Many of us got to know steel. We employ it with your everyday activity. But ever wondered how to produce it? Along with what should it take to produce it? Fundamentally the steel is produced inside a big factory and it’s also cooked in the giant stove called furnace. And also the cooking itself takes a lot of ingredients in it.

The Blast Furnace and Electric Arc Furnace methods are the two major approaches for producing iron and steel products. Scrap melting is the major process utilizing Electric Arc Furnaces. Recently, industry competition is becoming increasingly intense, elevating the necessity for an infinitely more efficient melting process. Capacities in the transformers are getting larger and electric furnaces are increasing larger worldwide. Within this manufacturing environment, graphite materials which have durability for larger-power operation are needed considerably more for the use as Graphite Electrode (GE).

GE are produced from carbon. Carbon is often a nonmetal element having an atomic amount of 6 as well as the atomic symbol “C”. Carbon will be the base of organic chemistry, closely related to organic matter and life activity. Manufacturing excellent graphite electrodes requires quality materials which might be strictly selected.

Graphite has a higher heat transfer rating, resistance to higher temperatures, and contains more strength against thermal shock than many other materials. Moreover, it excels in machinability to meet the needs for the broader array of dimensions. Thus, graphite may be the optimum material for scrap-melting electrodes.

GE are easily consumed at high temperatures due to the reaction with oxygen to get 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 rate of sublimation is proportional to the increase of current density.

Meanwhile, use of quality GE brings about contributions to saving energy and environmental conservation. Electric arc furnaces, with the main purpose of recycling steel scraps, market reuse of steel products.

Production organization of graphite electrodes may be divided as 10 stages the next:

Raw material transporting
Kneading
Extruding
Baking
Pitch Impregnation
Re-Baking
Graphitization
Machining
Inspection
Shipment
The typical sizes for graphite electrodes are from diameter 10″ (inch) to 30″(inch) and from length 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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