What is Submerged Arc Furnace?

Submerged arc furnace (SAF) is an industrial furnace used for high-temperature smelting, mainly used to extract metals from ores or produce alloys. 

Its characteristic is that the electrodes are buried in the charge, and the charge is heated and melted by arc heat and resistance heat. 

Industrial electric furnaces are usually used for large-scale industrial production, with the characteristics of high efficiency and energy saving.

Working Principle of Submerged Arc Furnaces

1. Electrode heating: Submerged arc furnace manufacturers usually use graphite electrodes. After power is turned on, an arc is generated between the electrode and the charge, and the resistance of the charge itself also generates heat.

2. Charge melting: The charge (such as ore, reducing agent, etc.) melts at high temperature, a chemical reaction occurs, and the metal is reduced and separated.

3. Continuous production: Submerged arc furnace industrial electric furnaces are usually operated continuously, with charge added from the top and molten metal and slag discharged from the bottom.

Main Uses of Submerged Arc Furnace

Industrial electric furnaces SAF are mainly used to smelt the following materials and metals:

1. Ferroalloy production

Used to produce various ferroalloys, such as:

Ferrosilicon (FeSi)

Ferromanganese (FeMn)

Ferrochrome (FeCr)

Silicon manganese alloy (SiMn)

These ferroalloys are mainly used in the steel industry as deoxidizers, alloy additives, etc.

2. Industrial silicon (metallic silicon)

Used to produce industrial silicon (silicon content ≥ 98%), widely used in:

Aluminum alloy industry

Semiconductor materials

Solar photovoltaic industry (polysilicon raw materials)

3. Non-ferrous metal smelting

Used to smelt certain non-ferrous metals, such as:

Nickel iron (NiFe)

Titanium slag (extracting titanium from titanium ore)

Ferrovanadium (FeV)

4. Chemical raw material production

Used to produce certain chemical raw materials, such as:

Calcium carbide (calcium carbide, CaC₂), used in acetylene production.

Ferrophosphorus (FeP), used in phosphate fertilizer production.

5. Other uses

Industrial electric furnaces are used to process metal-containing waste or low-grade ores and recover valuable metals.

Used to produce certain special alloys or materials.

Advantages of SAF Electric Furnace

1. High efficiency and energy saving: using arc heat and resistance heat, high energy utilization rate.

2. Strong adaptability: can process a variety of ores and raw materials.

3. Continuous production: suitable for large-scale industrial production.

4. Environmental protection: the smelting furnaces provided by modern submerged arc furnace manufacturers are equipped with dust removal and exhaust gas treatment systems to reduce environmental pollution.

In short, submerged arc furnace are an important industrial electric furnaces, widely used in the production of ferroalloys, industrial silicon, non-ferrous metals and chemical raw materials. It extracts metals from ores through high-temperature smelting and is an indispensable equipment in the modern metallurgical industry.