Electric arc furnace

An electric arc furnace (EAF) is a furnace that heats charged material by means of an electric arc.

Arc furnaces range in size from small units of approximately one ton capacity (used in foundries for producing cast iron products) up to about 400 ton units used for secondary steelmaking. Arc furnaces used in research laboratories and by dentists may have a capacity of only a few dozen grams. Temperatures inside an electric arc furnace can rise to 1,800 degrees Celsius.

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History

The first electric arc furnaces were developed by Paul Héroult, of France, with a commercial plant established in the United States in 1907. Initially "electric steel" was a specialty product for such uses as machine tools and spring steel. Arc furnaces were also used to prepare calcium carbide for use in carbide lamps.

In the 19th century, a number of men had employed an electric arc to melt iron. Sir Humphry Davy conducted an experimental demonstration in 1810; welding was investigated by Pepys in 1815; Pinchon attempted to create an electrothermic furnace in 1853; and, in 1878 - 79, Sir William Siemens took out patents for electric furnaces of the arc type. The Stessano electric furnace is an arc type furnace that usually rotates to mix the bath. The Girod furnace is similar to the Héroult furnace.

Different from the arc type of electrothermic furnace is the induction type furnace. The Kjellin furnace and the Röchling-Rodenhauser furnace are two. The Grönwall furnace produced steel at Trollhattan, in Scandinavia.

While EAFs were widely used in World War II for production of alloy steels, it was only afterwards that electric steelmaking began to expand. The low capital cost for a mini-mill - around US$140-200 per ton of annual installed capacity, compared with US$1,000 per ton of annual installed capacity for an integrated steel mill - allowed mills to be quickly set up in war-ravaged Europe, and also allowed them to successfully compete with the big United States steelmakers, such as Bethlehem Steel and U.S. Steel, for low-cost, carbon steel 'long products' (structural steel, rod and bar, wire and fasteners) in the U.S. market. When Nucor - now one of the largest steel producers in the U.S.^[1] - decided to enter the long products market in 1969, they chose to start up a mini-mill, with an EAF as its steelmaking furnace, soon followed by other manufacturers. Whilst Nucor expanded rapidly up and down the Eastern U.S., the companies that followed them into mini-mill operations concentrated on local markets for long products, where the use of an EAF allowed the plants to be flexible with production, according to local demand. This pattern was also followed in countries around the world, with EAF steel production primarily used for long products, while integrated mills, using blast furnaces and basic oxygen furnaces, cornered the markets for 'flat products' - sheet steel and heavier steel plate. In 1987, Nucor made the decision to expand into the flat products market, still using the EAF production route^[2]. The fact that an EAF uses scrap steel as feedstock, instead of raw iron, has impacted on the quality of the flat product made from EAF steel, because of the limited amount of control over the impurities that are contained within the scrap.

Construction

An electric arc furnace used for steelmaking consists of a refractory-lined vessel, usually water-cooled in larger sizes, covered with a retractable roof, and through which one or more graphite electrodes enter the furnace. The furnace is primarily split into three sections:

• the shell, which consists of the sidewalls and lower steel 'bowl';
• the hearth, which consists of the refractory that lines the lower bowl;
• the roof, which may be refractory-lined or water-cooled, and can be shaped as a section of a sphere, or as a frustum (conical section). The roof also supports the refractory delta in its centre, through which one or more graphite electrodes enter.

The hearth may be hemispherical in shape, or in an eccentric bottom tapping furnace (see below), the hearth has the shape of a halved egg. In modern meltshops, the furnace is often raised off the ground floor, so that ladles and slag pots can easily be maneuvered under either end of the furnace. Separate from the furnace structure is the electrode support and electrical system, and the tilting platform on which the furnace rests. Two configurations are possible: the electrode supports and the roof tilt with the furnace, or are fixed to the raised platform.

A typical alternating current furnace has three electrodes. Electrodes are round in section, and typically in segments with threaded couplings, so that as the electrodes wear, new segments can be added. The arc forms between the charged material and the electrode, and the charge is heated both by current passing through the charge and by the radiant energy evolved by the arc. The electrodes are automatically raised and lowered by a positioning system, which may use either electric winch hoists or hydraulic cylinders. The regulating system maintains an approximately constant current and power input during the melting of the charge, even though scrap may move under the electrodes while it melts. The mast arms holding the electrodes carry heavy busbars, which may be hollow water-cooled copper pipes, used to convey current to the electrode holders. Modern systems use 'hot arms', where the whole arm carries the current, increasing efficiency. These can be made from copper-clad steel or aluminium. Since the electrodes move up and down automatically for regulation of the arc, and are raised to allow removal of the furnace roof, heavy water-cooled cables connect the bus tubes/arms with the transformer located adjacent to the furnace. To protect the transformer from the heat of the furnace, it is installed in a vault.

