Refractories’ Courses

Course 1:  A 1 day interactive seminar, covering the following topics:

Introduction to Refractories
The introduction consists of a description and definition of what we regard as refractory materials, including such factors as chemistry, melting points and limiting temperatures of use.

Bricks or Monolithics?
The various criteria for making this crucial decision are discussed, and further details on the critical properties of the differing types are listed.

Installation
In this section, the most important factors relating to proper placement are listed and discussed.  Practices concerning Bricks and shapes, Plastics, Castables, Gunning, and  Shotcreting are included, with comments on their general application, and criteria for choice.

Dry-out & Heat-up
This subject is largely misunderstood and the reasons behind its requirements are rarely fully appreciated.  These are presented in some detail from a basic level.

Design Factors
Although this is an advanced area, some introduction to the critical factors in Mechanical and Thermal design, including the importance of Expansion allowances and Interface temperatures.

Lining Wear & Failures
Here we explore the various failure mechanisms from a forensic point of view, especially the different types of Spalling and effect of ‘tramp” compounds in the operating environment.

Safety Issues
This section discusses some of the refractories specific issues, discussing such materials as:
Silica, Chrome, Fiber, and issues such as Overhead protection & Confined Space entry.

Use of API 936 in Project QA
This section introduces the American standard, and discusses how it can help in overall QA for refractories, particularly in shutdown/turnaround situations.

Workshop/Current issues
In this last section, we open the floor and discuss problems raised by the participants, or discuss other major contemporary issues .

The course/seminar is positioned at a practical level, keeping technical jargon to a minimum, while communicating the main points and issues of this discipline.

Course 2: A 2-3 day training seminar:

An introduction to API936/560.

This course include critical elements of the above, but uses these to highlight the requirments of API 936 ( Quality control of monolithic linings) and API  560  ( relating to Heaters and Reformers), where the primary refractory focus is on bricks and fiber.  This course can be held over 2 or 3 days, depending on the detail required.