Insulation bricks are used in furnaces and kilns due to their high thermal conductivity.
Insulation bricks are used in furnaces and kilns due to their high thermal conductivity.
Furthermore, these fire bricks are preferred for high-temperature settings due to the less energy used.
Generally, refractory insulating bricks have many good qualities. However, choosing the best fire brick for refractory can be difficult.
Hence, we at SLP Engineering has a comprehensive guide to selecting the right refractory bricks.
Basically, refractory brick is a lightweight insulation refractory materialrefractory material.
Moreover, it has low bulk density and reduces heat loss after the refractory lining is applied.
Thus, the refractory and insulating bricks are the ideal choice for many industries.
Especially those that require less energy used but with high-performance thermal insulation.
Yes, because they are a type of refractory brick that can withstand very high temperatures.
Since they act as heat insulation, firebricks are suitable to line furnaces, chimneys, kilns, and boiler refractory.
Furthermore, these refractory bricks can withstand up to 1400°C but only conducts a partial amount of heat.
As a result, it generates a higher level of energy efficiency which benefits many heavy industries.
List of insulating bricks application
Metallurgy: Blast furnace, hot blast stove, reheating furnace, etc.
Petrochemical: Ethylene cracking furnace, primary reformer furnace, reheating furnace, hydrogen production furnace, etc.
Ceramics: Roller kiln, pusher kiln, etc.
Glass: Glass furnace regenerator, etc.
Carbon: Carbon roaster, etc.
Suggested read: Refractory Project Tips Every Plant Manager Should Know
Here at SLP Engineering, we provide a complete list of refractory materials that best suit your plant requirements.
Additionally, we also have a wide range of industry-standard insulation fire bricks made from SERMIX.
More information on SERMIX.
However, it is best to note down these refractory insulating bricks qualities for optimum plant construction or repair.
Guide to Choose Fire Bricks
Low Thermal Conductivity
A higher level of porosity is better for insulation and saving energy.
High Crushing Strength
Able to withstand high thermal states and also with good volume stability.
Low Heat Storage
Stores low level of heat but absorbs more heat which saves more energy.
High Purity
Low content of impurities such as iron, alkaline, and metal.
Accurate Dimension
Custom sizing for example machining, cutting, and grinding shapes.
For the best refractory insulation solution, consider choosing a refractory company that not only provides quality refractory materials but also refractory services.
That is why SLP has a wide range of high-performance insulation fire bricks that can withstand harsh conditions longer.
Firebrick
32 SER-BRICK
34 SER-BRICK
36 SER-BRICK
Refractory Insulation Brick
B-1 SER-BRICK
B-2 SER-BRICK
B-3 SER-BRICK
B-5 SER-BRICK
Thermal Insulation Brick
JM-23 SER-BRICK
JM-25 SER-BRICK
JM-28 SER-BRICK
JM-30 SER-BRICK
By choosing the right refractory company, then choosing fire bricks is easy.
Regardless of the refractory installation, choosing the best insulation brick for your refractory is critical.
Although this guide is helpful, consult a professional refractory company in Malaysia so you reach the desired performance.
Suggested read: 8 Industries that Benefit from Refractory Solutions
So, if you’re looking for high-performance refractory insulation bricks, SLP has a team of refractory experts that finds the best refractory solutions for your application.
In refractory lining maintenance, recommendations for repairs and relines often consist of selecting a similar or equivalent material to replace the original. Sometimes that’s sufficient. Many refractory contractors and maintenance teams strive to use best practices by purchasing the same refractories that have worked on similar equipment in the past, but this carries the risk of assuming that nothing has changed in the process, production or maintenance of the equipment over time. This assumption can be a dangerous bet because furnace equipment is made to meet the immediate demands of each thermal processor, and these demands often change depending on factors like production orders and maintenance capacities.