The furnace is built on a tilting platform so that the liquid steel can be poured into another vessel for transport in the steel making process. The operation of tilting the furnace to pour off molten steel is called "tapping". Originally, all steelmaking furnaces had a tapping spout closed with refractory that washed out when the furnace was tilted, but often modern furnaces have an eccentric bottom tap-hole (EBT) to reduce inclusion of nitrogen and slag in the liquid steel. These furnaces have a taphole that passes vertically through the hearth and shell, and is set off-centre in the narrow 'nose' of the egg-shaped hearth. Modern plants may have two shells with a single set of electrodes that can be transferred between the two; one shell preheats scrap while the other shell is utilised for meltdown. Other DC-based furnaces have a similar arrangement, but have electrodes for each shell and one set of electronics.

A mid-sized modern steelmaking furnace would have a transformer rated about 60,000,000 volt-amperes (60 MVA), with a secondary voltage between 400 and 900 volts and a secondary current in excess of 44,000 amperes. In a modern shop such a furnace would be expected to produce a quantity of 80 metric tonnes of liquid steel in approximately 60 minutes from charging with cold scrap to tapping the furnace. In comparison, basic oxygen furnaces can have a capacity of 150-300 tonnes per batch, or 'heat', and can produce a heat in 30-40 minutes. Enormous variations exist in furnace design details and operations, depending on the end product and local conditions, as well as ongoing research to improve furnace efficiency - the largest scrap-only furnace (in terms of tapping weight and transformer rating) is in Turkey, with a tap weight of 250 metric tonnes and a transformer of 240 MVA.

To produce a ton of steel in an electric arc furnace requires on the close order of 400 kilowatt-hours per short ton of electrical energy, or about 440kWh per metric tonne; the theoretical minimum amount of energy required to melt a tonne of scrap steel is 300kWh (melting point 1520°C/2768°F). Electric arc steelmaking is only economical where there is a plentiful supply of electric power, with a well-developed electrical grid.

Operation

• Scrap metal is delivered to a scrap bay, located next to the melt shop. Scrap generally comes in two main grades: shred (whitegoods, cars - whole - and other similar objects) and heavy melt (large slabs and beams), along with some direct reduced iron (DRI) or pig iron for chemical balance. Some furnaces, however, melt almost 100% DRI.

• The scrap is loaded into large buckets called baskets, with 'clamshell' doors for a base. Care is taken to layer the scrap in the basket to ensure good furnace operation; heavy melt is placed on top of a light layer of protective shred, on top of which is placed more shred. These layers should be present in the furnace after charging. After loading, the basket may pass to a scrap pre-heater, which uses hot furnace off-gases to heat the scrap and recover energy to increase plant overall efficiency.

• The scrap basket is then taken to the melt shop, the roof is swung off the furnace, and the furnace is charged with scrap from the basket. Charging is one of the more dangerous operations for the EAF operators. There is a lot of energy generated by multiple tonnes of falling metal; any liquid metal in the furnace is often displaced upwards and outwards by the solid scrap, and the grease and dust that coats the scrap is ignited if the furnace is hot, resulting in a fireball erupting out of the top of the furnace and the slag door. In some twin-shell furnaces, the scrap is charged into the second shell while the first is being melted down, and pre-heated with off-gas from the active shell. Other operations are continuous charging - pre-heating scrap on a conveyor belt, which then discharges the scrap into the furnace proper, or charging the scrap from a shaft set above the furnace, with off-gases directed through the shaft. Yet other furnaces can be charged with hot (molten) metal from other operations.

• After charging, the roof is swung back over the furnace and meltdown commences. The electrodes are lowered onto the scrap, an arc is struck and the electrodes are then set to bore into the layer of shred at the top of the furnace. Lower voltages are selected for this first part of the operation to protect the roof and walls from excessive heat and damage from the arcs. Once the electrodes have reached the heavy melt at the base of the furnace and the arcs are shielded by the scrap, the voltage can be increased and the electrodes raised slightly, lengthening the arcs and increasing power to the melt. This enables a molten pool to form more rapidly, reducing tap-to-tap times. In more modern furnaces, oxygen is also lanced into the scrap, combusting or cutting the steel and burning out carbon, and sometimes chemical heat is provided by wall-mounted oxy-fuel burners. Both processes accelerate scrap meltdown.

