation efficiency of pig iron by the torpedoes.