Basic Open-Hearth Furnaces (ec40458a-acb1-44ac-82aa-67f85cea34dc)

APPROXIMATELY 90 per cent of the steel that is melted and refined in the United States and poured into ingots is made in basic open-hearth furnaces, as shown in Table 1-1. The annual ingot capacity of the steel industry reported January 1,1950, by the American Iron and Steel Institute8* was 99,040,160 tons, of which the basic open-hearth process accounted for 85,896,580 tons, 86.7 per cent of the total. The capacity of the individual furnaces varies over a wide range, a large majority falling within limits of 50 to 200 tons (Fig 1-1). Most of the units constructed [ ] since 1942 are in the larger size groups, between 175 and 225 tons capacity.