• An important part of steelmaking is the formation of slag, which floats on the surface of the molten steel. Slag usually consists of metal oxides, and acts as a destination for oxidised impurities, as a thermal blanket (stopping excessive heat loss) and helping to reduce erosion of the refractory lining. For a furnace with basic refractories, which includes most carbon steel-producing furnaces, the usual slag formers are calcium oxide (CaO, in the form of burnt lime) and magnesium oxide (MgO, in the form of dolomite and magnesite). These slag formers are either charged with the scrap, or blown into the furnace during meltdown. Later in the heat, carbon (in the form of coke) is lanced into this slag layer, partially combusting to form carbon monoxide gas, which then causes the slag to foam, allowing greater thermal efficiency, and better arc stability and electrical efficiency. The slag blanket also covers the arcs, prevents damage to the furnace roof and sidewalls from radiant heat.

• Once flat bath conditions are reached, i.e. the scrap has been completely melted down, often another bucket of scrap is charged into the furnace and melted down. After the second charge is completely melted, refining operations take place to check and correct the steel chemistry and superheat the melt above its freezing temperature in preparation for tapping. More slag formers are introduced and more oxygen is lanced into the bath, burning out impurities such as silicon, sulfur, phosphorus, aluminium, manganese and calcium and removing their oxides to the slag. Metals that have a poorer affinity for oxygen than iron, such as nickel and copper, cannot be removed through oxidation and must be controlled through scrap chemistry alone, such as introducing the direct reduced iron and pig iron mentioned earlier. A foaming slag is maintained throughout, and often overflows the furnace to pour out of the slag door into the slag pit. Temperature sampling and chemical sampling (in the form of a 'chill' - a small, solidified sample of the steel) take place via automatic lances.

• Once the temperature and chemistry are correct, the steel is tapped out into a preheated ladle through tilting the furnace. As soon as slag is detected during tapping the furnace is rapidly tilted back towards the deslagging side, minimising slag entering the ladle. During tapping some alloy additions are introduced into the metal stream. Often, a few tonnes of liquid steel and slag is left in the furnace in order to form a 'hot heel', which helps preheat the next charge of scrap and accelerate its meltdown. During and after tapping, the furnace is 'turned around': the slag door is cleaned of solidified slag, repairs may take place, and electrodes are inspected for damage or lengthened through the addition of new segments; the taphole is filled with sand at the completion of tapping. For a 90-tonne, medium-power furnace, the whole process will usually take about 60-70 minutes from the tapping of one heat to the tapping of the next (the tap-to-tap time).

Advantages of electric arc furnace for steelmaking

The precise control of chemistry and temperature encouraged use of electric arc furnaces during World War II for production of steel for shell casings. Today steelmaking arc furnaces produce many grades of steel, from concrete reinforcing bars and common merchant-quality standard channels, bars, and flats to special bar quality grades used for the automotive and oil industry.

A typical steelmaking arc furnace is the source of steel for a mini-mill, which may make bars or strip product. The steelmaking arc furnace is generally charged with scrap steel, though if hot metal from a blast furnace or direct-reduced iron is available economically, these can also be used for steelmaking.

Environmental issues

Although the modern electric arc furnace is a highly efficient recycler of steel scrap, operation of an arc furnace shop can have adverse environmental effects. Much of the capital cost of a new installation will be devoted to systems intended to reduce these effects, which include:

• High sound levels
• Dust and off-gas production
• Slag production
• Cooling water demand
• Heavy truck traffic for scrap, materials handling, and products
• Environmental effects of electricity generation

Because of the very dynamic quality of the arc furnace load, power systems may require technical measures to maintain the quality of power for other customers; flicker and harmonic distortion are common side-effects of arc furnace operation on a power system.

Other electric arc furnaces

For steelmaking, direct current (DC) arc furnaces are used, with a single electrode in the roof and the current return through a conductive bottom lining or conductive pins in the base. The advantage of DC is lower electrode consumption per ton of steel produced, since only one electrode is used, as well as less electrical harmonics and other similar problems. However, the size of DC arc furnaces is limited by the available electrodes and maximum allowable voltage. Maintenance of the conductive furnace hearth is a bottleneck in extended operation of a DC arc furnace. However, Danieli - makers of steel plant equipment - are preparing to install a 420-tonne DC furnace, powered by two 160 MVA transformers, in a Japanese steel mill. Instead of an upper graphite electrode and a lower conductive hearth, this EAF would have two upper graphite electrodes.

