Carbon electrodes are used in submerged arc furnace applications. Submerged arc furnace operations vary slightly from other electric arc furnace applications.
A submerged arc furnace is a large furnace loaded with selected and sized raw materials, such as quartz, wood, charcoal, and ores. During the process, these raw materials melt and chemically react. The product that leaves the furnace is a molten metal, such as silicon, ferrosilicon, ferronickel, thermal phosphorus, and zirconium. These molten metals are cooled and further processed into the appropriate size and grade for various applications.
Carbon electrodes are suspended through the furnace roof structure. Carbon electrodes range from 610mm to 1397mm in diameter and can be produced from 2134mm to 2800mm in length. These electrodes are quite dense, weighing up to 6.75mt each.
Carbon electrodes have a threaded socket and are assembled near the furnace in columns, typically with graphite connecting pins. After the column is installed into the furnace, carbon electrodes are added to the top of the column as the electrode is consumed at the bottom of the column during the melting process. Furnaces are structured to accommodate 1 to 6 columns of carbon electrodes.
| ||Unit||Arc Furnace Type|
|Yellow phosphorus H||Silicon, S||Ferroalloy S|
|Thermal Expansion Coefficient||10-6/°C||4.5||6||6|
|Break Resistance Intensity||≥||Mpa||6||6||6|
|Flexural strength|| ||Mpa||4.-7.5||4.5-7.5||3.5-7.5|