What is the ferroalloy?

        Adding various metal and non-metal elements to iron steel can create a variety of high-tech materials with various properties and multiple uses. However, most of these metals and non-metals cannot or should not be directly added to the molten steel in the state of pure metal and non-metal element monomers during steelmaking. For example, the melting points of metals such as tungsten, molybdenum, and niobium are too high, which is more than double the steelmaking temperature. The steelmaking temperature is about 1600 ° C, while the melting point of tungsten is as high as 3380 ° C, the melting point of molybdenum is 2600 ° C, and the melting point of niobium is 2500 ° C. It is difficult to melt in molten steel, and the specific gravity of these metals is too high. The specific gravity of liquid steel is about 7 g / ml, while the specific gravity of tungsten is as high as 19.3 g / ml, the specific gravity of vanadium and titanium is low, the specific gravity of titanium is 4.5 g / ml, and the vanadium is 6.1 g / ml. Melting point is high, vanadium is 1860 ℃, titanium is 1690 ℃, and it is easy to oxidize. It is oxidized and burned a lot on the liquid surface of the steel, the loss is too large, and it is difficult to control the content. The production process of the single metal is complicated and the production cost is high. Therefore, it is not suitable to be directly added to the molten steel in the state of pure metal and non-metal monomer.

       To this end, metallurgists have researched and produced alloys of these elements and iron, which are called "iron alloys". The melting point of these elements is similar to that of steel, and the specific gravity is similar to that of steel, and it is not easy to oxidize. The production process is simpler than that of the pure metal and nonmetal. Therefore, ferroalloys have become important materials in the steelmaking and new materials industries.