ALUMINIUM INDUSTRY


Aluminium industry

In anode baking furnaces, andalusite is used in purely andalusite based bricks and in combination with high duty fireclay bricks. Pure andalusite bricks are applied as tie bricks

in open furnaces where andalusite provides its high creep resistance and refractoriness under load.
The addition of andalusite in high duty fireclay bricks (flue wall bricks or cassette bricks) provides:

an increase of the thermal-mechanical stability i.e. the refractoriness under load, creep resistance and thermal shock resistance

a decrease of the thermal expansion

an improvement of the chemical resistance especially to sodium vapour and CO attack.

Consequently, the combination andalusite - high duty fireclay limits the wall deformation and consequently increases the service life of open and closed anode baking furnaces.

In the secondary aluminium process, andalusite based castables are chosen for the applications where high thermal shock resistance is required such as side wall and arch of melting or holding furnaces, burners.