Choosing an appropriate refractory lining for an application isn’t always a straightforward decision. Many times, it is part science and part art. Making an effective choice requires knowledge of the industrial application process, refractory performance expectations and potential refractory service failures. These factors must then be weighed against each other to find the right balance and best solution. While there are a number of important criteria to consider, refractory engineers focus on five aspects to make an evaluation and choose a refractory material for each specific application: thermal, mechanical, chemical, logistics and value – as well as connections among these aspects.
What is the best refractory material choice? To answer this question, each individual application requires both an overall evaluation of the thermal-processing furnace in regard to each of the factors mentioned and then a careful balance of the five aspects in finding the best solution that meets both the immediate and long-term needs of the thermal processor.
For any high-temperature industrial process, the primary piece of information to know is the operating and maximum temperatures. The refractory lining chosen must meet the operating temperature requirements.
Refractory linings are designed to maintain physical properties at very high temperatures – 932°F and above. Refractories used to line thermal equipment must have proper insulating properties to reduce the steel skin temperatures to acceptable levels, usually well below 300°F. The use of multi-component linings, which employ a dense refractory material at the hot face with an insulating refractory or ceramic-fiber board or blanket behind it, is known for achieving adequate cold-face temperatures with structural integrity for long thermal life.
Spalling and thermal shock are the most common thermal failure mechanisms in a refractory lining. These are due to crack formations caused by temperature cycling and high thermal loads. There is a lot more to learn about fracture mechanics thanks to researchers, but knowing the importance of this phenomenon is enough for the application specialist.
In recent years, many thermal processors have experienced increased production demands. Meeting that need means that their furnaces are operating at higher temperatures for increased output. Running furnaces harder and faster often has the unintended consequence of overheating the refractory to the point that phase changes in the refractory matrix start to occur, causing lower-temperature glassy phases to form, softening the refractory and shortening life. Due to this, the refractory engineer often needs to consider a material with higher refractoriness to meet the performance needs of shock resistance and high thermal loading. This usually means a higher-alumina material.
The vast majority of higher-performing refractories in service today have been developed to maximize materials’ physical properties to improve lining lifespan and keep furnaces running at their best performance. Much of the information on a product Technical Data Sheet is devoted to the physical properties of the material, such as cold crushing strength, hot/cold MOR and abrasion resistance. All of these are based on well-defined ASTM standards to make valid comparisons among various choices.
Refractory linings experience all sorts of mechanical and thermal loads that lead to wear and eventual failure, requiring repairs or replacement. Some of these are excessive expansion, thermal cycling fatigue, mechanical impact (dynamic loading), severe abrasion and erosion, pinch spalling, tensile loads, large hydraulic loads (such as in molten-metal containment furnaces) and creep (deformation at high temperatures over time). While a deeper discussion of each of these failure modes is beyond the scope of this article, knowing the type of potential refractory failures for each application becomes the solution in choosing the refractory to best address the failure mode present.
During a visual refractory inspection, the lining can often give clues about failures. Crack patterns, wall buckles, surface spalls, discolorations and other visual differences occur in locations and manners that correspond with their failure type. Mechanical and thermal forces will find weak points and initiate cracking. Many times, these occur in typical geometric locations and patterns – such as sharp inside corners, archways, midpoints of a lining and in circular patterns – indicating a particular failure system. These will usually indicate shock and expansion due to high thermal loads, inadequate expansion allowance, deficient material properties for the application and/or improper anchoring.
Chemical attacks on the refractory matrix have been a fundamental concern of ceramics engineers since the beginning of refractory development. Chemical reactions between the vessel’s contents and the refractory at high temperatures can cause a change in the structure of the refractory matrix, which can have a detrimental effect on the performance and life of the lining. Chemical or mineralogical changes due to reactions occurring within the refractory lining can cause excessive volume change of the crystal structure or reduction of the oxides in the lining, causing breakdown of the ceramic bonds in the cement. The most common examples of these are:
A reducing atmosphere of carbon monoxide reacting with the lining, such as in CO boilers
An H2 reaction in the lining, which reduces silica in the refractory matrix at high temperatures
Molten slags, such as in coal-fired boilers
Alkali corrosion from ash in wood-burning furnace applications
Corundum growth in aluminum furnaces, especially those with aggressive alloys containing MgO
In addition to the aforementioned elements, refractory construction contractors are faced with multiple logistics pressures to get their customers’ thermal-processing equipment back on-line. This means that the choice of anchoring systems, installation methods and bake-out becomes an important consideration.
