What is Electric Arc Furnace EAF Steelmaking ?

Electric arc furnace eaf steelmaking, referred to as EAF, is a heating furnace that transfers heat energy to materials through electric arc discharge. It is an industrial electric furnace mainly used for smelting ores and metals.

The processing capacity of electric arc smelting furnaces ranges from 1 ton for cast iron products in foundries to 400 tons for secondary steelmaking in steel plants.

Features of Electric Arc Furnace EAF Steelmaking

EAF steelmaking: An industrial furnace that generates arc heating through metal electrodes or non-metallic electrodes is called an electric arc furnaces. According to the arc form, it can be divided into three-phase electric arc furnaces, consumable electric arc furnaces, single-phase electric arc furnaces and resistance electric arc furnaces.

The furnace body of the electric arc steelmaking furnace consists of a furnace cover, a furnace door, a steel tapping trough and a furnace body, and the furnace bottom and furnace wall are built with alkaline refractory materials or acidic refractory materials.

Steelmaking electric arc furnaces are divided into 

① ordinary power electric arc furnaces

② high power electric arc furnaces

③ ultra-high power electric arc furnaces 

according to the transformer capacity per ton of furnace capacity.

The steelmaking electric furnace inputs electric energy into the electric arc furnace through graphite electrodes, and uses the arc generated between the electrode end and the charge as the heat source to make steel.

EAF uses electric energy as the heat source, which can adjust the atmosphere in the furnace, and is extremely beneficial for smelting steel containing more easily oxidized elements.

Soon after the invention of the electric arc melting furnace, it was used to smelt alloy steel and has been greatly developed. Its more suitable for the smelting of high-quality alloy steel.

Advantages

Advantages of Steelmaking Electric Arc Furnace

EAF metal smelting furnace uses electricity as the main energy source. It generates high temperature of 2000 ~ 6000℃ through graphite electrode and charge discharge arc, and melts scrap steel raw materials by arc radiation, temperature convection and heat conduction;

Electric heating can easily and accurately control the furnace temperature, and heating operation can be carried out under any conditions such as oxidizing atmosphere or reducing atmosphere, normal pressure or vacuum according to process requirements;

The process flow of electric furnace steelmaking is short, the equipment is simple, the operation is convenient, it is relatively easy to control pollution, the construction investment is small, the land occupation is small, and it does not need to rely on a complex ironmaking system like converter steelmaking;

SR electric arc furnace has strong adaptability to charge. It uses scrap steel as the main raw material, but it can also use solid and liquid iron-containing raw materials such as molten iron (blast furnace or cupola iron), sponge iron (DRI) or hot briquettes (HBI), pig iron blocks, etc.

Since the atmosphere in the steelmaking furnaces is controllable, the slag adjustment or replacement operation is relatively easy, and the complex process operations of melting, decarburization, dephosphorization, degassing, inclusion removal, temperature control, composition adjustment (alloying) and other stages can be completed in the same operating system.

The electric arc furnaces can not only smelt high-quality steel with low phosphorus, sulfur and oxygen content, but also can use a variety of elements for alloying (including easily oxidized elements such as lead, boron, vanadium, titanium and rare earth) to produce various high-quality steels and alloy steels, such as ball bearing steel, stainless acid-resistant steel, tool steel, electrical steel, heat-resistant steel, magnetic materials and special alloys.

Steel Types That Can Be Produced by EAF

The raw materials for steelmaking in electric arc furnace EAF are mainly solid scrap steel with alloy materials, pig iron for adjusting carbon content, etc., and direct reduced iron or a part of hot iron can also be used. The selection range of raw materials is wide;

Therefore, except for some ultra-low carbon steel varieties, or varieties and special alloy materials that must be treated with special means such as vacuum treatment, most steel varieties can be smelted.

If you have any questions or solutions, please contact us.

Sanrui Electric Furnace is a professional manufacturer of various EAF, SAF, LF, IF, BF and other steelmaking, ironmaking, non-ferrous metal and heating equipment.