たたら製鉄の炉内反応機構と操業技術

抄録

"Tatara" was a traditional box-type furnace in Japan and had produced steel and pig iron directly until 1923. After then, because of the low productivity, Tatara was not commercially operated but only for producing the materials of Japanese sword in little. In 1977 with the blank ages after the World War II, Japan Institute of Art Japanese Sword reconstructed the Tatara furnace, called "Nittoho Tatara". Then, Mr. Yoshizo Abe as a leader "Murage" realized his own technique for the Tatara operation because of the technique transfer only by oral instruction to the Murage's family. The 3rd Tatara operation in 1999 winter has been studied on the effect of fire flame (so called "Hose") and sound from furnace, the color and viscosity of slag (so called "Noro") flowed out from furnace and the condition of tuyers to the productivity of "Kera" including steel (so called "Tamahagane") and pig iron (so called "Zuku"), etc. This operation met the trouble of air blowing to the furnace in the final stage. Though many efforts had been made to recover the stable operation, the activity of furnace was stopped in shorter operation time than the other two operations. From the experiences of the recover, the fundamental treatments to make the operation stable have been cleared and also the reaction mechanisms to produce.