Theoretical and experimental research of molybdenum oxide alloying for 316L stainless steel smelting process

Thermodynamic studies were carried out to investigate the effects of temperature, molten metal composition on the relationship among MoO3, CaMoO4 and ??Fe??, ??Mn??, ??C??, ??Si??, ??Cr?? during the AOD remelting process. The calculated results show that MoO3 and CaMoO4 can easily be reduced by its reactions with active alloying elements during the refining process of 316L stainless steel. First of all, the feasibility of molybdenum oxide alloying for 316L stainless steel smelting was proved theoretically. Then an industrial test of 316L stainless steel alloyed with molybdenum oxide was performed in a 180t AOD furnace. The results show that the molybdenum oxide has no influence on composition of inclusions in the steel and quality of the cold rolling plate. Above all, molybdenum oxide used as alloying material during AOD of 316L stainless steel is applied in TISCO factory, which can relieve the environmental contamination burden from ferro- molybdenum alloying during the AOD process.