Salamander (metallurgy)

A salamander (or deadman's foot or furnace bear) in the

metallurgy Metallurgy is a domain of materials science and engineering that studies the physical and chemical behavior of metallic elements, their inter-metallic compounds, and their mixtures, which are known as alloys. Metallurgy encompasses both the sc ...

dialect means all liquid and solidified materials in the hearth of a

blast furnace A blast furnace is a type of metallurgical furnace used for smelting to produce industrial metals, generally pig iron, but also others such as lead or copper. ''Blast'' refers to the combustion air being "forced" or supplied above atmospheric ...

below the tap hole. The target of the salamander tapping is to remove the remaining hot metal and slag from the blast furnace to allow a safe and efficient intermediate repair and blow-in of the blast furnace. During blowing down of the furnace the salamander is tapped by drilling a hole in the blast furnace hearth. Metallurgical processes Steelmaking {{Industry-stub