The fundamental difference between melting and smelting is that melting is a process in which the state of a substance is changed from solid to liquid by heating it, while smelting is a process of obtaining pure metal from its ore by heating it to a higher temperature. In this article, we will explore all the major differences between melting and smelting along with their basic description.

What is Melting?

The process of changing the solid state of a substance into its liquid state by the application of heat is called melting. Hence, in the melting process, a substance is heated to a temperature above its melting point, so that it can change its phase from solid to liquid.

When the heat energy is provided to a substance, it breaks the chemical bonds that hold the molecules of the substance together in the solid phase, resulting to change the state into the liquid state. However, during the change in state of the substance from solid to liquid, no change occurs in the chemical properties of the substance.

In industries, melting is used in various applications such as foundries, recycling process, production of glass, etc.

In the melting process, a substance is gradually heated by using a source of heat like a heating furnace to its melting point. Once the temperature of the substance reached to its melting point, its state changes from solid to liquid. A temperature control system is involved in the melting process to avoid excess heating that may cause degradation of the substance.

What is Smelting?

The process of obtaining a pure metal from its ore by the application of heat and chemical reactions is called smelting. Ore is basically raw material available in the nature and contains the desired metal and different kind of impurities.

Smelting is one of the effective methods to obtain pure metals from their natural ores. In short, smelting is a process of separating the desired metal from impurities with the help of heating and chemical reactions.

Smelting process involves two major steps namely, roasting and reduction. In the case of roasting, the metal ore is heated to high temperatures in the presence of oxygen or air. While, during reduction, the reduction reaction takes place to remove oxygen atoms from the ore. In smelting process, the carbon-based reducing agents like charcoal or coke are used. Overall, in metal processing industries, smelting is an important process to obtain metals in their purest form.