Advantages and Disadvantages of Arc Furnace Melting and Its Application

Advantages and Disadvantages of Arc Furnace Melting and Its Application

Arc furnace smelting uses the heat generated by the arc between the graphite electrode and the iron material (melt iron) to melt the iron material and overheat the liquid iron.

In the arc furnace smelting process, after the iron material is melted, the smelting operation of further increasing the temperature and adjusting the chemical composition is carried out under the condition of slag covering the liquid iron.

Arc furnaces are divided into acidic and alkaline types according to the properties of slag and lining refractory materials.

Alkaline arc furnaces have the ability to desulfurize and dephosphorize.

Advantages of Arc Furnace Melting

The advantage of arc furnace smelting is that it has a strong ability to melt solid furnace materials, and the liquid iron is overheated and the chemical composition is adjusted under the condition of slag covering, so it can avoid the absorption of liquid iron and oxidation of elements to a certain extent. This creates good conditions for smelting low-carbon cast iron and alloy cast iron.

Disadvantages of Electric Arc Furnaces

The disadvantage of electric arc furnaces is that they consume a lot of electricity. From the perspective of melting, they are not as economical as cupola furnaces. Therefore, the cupola-arc furnace dual melting method is often used in cast iron production.

Since the alkaline arc furnace lining has poor resistance to rapid cooling and heating, the lining life is short under intermittent smelting conditions, resulting in high smelting costs, so acidic arc furnaces and cupola furnaces are often used in combination.

The current of the arc furnace contains fast and irregularly changing reactive power and high-order harmonics, which cause voltage and current impulses. It causes the power supply voltage and current waveform distortion, increases line loss and power loss of electrical equipment, and reduces the quality of power.

Equipment accidents caused by voltage and current impulses are common. Impulses have become a "public nuisance" that pollutes the public power grid and harms other equipment, and the "culprit" of wasting energy.

When the electric arc furnace is making steel, it is often in the state of arcing and arc extinguishing. At this time, the power factor is very low and the current is very large, which causes a great loss of electric energy and has a great impact on the power grid. On the one hand, it will cause the voltage of the power grid to drop sharply.

On the other hand, the extremely strong high-order harmonics generated will cause serious pollution to the power grid, so that other equipment on the power grid, especially equipment controlled by electronic components (including computers) (most of the modern advanced equipment is like this) cannot work normally.