Most of us must know steel. It’s used by us within your everyday life. But have you ever wondered how you can produce it? Along with what should it decide to try produce it? This is the steel is made in the big factory and it’s also cooked in the giant stove called furnace. As well as the cooking itself takes a lot of ingredients within it.
The Blast Furnace and Electric Arc Furnace methods would be the two major techniques for producing iron and steel products. Scrap melting could be the major process utilizing Electric Arc Furnaces. Recently, industry competition is becoming increasingly intense, elevating the requirement for an infinitely more efficient melting process. Capacities with the transformers increasingly becoming larger and electric furnaces are growing larger worldwide. In this manufacturing environment, graphite materials who have durability for larger-power operation are required considerably more for the use as Graphite Electrode (GE).
GE are made from carbon. Carbon is a nonmetal element having an atomic number of 6 along with the atomic symbol “C”. Carbon is the base of organic chemistry, closely associated with organic matter and life activity. Manufacturing excellent graphite electrodes requires quality materials which might be strictly selected.
Graphite carries a higher heat transfer rating, potential to deal with higher temperatures, and has more strength against thermal shock than other materials. Moreover, it excels in machinability to satisfy what’s needed for the broader range of dimensions. Thus, graphite is the optimum material for scrap-melting electrodes.
GE can be consumed at high temperatures because of the reaction with oxygen being CO, CO2. The oxidation of electrodes starts at 500oC and accelerates its speed at 800oC (inside furnace). Usage of graphite electrodes by sublimation occurs at 3400o. The velocity of sublimation is proportional on the increase of current density.
Meanwhile, utilization of quality GE results in contributions to saving energy and environmental conservation. Electric arc furnaces, using the main objective of recycling steel scraps, help promote reuse of steel products.
Production organization of graphite electrodes could be divided as 10 stages the subsequent:
Raw material transporting
Kneading
Extruding
Baking
Pitch Impregnation
Re-Baking
Graphitization
Machining
Inspection
Shipment
The standard sizes for graphite electrodes come from diameter 10″ (inch) to 30″(inch) and from duration of 60″(inch) to 110″(inch). The weights are starting from 123 Kgs (10″ x 60″) to 2060 Kgs (30″ x 110″).
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