What is a Submerged Arc Furnace for Ferro Alloy Production?

What is a Submerged Arc Furnace for Ferro Alloy Production?

Ferroalloy submerged arc furnace, full name ore electric reduction furnace, is the main equipment for producing ferroalloy and calcium carbide in the chemical industry. One end of the electrode of submerged arc furnace is buried in the material layer, forming an arc in the material layer and heating the material by using the resistance of the material layer itself; it is commonly used for smelting ferroalloy (see ferroalloy electric furnace), smelting matte nickel, matte copper (see nickel, copper), and producing calcium carbide (calcium carbide).

Classification of Ferroalloy Submerged Arc Furnace

Generally, according to the distribution of electrodes in the furnace and the shape of the furnace body, it can be divided into round furnace, rectangular furnace, and elliptical furnace;

According to the smelting type, Ferroalloy Submerged Arc Furnace can be divided into ferrosilicon furnace, silicon manganese furnace, ferrochrome furnace, ferronickel furnace, silicon calcium alloy furnace, calcium carbide furnace, etc.;

According to the furnace body structure, it can be divided into fixed furnace and rotary furnace, etc.;

According to the smelting method, Ferroalloy Submerged Arc Furnace can be divided into open furnaces, semi-closed furnaces, fully closed furnaces, etc.

Composition of Ferroalloy Submerged Arc Furnace

Ferroalloy Submerged Arc Furnace is mainly composed of a power supply system, reactive power compensation device, charging system, electrode system, furnace busbar, furnace body, exhaust system, cooling system, hydraulic system, monitoring system, high and low voltage electrical control system, etc.;

Auxiliary smelting equipment includes batching system and feeding system, furnace front equipment, lifting equipment, finished product processing equipment, dust removal system, water supply system, gas supply system, electrode shell production and machine repair equipment, laboratory equipment, etc.;

The Ferroalloy Submerged Arc Furnace smelting system engineering also includes factory design (including process and equipment design), power transmission and distribution system, raw material processing system, closed furnace gas purification system, flue gas waste heat utilization (power generation) system, etc.

During smelting, the mixed raw materials are added from the furnace's mouth, and three electrodes are buried in the charge. They are heated by the resistance heat generated by the arc and current passing through the charge, and the iron is discharged and slag is discharged regularly through the iron outlet. As the charge sinks, new materials are continuously added from the furnace's mouth, and the production is carried out continuously.

Depending on the type of smelting, the charge used is also different.

For example. The raw materials used in smelting ferrosilicon are mainly silica, coke, and steel scraps; smelting high carbon ferromanganese and other slag smelting, the raw materials used in addition to ore and reducing agent coke, also need to add flux CaO and so on.

The varieties of smelting include ferrosilicon, silicon calcium alloy, industrial silicon, high carbon ferromanganese, high carbon ferrochrome, silicon manganese alloy, etc.

Features of Ferroalloy Submerged Arc Furnace

1. Electrical control can realize automatic control operation;

2. The closed furnace cover adopts a plate water cooling structure;

3. The furnace busbar system adopts water-cooled copper tubes and large-section water-cooled cables, which can effectively reduce the impedance of the current system;

4. The continuous feeding of the furnace top silo is realized by using a rotating feeding belt conveyor or a rotating feeding machine;

5. The bottom ring, clamp, and protective screen of the combined gripper are all water-cooled;

6. The copper tile gripper has reliable conductive contact and supports long-term overload operation;

7. The batching adopts PLC automatic control and weighing by weighing sensor, and the batching is uniform and accurate.