The adage “time is money” is often a deciding influence when crafting a refractory solution. “Get it back up and running ASAP” is often the most pressing need communicated by the thermal processor. For example, while a brick lining often gives customers a highly durable option, bricking a job is very labor-intensive, requires high levels of experience and usually takes a long time to complete. A cast-in-place lining may yield the best physical properties in service, but the time also needed for forming (or multiple formings), casting/pumping, then stripping may not be desirable. In other words, the required length of downtime may not justify these options.
Another example is the use of low-cement castables, which have superior properties. These have been around since the Plibrico Company first developed them, but they require more careful and longer bake-out. Gunning or shotcreting the lining could be a viable option if time or cost is a determining factor because forming is not required, and material can be placed at higher rates.
While a cast product theoretically produces the best physical properties in general, followed by shotcrete and gun mixes, time limits may require another method of installation. Other factors to consider may be to ram the lining using plastic, which requires no setting or moist cure requirements. With the advent of reduced bake-out refractories, such as Plibrico’s Fast Track castables and gun mixes, contractors can place material and fire several hours sooner. This saves time and money but often at a cost of reduced physical properties. Again, it is a balancing act.
Refractory linings are one of the most significant operational costs over the life of an industrial furnace. Therefore, when choosing a material for the application, price is always a very important factor. However, value is not only reducible to price. There is often more than one choice of materials to pick from.
The economics of each individual application can direct the engineer/specialist to recommend one solution over another. When we speak of price, the real driver is value. Everyone wants a refractory product installed that is “good, fast and inexpensive.” However, it is often very difficult to achieve all three of these simultaneously. Value is the determination of the relative importance of each.
The question to be asked is this: What do refractory linings do? Their most basic function is to withstand very high temperatures; contain heat within a vessel; have adequate physical properties, such as strength; and resist chemical degradation or disintegration by aggressive atmospheres and corrosion by liquid slags and solids.
Choosing the right material solution for thermal-processing applications requires balancing multiple aspects to determine a hierarchy of which aspect is most important. In many cases, there is no one single answer to the problem. However, understanding the process, challenges, history and root causes of refractory failures becomes the key to making the best decision to solve the problem.
For more information about choosing the best refractory lining, contact Plibrico Company at contact@plibrico.com or 312-337-9000.
All photos provided by the author.
Refractory Materials
Refractory materials (materials that can withstand high temperatures) are used in the construction and maintenance of ceramic studio kilns. Fire brick, ceramic fiber and castable refractories are the three forms of refractories used in kilns, but fire brick is the most significant.
A Brick with Many Faces
Fire brick is a generic term that encompasses any brick that can withstand repeated heating and cooling at various temperature ranges. Additionally, fire bricks must be able to withstand different atmospheres, provide various structural or insulating qualities, and due to the difficulty in cutting them, must be available in a variety of shapes to add flexibility to kiln design and construction.
Hard and Soft
There are two types of firebrick: hard brick and soft brick. Hard bricks are very dense and durable and used for their structural qualities. They can be found most often as the main building component of large kilns, chimneys, fireboxes and burner ports—anywhere around direct flame. Soft bricks are lightweight and made from a refractory clay body containing combustible materials. When fired, the materials burn out leaving a sponge like matrix of air pockets, which serve to provide insulating qualities to the brick. Also known as insulating firebricks (IFBs), these bricks absorb about half the energy as hard bricks during a firing. Soft brick ranges from 2000°F to 3300°F and are used as the brick of choice for constructing electric kilns or as insulating liners in reduction kilns.
