A slag pot (also called a slag ladle) is a bowl-shaped container with lifting trunnions on both sides, used to hold the high-temperature molten slag produced during steel smelting. In metallurgical production it collects and transports waste slag from blast furnaces, steel converters (BOF), electric arc furnaces (EAF) and refining ladles to the slag yard or processing line.
Why slag pots are cast, not fabricated
Molten slag enters the pot at up to 1,500°C, then the pot may be water-sprayed or rained on minutes later. This extreme thermal cycling destroys welded fabrications at the seams. A single-piece cast steel pot in fine-grained ZG230-450 or GS-20Mn5 has no welds to crack and distributes thermal stress through generous, simulation-optimized wall transitions.
Key design features
Typical capacities run from 5m³ to over 20m³. Critical design elements include the trunnion attachment zone (the highest-stressed region), the rim stiffening ring that resists ovalization, drain/vent details that prevent slag locking, and tilting lugs for controlled dumping. Wall thickness is balanced: too thin warps, too thick traps casting defects and adds dead weight your crane must lift thousands of times.
What decides service life
Three factors dominate: steel cleanliness (LF refining that limits sulfur and phosphorus), wall-section design (uniform transitions, no stress concentrators), and operating practice (avoiding deep water quenching while the pot is hot). A well-made pot delivers 30%+ longer life than an unrefined, unsimulated equivalent — which is why per-cycle cost, not purchase price, is the number a smart buyer compares.