Steel Bessemer, oxygen-furnace

Steel manufacture Iron is converted to steel by the Bessemer process or in the basic oxygen furnace. 

Top-Blown Basic Oxygen Process. The top-blown basic oxygen process is conducted ia a cylindrical furnace somewhat similar to a Bessemer converter. This furnace has a dished bottom without holes and a tmncated cone-shaped top section ia which the mouth of the vessel is located. The furnace shell is made of steel plates ca 50-mm thick it is lined with refractory 600—1200-mm thick (11). 

In modem steel (qv) manufacture, pebble quicklime is used as a flux in the basic oxygen, basic open-hearth, basic Bessemer, and basic electric furnaces. 

Steels are manufactured by the basic-oxygen process (L-D process), which has largely replaced the Bessemer process and the open-hearth process, or in electrical furnaces. 

Steel is made from pig iron chiefly by the open-hearth process (by which over 80% of that produced in the United States is made), the Bessemer process, and the oxygen top-blowing process. In each process either a basic or an acidic lining may be used in the furnace or converter. A basic lining (lime, magnesia, or a mixture of the two) is used if the pig iron contains elements, such as phosphorus, that form acidic oxides, and an acidic lining (silica) if the pig iron contains base-forming elements. 

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