Grades Are Important
The main ingredient in fire bricks is fireclay, which contains mostly alumina and silica, elements capable of withstanding high temperatures. Hard bricks are available in several grades, depending on their composition and properties, which determine the most efficient use of them in construction. High alumina compositions start at 50% alumina and increase in alumina content to 98% for the highest purity and most expensive. It’s extremely rare that a potter would require an alumina content exceeding 70%.
What’s the most cost-effective method for buying refractory materials for most OEM and end user customers?
Full disclosure: F.S. Sperry is a refractory distributor in addition to being a refractory contractor. Many of our OEM and end user customers buy refractory materials from us without needing any further service. And most have found that buying from us actually makes more economic sense than buying direct from the manufacturer.
That’s contrary to what many believe: that buying direct from the manufacturer assures them the lowest price.
There are two instances when buying direct from the manufacturer is typically going to cost less than buying from a distributor:
However, the biggest difference between a manufacturer and a distributor like F.S. Sperry is this:
Unlike a single manufacturer, F.S. Sperry can procure the entire bill of material, including logistics. Most manufacturers can’t quote for what they don’t make.
Our volume buying power gives us leverage in our relationships with manufacturers, allowing us to offer the same cost or less on the entire bill of material as any single manufacturer.
In addition to the out-the-door total cost, most corporate purchasing departments in smaller companies simply don’t have the resources to complete the due diligence for the entire list of products that make up a bill of material.
So, when you factor in people’s time and the possibility of only buying the products you need in the quantities you need them, our customers find that it makes more sense to sole-source the procuring of refractory materials from F.S. Sperry.
In addition, even though you may get a competitive price from an individual manufacturer, when you factor in the freight cost, the quantities you have to buy to get the discounts, and the waste on the overall product (the overages), you rarely save any money.
Your total delivered cost is often less when you go with F.S. Sperry.
Sometimes it helps to take a look at an example. Here’s what happened to one person who recently requested a quote:
Overall, he admitted after it was over that, when he factored in his time, freight and the overall cost difference, the savings for going “direct” just did not materialize.
Furthermore, these fire bricks are preferred for high-temperature settings due to the less energy used.
Generally, refractory insulating bricks have many good qualities. However, choosing the best fire brick for refractory can be difficult.
Hence, we at SLP Engineering has a comprehensive guide to selecting the right refractory bricks.
Basically, refractory brick is a lightweight insulation refractory material.
Moreover, it has low bulk density and reduces heat loss after the refractory lining is applied.
Thus, the refractory and insulating bricks are the ideal choice for many industries.
Especially those that require less energy used but with high-performance thermal insulation.
Yes, because they are a type of refractory brick that can withstand very high temperatures.
Since they act as heat insulation, firebricks are suitable to line furnaces, chimneys, kilns, and boiler refractory.
Furthermore, these refractory bricks can withstand up to 1400°C but only conducts a partial amount of heat.
As a result, it generates a higher level of energy efficiency which benefits many heavy industries.
List of insulating bricks application
Metallurgy: Blast furnace, hot blast stove, reheating furnace, etc.
Petrochemical: Ethylene cracking furnace, primary reformer furnace, reheating furnace, hydrogen production furnace, etc.
Ceramics: Roller kiln, pusher kiln, etc.
Glass: Glass furnace regenerator, etc.
Carbon: Carbon roaster, etc.
Suggested read: Refractory Project Tips Every Plant Manager Should Know
Here at SLP Engineering, we provide a complete list of refractory materials that best suit your plant requirements.
Additionally, we also have a wide range of industry-standard insulation fire bricks made from SERMIX.
More information on SERMIX.
However, it is best to note down these refractory insulating bricks qualities for optimum plant construction or repair.
Guide to Choose Fire Bricks
Low Thermal Conductivity
A higher level of porosity is better for insulation and saving energy.
High Crushing Strength
Able to withstand high thermal states and also with good volume stability.
Low Heat Storage
Stores low level of heat but absorbs more heat which saves more energy.
High Purity
Low content of impurities such as iron, alkaline, and metal.
