Large amounts of different magnesium silicate raw materials are available in the region of Karnataka and Tamilnadu, India, which did not get a wide commercial acceptance for the production of refractories. One such material is olivine, a by-product from the magnesite mines, which can be used for the manufacturing of forsterite refractories, a substitute for magnesite refractories in many applications. After chemical analysis of forsterite, compositional adjustment was carried out by adding dead burned magnesite to maximise the forsterite phase and to convert the impurities to high temperature compounds. Uniaxially pressed products of such compositions were sintered in the temperature range of 1200-1600 deg C and characterised for various refractory properties.
