Effects of Vacuum Refining of Tool Steels in a Vacuum Arc Degassing Installation.

The results of studies show the possibility of attaining a significant improvement in the quality of steel through the use of the vacuum arc degassing process both from the standpoint of gas content and from the standpoint of nonmetallic inclusions. In particular, a very high degassing efficiency is achieved, including a dehydrogenation efficiency of 126 and a deoxidation efficiency of 1028, and the nonmetallic impurity content is greatly reduced. In the case of reheated melts (with desulfurization) a repeatable sulfur content of less than 0. 010% is obtained.