Accurate Dimension
Custom sizing for example machining, cutting, and grinding shapes.
For the best refractory insulation solution, consider choosing a refractory company that not only provides quality refractory materials but also refractory services.
That is why SLP has a wide range of high-performance insulation fire bricks that can withstand harsh conditions longer.
Firebrick
32 SER-BRICK
34 SER-BRICK
36 SER-BRICK
Refractory Insulation Brick
B-1 SER-BRICK
B-2 SER-BRICK
B-3 SER-BRICK
B-5 SER-BRICK
Thermal Insulation Brick
JM-23 SER-BRICK
JM-25 SER-BRICK
JM-28 SER-BRICK
JM-30 SER-BRICK
By choosing the right refractory company, then choosing fire bricks is easy.
Regardless of the refractory installation, choosing the best insulation brick for your refractory is critical.
Although this guide is helpful, consult a professional refractory company in Malaysia so you reach the desired performance.
Suggested read: 8 Industries that Benefit from Refractory Solutions
So, if you’re looking for high-performance refractory insulation bricks, SLP has a team of refractory experts that finds the best refractory solutions for your application.
In refractory lining maintenance, recommendations for repairs and relines often consist of selecting a similar or equivalent material to replace the original. Sometimes that’s sufficient. Many refractory contractors and maintenance teams strive to use best practices by purchasing the same refractories that have worked on similar equipment in the past, but this carries the risk of assuming that nothing has changed in the process, production or maintenance of the equipment over time. This assumption can be a dangerous bet because furnace equipment is made to meet the immediate demands of each thermal processor, and these demands often change depending on factors like production orders and maintenance capacities.
Choosing an appropriate refractory lining for an application isn’t always a straightforward decision. Many times, it is part science and part art. Making an effective choice requires knowledge of the industrial application process, refractory performance expectations and potential refractory service failures. These factors must then be weighed against each other to find the right balance and best solution. While there are a number of important criteria to consider, refractory engineers focus on five aspects to make an evaluation and choose a refractory material for each specific application: thermal, mechanical, chemical, logistics and value – as well as connections among these aspects.
What is the best refractory material choice? To answer this question, each individual application requires both an overall evaluation of the thermal-processing furnace in regard to each of the factors mentioned and then a careful balance of the five aspects in finding the best solution that meets both the immediate and long-term needs of the thermal processor.
Want more information on graphite electrode manufacturer? Feel free to contact us.
For any high-temperature industrial process, the primary piece of information to know is the operating and maximum temperatures. The refractory lining chosen must meet the operating temperature requirements.
Refractory linings are designed to maintain physical properties at very high temperatures – 932°F and above. Refractories used to line thermal equipment must have proper insulating properties to reduce the steel skin temperatures to acceptable levels, usually well below 300°F. The use of multi-component linings, which employ a dense refractory material at the hot face with an insulating refractory or ceramic-fiber board or blanket behind it, is known for achieving adequate cold-face temperatures with structural integrity for long thermal life.
Spalling and thermal shock are the most common thermal failure mechanisms in a refractory lining. These are due to crack formations caused by temperature cycling and high thermal loads. There is a lot more to learn about fracture mechanics thanks to researchers, but knowing the importance of this phenomenon is enough for the application specialist.
In recent years, many thermal processors have experienced increased production demands. Meeting that need means that their furnaces are operating at higher temperatures for increased output. Running furnaces harder and faster often has the unintended consequence of overheating the refractory to the point that phase changes in the refractory matrix start to occur, causing lower-temperature glassy phases to form, softening the refractory and shortening life. Due to this, the refractory engineer often needs to consider a material with higher refractoriness to meet the performance needs of shock resistance and high thermal loading. This usually means a higher-alumina material.
The vast majority of higher-performing refractories in service today have been developed to maximize materials’ physical properties to improve lining lifespan and keep furnaces running at their best performance. Much of the information on a product Technical Data Sheet is devoted to the physical properties of the material, such as cold crushing strength, hot/cold MOR and abrasion resistance. All of these are based on well-defined ASTM standards to make valid comparisons among various choices.
