A synthetic material, SiC, used as grain in castables and as bricks and shapes bonded with clay, silicon nitride or oxynitride. It conducts heat many times better than oxide refractories, resists abrasion and thermal shock, and is not wetted by many molten metals. It shows up in kiln furniture, blast furnace bosh and lower stack, aluminum and zinc furnaces, incinerators and cyclones. In oxidizing atmospheres at high temperature it slowly converts to silica and swells.
Put nitride-bonded silicon carbide on the aluminum furnace belly band, the alumina brick is growing corundum.
Also heard as
- SiC
- carbide
- nitride-bonded SiC
Related terms
Thermal conductivity
How readily a material conducts heat, the number used to size lining layers and predict shell temperature.
Abrasion resistance
How well a refractory stands up to scouring by moving solids, usually measured by the ASTM C704 test.
Thermal shock resistance
Ability of a refractory to survive rapid temperature changes without cracking and spalling.