Steelmaking is the process of producing steel from iron ore and scrap. In steelmaking, impurities such as nitrogen, silicon, phosphorus, sulfur and excess carbon are removed from the raw iron, and alloying elements such as manganese, nickel, chromium and vanadium are added to produce different grades of steel. Limiting dissolved gases such as nitrogen and oxygen, and entrained impurities (termed “inclusions”) in the steel is also imp.ortant to ensure the quality of the products cast from the liquid steel.
​Secondary steelmaking is most commonly performed in ladles and often referred to as ladle (metallurgy). Some of the operations performed in ladles include de-oxidation (or “killing”), vacuum degassing, alloy addition, inclusion removal, inclusion chemistry modification, de-sulphurisation and homogenisation. It is now common to perform ladle metallurgical operations in gas stirred ladles with electric arc heating in the lid of the furnace. Tight control of ladle metallurgy is associated with producing high grades of steel in which the tolerances in chemistry and consistency are narrow.
