The effect of consumable electrode on ESR ingot cleanliness was investigated during electroslag remelting (ESR) of G20CrNi2Mo bearing steel. The results show that the ingot cleanliness is much correlated with that of electrode. The ingot oxygen content presents a rising trend with increasing electrode oxygen content. The SEM-EDS analysis reveals that the number density of low-melting-point CaO-MgO-Al

2

O

3

inclusions in high oxygen-containing electrode is much larger than that in low oxygen-containing electrode. The low interfacial energy between low-melting-point inclusions and steel significantly limits the efficiency of inclusions removal

thus resulting in relatively high ingot oxygen content. With increasing carbon content before EAF tapping

the number of ingots less than 0.002 0% oxygen occupies total more than 90%.