Patent ID: 8506880

Claim:
An iron melting furnace comprising: a furnace body lined with a refractory lining material and having a top opening through which raw materials including a raw material iron source, a carbonaceous material and a slag forming material may be introduced into the furnace body; a heating system for injecting oxygen-containing gas into the furnace body to combust the carbonaceous material, whereby combustion heat can melt the raw material iron source to generate molten iron and molten slag to form a molten iron and slag bath; a plurality of tap holes which penetrate the furnace body and which are provided at positions different from one another in a height direction of the furnace body; and a refractory filling material, different from the material of the refractory lining material, filling at least one of said tap holes such that molten iron or slag in the furnace is unable to flow through the at least one tap hole being filled with the refractory filling material, wherein the refractor filling material fills at least two of said to holes and wherein the composition of a part of the refractory filling material is different for each of said at least two tap holes.