Production of LKG castings and cost comparison depending on the melting furnace

This thesis is focused on technology of manufacturing ductile cast iron by using metal melted in cold blast cupola. The temperatue of cast iron melted in cupola furnace is often insufficient for subsequent metalurgicall processing of the cast iron, i.e. modification. Chemical heating could be used as an alternative for the needed increasement in temperatue of the melted metal before a modification. For the purposes of the experiment, a ladle for chemical heating was designed and manufactured within the diploma thesis. Furthermore, the work presents the results of two test melts, in which cast iron corresponding to EN-GJS-500-7 was produced after heat treatment. The thesis includes images of the structure of cast samples and samples even after heat treatment. Furthermore, the work presents an optimization solution for the charge comosition to the cupola furnace in order to reduce the phosphorus content. For the overall economic evaluation, the composition the charge comosition for the production of sferoidical graphite (SG) iron on the electric induction furnace was proposed and its costs were compared with the possibilities of SG iron production at the cupola furnace. Based on the determined costs of individual variants, the return on the transition from a cupola furnace to an electric induction furnace was calculated