Moreover, with the steel production shifting away fromopen hearths, stainless steel-making technologymade a significant advancement in the late 1960s by the introduction of the argon-oxygen-decarburization (AOD) refining process duplexed with scrap melting in EAFs, and direct-bonded and rebonded fused-grain magnesia-chrome brick found a new usage in these AOD reactors. Currently, direct-bonded magnesia- chrome bricks still line small AOD vessels, but fired doloma bricks are the product of choice for large AODs (S. Miglani, personal communication, 2002)