Refractory linings experience all sorts of mechanical and thermal loads that lead to wear and eventual failure, requiring repairs or replacement. Some of these are excessive expansion, thermal cycling fatigue, mechanical impact (dynamic loading), severe abrasion and erosion, pinch spalling, tensile loads, large hydraulic loads (such as in molten-metal containment furnaces) and creep (deformation at high temperatures over time). While a deeper discussion of each of these failure modes is beyond the scope of this article, knowing the type of potential refractory failures for each application becomes the solution in choosing the refractory to best address the failure mode present.
During a visual refractory inspection, the lining can often give clues about failures. Crack patterns, wall buckles, surface spalls, discolorations and other visual differences occur in locations and manners that correspond with their failure type. Mechanical and thermal forces will find weak points and initiate cracking. Many times, these occur in typical geometric locations and patterns – such as sharp inside corners, archways, midpoints of a lining and in circular patterns – indicating a particular failure system. These will usually indicate shock and expansion due to high thermal loads, inadequate expansion allowance, deficient material properties for the application and/or improper anchoring.
Chemical attacks on the refractory matrix have been a fundamental concern of ceramics engineers since the beginning of refractory development. Chemical reactions between the vessel’s contents and the refractory at high temperatures can cause a change in the structure of the refractory matrix, which can have a detrimental effect on the performance and life of the lining. Chemical or mineralogical changes due to reactions occurring within the refractory lining can cause excessive volume change of the crystal structure or reduction of the oxides in the lining, causing breakdown of the ceramic bonds in the cement. The most common examples of these are:
A reducing atmosphere of carbon monoxide reacting with the lining, such as in CO boilers
An H2 reaction in the lining, which reduces silica in the refractory matrix at high temperatures
Molten slags, such as in coal-fired boilers
Alkali corrosion from ash in wood-burning furnace applications
Corundum growth in aluminum furnaces, especially those with aggressive alloys containing MgO
In addition to the aforementioned elements, refractory construction contractors are faced with multiple logistics pressures to get their customers’ thermal-processing equipment back on-line. This means that the choice of anchoring systems, installation methods and bake-out becomes an important consideration.
The adage “time is money” is often a deciding influence when crafting a refractory solution. “Get it back up and running ASAP” is often the most pressing need communicated by the thermal processor. For example, while a brick lining often gives customers a highly durable option, bricking a job is very labor-intensive, requires high levels of experience and usually takes a long time to complete. A cast-in-place lining may yield the best physical properties in service, but the time also needed for forming (or multiple formings), casting/pumping, then stripping may not be desirable. In other words, the required length of downtime may not justify these options.
Another example is the use of low-cement castables, which have superior properties. These have been around since the Plibrico Company first developed them, but they require more careful and longer bake-out. Gunning or shotcreting the lining could be a viable option if time or cost is a determining factor because forming is not required, and material can be placed at higher rates.
While a cast product theoretically produces the best physical properties in general, followed by shotcrete and gun mixes, time limits may require another method of installation. Other factors to consider may be to ram the lining using plastic, which requires no setting or moist cure requirements. With the advent of reduced bake-out refractories, such as Plibrico’s Fast Track castables and gun mixes, contractors can place material and fire several hours sooner. This saves time and money but often at a cost of reduced physical properties. Again, it is a balancing act.
Refractory linings are one of the most significant operational costs over the life of an industrial furnace. Therefore, when choosing a material for the application, price is always a very important factor. However, value is not only reducible to price. There is often more than one choice of materials to pick from.
The economics of each individual application can direct the engineer/specialist to recommend one solution over another. When we speak of price, the real driver is value. Everyone wants a refractory product installed that is “good, fast and inexpensive.” However, it is often very difficult to achieve all three of these simultaneously. Value is the determination of the relative importance of each.
