cinder pig
Noun A type of pig iron that contains a significant amount of slag. Slag is the stony waste matter separated from metals during the smelting or refining of ore. Therefore, "cinder pig" refers to a lower-grade, impure form of pig iron with a high slag content.
This is a highly specialized industrial and metallurgical term. It is not used in everyday conversation but is relevant in historical or technical contexts involving iron production. * The old furnace produced a lot of cinder pig, which required further refining to be useful. * Analyzing the cinder pig helps us understand the efficiency of the 19th-century smelting process.
The term is primarily historical, describing a common product of early blast furnaces where the separation of molten iron from slag was less efficient than in modern processes.
- Pig iron (n): The crude, high-carbon iron product from a blast furnace, which is cast into molds called "pigs." is a specific, impure type of pig iron.
- Slag (n): The glass-like by-product left over after a desired metal has been separated from its raw ore.
- Impure pig iron
- Slag-rich pig iron
- Refined iron
- Wrought iron
- Steel
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pig iron containing a substantial proportion of slag
