What is the difference between refractory materials and refractory raw materials?

Refractory material and refractory raw material have seemingly similar names. A number of people do not know the relationship between these two materials, and they are usually confused when shopping. What are the similarity as well as difference between refractory materials and refractory raw materials? After reading this passage, you might have some understandings about this question.

-        What is refractory material?

-        What is refractory raw material?

-        Comparisons between refractory materials and refractory raw materials

What is refractory material?

Refractory materials are inorganic, non-metallic and porous materials, consisting of mineral compounds and additives. Refractory materials have good thermal resistance and are utilized in nearly all of the high temperature or corrosive environments. Because of their outstanding resistance to heat, chemical corrosion and mechanical impacts, they are commonly used for linings of industrial furnaces and containers in order to insulate and protect. Thus, any failure of refractory materials may lead to a large loss of manufacturing time, equipment and even the product itself. Refractory materials have a variety of kinds, which ensures safe operation, energy consumption and product quality during productions. Therefore, it is very important to choose the most suitable refractory for different applications.

What is refractory raw material?

Raw material, as the name indicates, refers to the natural material that has not been processed, such as oxides, nitrides and carbides. Since refractory raw material is the basis of manufacturing refractory material, the quality of refractory raw material largely determines the performance of the final refractory material products. As many industries, such as chemical industry, metallurgical industry and engineering industry, are developing at a rapid pace. More and more refractory raw material is exploited, which might result in a raw material crisis in the future. Thus, we need to be energy saving and take actions to preserve refractory raw material resources.

Comparisons between refractory materials and refractory raw materials

The differences between refractory materials and refractory raw materials can be mainly divided into three parts: definitions, shapes and their inclusions.

Refractory material is generally defined as inorganic, non-metallic material whose refractoriness is more than 1500 Celsius degrees. It also has other properties such as thermal shock resistance, corrosion resistance and the ability to withstand high temperatures. However, refractory raw material is defined as the raw material for manufacturing refractory products. It often has high melting point or high refractoriness, including single, oxide, non-oxide and compound. Common examples include natural mineral raw material, industrial raw material or synthetic raw material.

In the aspect of shapes, refractory material can be split into shaped refractory and unshaped refractory (e.g. monolithic refractory). In contrast, refractory raw materials are in powder state or are of a certain grain size.

Refractory material includes many common products, such as refractory bricks, refractory mud and refractory castable. But refractory raw material includes clay, bauxite, silica, synthetic mullite and so on.

Therefore, refractory material is made from refractory raw material and other materials through several manufacturing processes and it in fact contains refractory raw material.