In a steel plant, a ladle furnace can be used to maintain the temperature of liquid steel during processing after tapping from the scrap-melting furnace. This also allows the molten steel to be kept ready for use in the event of a delay later in the steelmaking process. The ladle furnace consists of only the refractory roof and electrode system of a scrap-melting furnace, but it has no need for a tilting mechanism or scrap charging.

Electric arc furnaces are also used for production of non-ferrous alloys, and for production of phosphorus. Furnaces for these services are physically different from steel-making furnaces and may operate on a continuous, rather than batch, basis. Continuous process furnaces may also use paste-type (Soderberg) electrodes to prevent interruptions due to electrode changes. Such furnaces are usually known as submerged arc furnaces, because the electrode tips are buried in the slag/charge, and arcing occurs through the slag, between the matte and the electrode. A steelmaking arc furnace, by comparison, arcs in the open. The key is the electrical resistance, which is what generates the heat required: the resistance in a steelmaking furnace is the atmosphere, while in a submerged arc furnace, the slag or charge forms the resistance. The liquid metal formed in either furnace is too conductive to form an effective heat-generating resistance.

Amateurs have constructed a variety of arc furnaces, often based on electric arc welding kits contained by silical blocks or flower pots. Though crude, these simple furnaces are capable of melting a wide range of materials and creating calcium carbide etc.

Vacuum arc remelting

In critical military and commercial aerospace applications, material engineers commonly specify VIM-VAR steels. VIM means Vacuum Induction Melted and VAR means Vacuum Arc Remelted. VIM-VAR steels become bearings for jet engines, rotor shafts for military helicopters, flap actuators for fighter jets, gears in jet or helicopter transmissions, mounts or fasteners for jet engines, jet tail hooks and other demanding applications.

Most grades of steel are melted once and are then cast or teemed into a solid form prior to extensive forging or rolling to a metallurgically sound form. In contrast, VIM-VAR steels go through two more highly purifying melts under vacuum. After melting in an electric arc furnace and alloying in an argon oxygen decarburization vessel, steels destined for vacuum remelting are cast into ingot molds. The solidified ingots then head for a vacuum induction melting furnace. This vacuum remelting process rids the steel of inclusions and unwanted gases while optimizing the chemical composition. The VIM operation returns these solid ingots to the molten state in the contaminant-free void of a vacuum. This tightly controlled melt often requires up to 24 hours. Still enveloped by the vacuum, the hot metal flows from the VIM furnace crucible into giant electrode molds. A typical electrode stands about 15 feet (5 meters) tall and will be in various diameters. The electrodes solidify under vacuum.

For VIM-VAR steels, the surface of the cooled electrodes must be ground to remove surface irregularities and impurities before the next vacuum remelt. Then the ground electrode is placed in a VAR furnace. In a VAR furnace the steel gradually melts drop-by-drop in the vacuum-sealed chamber. Vacuum arc remelting further removes lingering inclusions to provide superior steel cleanliness and further remove gases such as oxygen, nitrogen and hydrogen. Controlling the rate at which these droplets form and solidify ensures a consistency of chemistry and microstructure throughout the entire VIM-VAR ingot. This in turn makes the steel more resistant to fracture and/or fatigue. This refinement process is essential to meet the performance characteristics of parts like a helicopter rotor shaft, a flap actuator on a military jet or a bearing in a jet engine.

For some commercial or military applications, iron-based steel alloys may go through only one vacuum remelt, namely the VAR. For example, steels for solid rocket cases, landing gears or torsion bars for fighting vehicles typically involve the one vacuum remelt.

Vacuum arc remelting is also used in production of titanium and other metals which are reactive or in which high purity is required.

References

• H. W. Beaty (ed), "Standard Handbook for Electrical Engineers,11th Ed.", McGraw Hill, New York 1978, ISBN 0-07-020974-X
• J.A.T. Jones, B. Bowman, P.A. Lefrank, Electric Furnace Steelmaking, in The Making, Shaping and Treating of Steel, R.J. Fruehan, Editor. 1998, The AISE Steel Foundation: Pittsburgh. p. 525-660.