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

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 ...

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 supplied above atmospheric pressure. In a ...

below the tap hole. ''Salamander tapping'' is removing the remaining hot metal and slag, while still in a molten state, from the blast furnace to allow, for example, a safe and efficient intermediate repair. The salamander is tapped by drilling an upward-slanting outlet in the blast furnace hearth. Initially a metal drill is used, but to complete the process an oxygen lance is deployed. If the salamander is allowed to cool it cannot easily be removed from the furnace, and may require

drilling and blasting Drilling and blasting is the controlled use of explosives and other methods, such as gas pressure blasting pyrotechnics, to break rock for excavation. It is practiced most often in mining, quarrying and civil engineering such as dam, tunnel ...

with explosives.

References

Metallurgical processes Steelmaking {{Industry-stub