Iron Powder from Iron Oxide Produced by Waste Pickling Liquor Treatment

Abstract

Iron powders were made from iron oxides by the method of reduction with coke and subsequently with hydrogen. These iron oxides were obtained as a by-product from waste pickling liquor in steel industry. Various properties of these iron powders were tested and measured. The characteristics obtained were as follows:
1) Iron powders made from fine oxide particles had low apparent density and irregular shapes compared with those from ore and mill-scale.
2) Compressibility was not so good, but compactibility was excellent. Mechanical strength of green compacts was very high, and the rattler value was very small.
3) The mechanical strength of these sintered compacts was high in comparison with commercial reduced iron powders and the elongation was especially high at high sintered density.
4) The lower is the hydrogen loss of iron powders, the higher both green and sintered densities were obtained then dimensional change (shrinkage) was small and the elongation was much improved.
It was found that these iron powders produced by reduction of iron oxides, which were made as a byproduct from waste pickling liquor, had many interesting properties, especially in compactibility and mechanical strength of both green and sintered compacts.