Summary
This manual covers not only refractories as heat-resistant materials but also as they are used for acid-proof construction. The manual discusses the various ways in which refractories are classified, their manufacture, the methods used to evaluate their physical and chemical properties, their properties, guidelines for designing refractory structures, installation, repair, maintenance and applications. Avoidance of problems and difficulties with refractories is emphasized.
Refractories, or heat-resistant materials as they are sometimes called, are used in innumerable industrial processes involving heat or high temperature. Refractories may be defined as materials of construction, which are capable of withstanding elevated temperatures and are used to contain heat as well as solid, liquid or gaseous substances in a structure.
Frequently, as in the chemical process industries, refractory applications are at comparatively low or moderate temperatures; but the term is still applied universally, as for example in the case of acid-proof construction.
Most refractory products are sold in the form of brick and shapes, which are mortared or placed together in the furnace or other vessel. However, advances in refractories technology over the last twenty-five years have brought forth many new products known as monolithic refractory materials or specialty products. These include such refractory products as castables, plastics, ramming mixes, gunning mixes, mortars and bulk products. In many instances, these specialty products will give equal or more economical service than the more conventional brick and mortar construction.
