Refractory Laboratory

The Central Laboratory of the plant has the following three subdivisions:

• chemical and analytical;
• physical and mechanical;
• physical and chemical.

CL provides quality assurance and control of raw materials, in-process inspection and certfication of manufactured products; research works are also performed at the laboratory base. The laboratory operates under the existing law of the Russian Federation, based on Certificate of Accreditation No. RA.RU.22 EF08 issued on September 15, 2015.

The Laboratory is accredited for the following types of tests:

• determination of the moisture mass fraction;
  
• determination of the materials grain size;
  
• determination of apparent density, effective porosity, water saturation;
  
• determination of ultimate compression strength;
  
• determination of metallic iron;
  
• determination of thermal resistance;
  
• determination of lineal shrinkage;
  
• determination of residual variations when heated;
  
• determination of chemical composition (12 elements).

The Test Laboratory is equipped with state-of-the-art equipment and devices that make it possible to perform additional testing of raw materials and products:  

• determination of the specific surface area (manufactured by SORBI-M, Novosibirsk, Russia);
  
• determination of linear accruements (horizontal dilatometer manufactured by NETZSCH, Germany);
  
• determination of true density (multi-picnometer, Quantochrome Instruments);
• determination of phase composition (D2 PHASER manufactured by BRUKER, Germany);
  
• X-ray fluorescence analysis (spectrometer S4 PIONEER manufactured by BRUKER, Germany).

The laboratory's main goal is to achieve and maintain high organization and tests performance levels, in accordance with the requirements of the standards and technical documentation, as well as credibility of the submitted results.

All raw materials supplied to the plant undergo a quality control procedure by the required parameters established in the incoming inspection plan. The controlled parameters are as follows:

• grain size composition;
  
• particle-size distribution;
  
• chemical composition;
  
• specific surface;
  
• true and bulk density;
  
• phase composition.
  

Only the raw materials that meet the required standards are accepted for further production.

In the course of the production process, the products are subject to continuous monitoring. The following parameters are controlled:

• grain-size composition;
  
• amount of mixing water;
  
• spread ability index;
  
• chemical composition;
  
• linear shrinkage after heat treatment;
  
• bending and compression strength;
  
• product density and porosity.

The products, which successfully passed the tests, are subject to certification.

The scope of the laboratory's accreditation comprises all types of tests required to ensure high-quality control of manufactured products and accepted raw materials.

In case of necessity to obtain any indicators not included in the accreditation scope, the Central Laboratory collaborates with various third-party organizations.

Operations aimed at the development of technical documentation are performed in cooperation with LLC SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL CENTER OGNEUPORY, St Petersburg, Russia.