Submerged arc furnace Profile

Submerged arc furnace—it’s also known as electric arc furnace or resistance electric furnace. It is mainly used to reducing smelting ore, carbonaceous reducing agent and solvent etc. Mainly adapt to production of ferrosilicon, ferromanganese, ferrochrome, ferrotungsten, silicon manganese alloy and other ferrous alloys, it is an important smelting furnace in metallurgical industry for production of industrial raw materials and calcium carbide and so on chemical raw materials. The working character is to use carbon or magnesia refractory materials as furnace lining, use self roasting electrode. Electrode insert into the materials inside the furnace for submerged arc operation, using arc energy and current through the materials, and due to the resistance of the materials and produce energy to melt metal. It’s a kind of industrial furnace which is worked continuously, charge material in succession, and tap out metal or slag in intermittent.

 

Submerged Arc Furnace---Major categories and application

Category			Main raw-material	Final products	Reaction temperature ( Celsius Degree)	Power consumption    KWh/t
Ferroalloy furnace	Ferrosilicon furnace	(45%) ferrosilicon	Ferrosilicon, scrap iron, coke	Ferrosilicon	1550-1770	2100-5500
		(75%) ferrosilicon				8000-11000
	Ferromanganese furnace		Manganese ore, scrap iron, coke, lime	Ferromanganese	1500-1400	2400-4000
	Ferrochrome furnace		Chrome ore, silica, coke	Ferrochrome	1600-1750	3200-6000
	Ferrotungsten furnace		Tungsten crystal ore, coke	Ferrotungsten	2400-2900	3000-5000
	Silicon chromium furnace		Ferrochrome, silica, coke	Silicon chrome	1600-1750	3500-6500
	Silicon manganese furnace		Manganese ore, silica, iron scrap, coke	Silicon manganese	1350-1400	3500-4000
Steelmaking electric furnace			Iron ore, coke	Pig iron	1500-1600	1800-2500
calcium carbide furnace			Limestone, coke	Calcium carbide	1900-2000	2900-3200
Boron carbide furnace			Boron oxide, coke	Boron carbide	1800-2500

 

Notes: The above is roughly value. According to the difference of the raw material composition, finished product components, electric furnace capacity and etc. the power consumption value will be much different.

 

Submerged Arc Furnace---Structure characteristics

Submerged arc furnace is a kind of industrial furnace which consumes much power. Full set equipment mainly consists of furnace shell, fume hoods, lining, short net, cooling system, exhaust system, de-dusting system, electrode shell, electrode lifting system, loading and unloading system, electrode holder, arc burner, hydraulic systems, submerged arc furnace transformer and various of electrical equipments.

 

Submerged arc furnace equipment is divided into three layer arrangement

The 1st layer is furnace body (including furnace bottom support, furnace shell, furnace lining), tapping system (including the ladle or pot and ladle car.), arc burner etc.

 

The 2nd layer

(1) Fume hood: At present, mostly of submerged arc furnace adopt closed or semi-closed low hood structure, with the characteristics of environmental protection, facilitate maintenance and improve the operation environment.  The closed structure can also collect the exhaust gas (main ingredient is carbon monoxide) which is generated in the production  and use in synthetically. Also can reduce the heat loss of the circuit, decrease the temperature of the electrode, and improve the operating environment.

(2) Electrode holder: Most of submerged arc furnace with three-phase power supply. Electrode in triangle or inverted triangle, symmetrical position placed in the middle of furnace chamber. Large submerged arc furnace generally adopt anthracite, coke and coal tar pitch mixed as electrode material, in the process of smelting , it roasting by itself as electrode.

(3) Short net

(4) Copper tile

(5) Electrode shell

(6) Unloading system

(7) turning down machine

(8) Fume exhaust system

(9) Water-cooling system

(10) Submerged arc furnace transformer

(11) Operating system

 

The 3rd layer

(1) Hydraulic system

(2) Electrode press and release device

(3) Electrode lifting system

(4) Steel platform

(5) Hopper and cycle material distribution car