Recycling of steel slag as a flux for submerged arc welding process

Abstract

The population, industrialization, and boosting economy are increasing day by day which requires resources, whether natural or manufactured. Even for man made resources somewhere, we depend upon natural resources. The natural resources are depleting at a faster rate. It is a very serious problem since future generations will be in trouble due to the scarcity of resources. Additionally, the waste generated after using these natural resources is giving back to nature which is not fair for humanity and biodiversity. Instead of mining natural resources, it is the sole responsibility of researchers to reduce, reuse and recycle the waste. Since waste generated by various industries is a great challenge in front of human beings. Steel slag is one of them, which is generated during the steel making process. In this process, the pure steel is extracted from the furnace and the steel slag is dumped in the landfill space, creating many problems such as the requirement of landfill space, soil pollution, water pollution, air pollution, global warming, and its non biodegradable nature, etc. In the present study, a novel technology has been developed that allows the recycling of steel slag as a flux for the submerged arc welding process. Since manufacturing flux again depends upon natural resources. The flux requires chemicals and alloying elements which are extracted from nature. Steel slag has the necessary potential to manufacture submerged arc welding flux. After making flux from steel slag, it is referred to as recycled steel slag which is used as a flux in the submerged arc welding process. newline