Basic Knowledge of Silicon Manganese Alloy

Manganese and silicon are the main alloying elements used in carbon steel. Manganese is one of the most important Oxygen scavenger in the process of steelmaking. Almost all steel grades need to be deoxidized with manganese. Because the oxygen products generated when using manganese for deoxidation have a lower melting point and are easy to float up; Manganese can also increase the deoxidation effect of strong Oxygen scavenger such as silicon and aluminum. All industrial steel requires the addition of a small amount of manganese as a desulfurizer to enable hot rolling, forging, and other processes without fracture. Manganese is also the most important alloying element in various steel grades, and more than 15% manganese is also added to alloy steel to increase its structural strength. Silicon is the most important alloying element in pig iron and carbon steel, second only to manganese. In steel production, silicon is mainly used as a Oxygen scavenger for molten metal, or as an alloy additive to increase the strength and improve the performance of steel. Silicon is also an effective graphitization medium, which can convert carbon in cast iron into free graphite carbon. The silicon content in standard Gray iron and nodular cast iron can reach 4%. A large amount of manganese and silicon are added to the molten steel in the form of ferroalloys: manganese iron, silicon manganese, and silicon iron.
The raw materials for producing manganese silicon alloy include manganese ore, manganese rich slag, silica, coke, dolomite (or limestone), and fluorite. The production of manganese silicon alloy can use one type of manganese ore or a mixture of several manganese ores (including manganese rich slag). Due to the requirement that manganese silicon alloy has lower iron and phosphorus content than high carbon manganese iron, manganese ore for smelting manganese silicon alloy is required to have a higher manganese iron ratio and manganese phosphorus ratio. The higher the manganese content of the manganese ore used, the better the various indicators.