This book seeks to provide a comprehensive coverage of the important and growing field of ladle metallurgy, including theory, practice, and economics. During the past decade, major advances have been made in the secondary metallurgy of steel and other metals; indeed, secondary metallurgy, that is, the ladle treatment of molten metals, following the melting and refining steps, has become an important and inevitable part of the overall processing sequence. Ladle metallurgy is attractive because it can provide an effective means for adjusting and fine-tuning the composition and temperature of the molten products prior to solidification processing. Ladle metallurgy allows us to produce materials of very high purity and will become increasingly an essential process requirement. Indeed, many of the novel casting techniques will mandate steels of much higher cleanliness than those in current practice. Of course, ladle metallurgy or secondary metallurgy is not limited to steel; indeed, major advances have been made and are being made in the secondary processing of aluminum, aluminum alloys, and many specialty metals.