The question to be asked is this: What do refractory linings do? Their most basic function is to withstand very high temperatures; contain heat within a vessel; have adequate physical properties, such as strength; and resist chemical degradation or disintegration by aggressive atmospheres and corrosion by liquid slags and solids.
Choosing the right material solution for thermal-processing applications requires balancing multiple aspects to determine a hierarchy of which aspect is most important. In many cases, there is no one single answer to the problem. However, understanding the process, challenges, history and root causes of refractory failures becomes the key to making the best decision to solve the problem.
For more information about choosing the best refractory lining, contact Plibrico Company at contact@plibrico.com or 312-337-9000.
All photos provided by the author.
Refractory Materials
Refractory materials (materials that can withstand high temperatures) are used in the construction and maintenance of ceramic studio kilns. Fire brick, ceramic fiber and castable refractories are the three forms of refractories used in kilns, but fire brick is the most significant.
A Brick with Many Faces
Fire brick is a generic term that encompasses any brick that can withstand repeated heating and cooling at various temperature ranges. Additionally, fire bricks must be able to withstand different atmospheres, provide various structural or insulating qualities, and due to the difficulty in cutting them, must be available in a variety of shapes to add flexibility to kiln design and construction.
Hard and Soft
There are two types of firebrick: hard brick and soft brick. Hard bricks are very dense and durable and used for their structural qualities. They can be found most often as the main building component of large kilns, chimneys, fireboxes and burner ports—anywhere around direct flame. Soft bricks are lightweight and made from a refractory clay body containing combustible materials. When fired, the materials burn out leaving a sponge like matrix of air pockets, which serve to provide insulating qualities to the brick. Also known as insulating firebricks (IFBs), these bricks absorb about half the energy as hard bricks during a firing. Soft brick ranges from 2000°F to 3300°F and are used as the brick of choice for constructing electric kilns or as insulating liners in reduction kilns.
Grades Are Important
The main ingredient in fire bricks is fireclay, which contains mostly alumina and silica, elements capable of withstanding high temperatures. Hard bricks are available in several grades, depending on their composition and properties, which determine the most efficient use of them in construction. High alumina compositions start at 50% alumina and increase in alumina content to 98% for the highest purity and most expensive. It’s extremely rare that a potter would require an alumina content exceeding 70%.
What’s the most cost-effective method for buying refractory materials for most OEM and end user customers?
Full disclosure: F.S. Sperry is a refractory distributor in addition to being a refractory contractor. Many of our OEM and end user customers buy refractory materials from us without needing any further service. And most have found that buying from us actually makes more economic sense than buying direct from the manufacturer.
That’s contrary to what many believe: that buying direct from the manufacturer assures them the lowest price.
There are two instances when buying direct from the manufacturer is typically going to cost less than buying from a distributor:
However, the biggest difference between a manufacturer and a distributor like F.S. Sperry is this:
Unlike a single manufacturer, F.S. Sperry can procure the entire bill of material, including logistics. Most manufacturers can’t quote for what they don’t make.
Our volume buying power gives us leverage in our relationships with manufacturers, allowing us to offer the same cost or less on the entire bill of material as any single manufacturer.
In addition to the out-the-door total cost, most corporate purchasing departments in smaller companies simply don’t have the resources to complete the due diligence for the entire list of products that make up a bill of material.
So, when you factor in people’s time and the possibility of only buying the products you need in the quantities you need them, our customers find that it makes more sense to sole-source the procuring of refractory materials from F.S. Sperry.
In addition, even though you may get a competitive price from an individual manufacturer, when you factor in the freight cost, the quantities you have to buy to get the discounts, and the waste on the overall product (the overages), you rarely save any money.
Your total delivered cost is often less when you go with F.S. Sperry.
Sometimes it helps to take a look at an example. Here’s what happened to one person who recently requested a quote:
Overall, he admitted after it was over that, when he factored in his time, freight and the overall cost difference, the savings for going “direct” just did not materialize.
For more graphite electrodes for saleinformation, please contact us. We will provide professional answers.