Ferro Silicon

Ferro Silicon Properties

Ferrosilicon, or ferrosilicium, is a ferroalloy an alloy of iron and silicon with between 15% and 90% silicon. It contains a high proportion of iron silicides. Its melting point is about 1200 ¡ãC to 1250 ¡ãC with a boiling point of 2355 ¡ãC. It also contains about 1% to 2% of calcium and aluminium.

Ferro Silicon Application

Ferrosilicon is used as a source of silicon to deoxidize steel and other ferrous alloys. This prevents the loss of carbon from the molten steel ferromanganese, spiegeleisen, silicides of calcium, and many other materials are used for the same purpose. It can be used to make other ferroalloys. It is also used for manufacture of silicon, corrosion-resistant and high-temperature resistant ferrous silicon alloys, and silicon steel for electromotors and transformer cores. In manufacture of cast iron, ferro silicon is used for inoculation of the iron to accelerate graphitization. In arc welding, it can be found in some electrode coatings.

It is a basis for manufacture of prealloys like magnesium ferrosilicon (FeSiMg), used for modification of melted malleable iron. FeSiMg contains 3¨C42% magnesium and small amounts of rare earth metals. Ferrosilicon is also important as an additive to cast irons for controlling the initial content of silicon.

It is also used in the Pidgeon process to make magnesium from dolomite.