ELECTRIC ARC FURNACE

Overview

ELECTRIC ARC FURNACE is offered as a high-performance EAF with Telescope EAF and EAF special designs tailored to customer requirements and focused on a stable, steel mill-compatible and low-maintenance design. Furnaces are individually optimized for electrical and chemical energy input to suit existing input materials and required steel grades. Key equipment and options include tapping systems with EBT or tapping spout, current conductive arms (copper-plated or aluminum), electrode spray cooling, cover and vessel quick-change system, ISEC electrode controller, INTECO PTI Chemical Energy Package, INTECO PTI Swing Door, IMAS process automation and Primetals Technologies Active Power Feeder. INTECO PTI burners can use hydrogen in addition to natural gas. INTECO Fuchs’ Telescope EAF can reduce electrical energy consumption by up to 40 kWh/t, enables single-bucket charging without an increased risk of electrode breakage even with scrap densities below 0.5 t/m³, and is stated to avoid hazardous dioxin formation while enabling in-situ scrap preheating for the special steel industry. Digital and automation systems include the ISEC Smart Electrode Controller (embedded controller with high sampling rates, web-based visualization, automatic dip testing, automatic valve scaling, adaptive set point control, fuzzy-logic based foaming slag manager, and standard interfaces PROFINET, PROFIBUS or Ethernet/IP), IMAS process automation (top-down process guidance, dynamic/static treatment planning, cockpit view, real-time process models and heat-based data recording including video streams), IPAS-EAF (real-time, in-situ simultaneous measurement of temperature, CO, CO2 and an integrated single-channel flow measurement using a patented correlation and flight-time principle), the INTECO Spray Cooling Master (automatic air-mist electrode cooling with integrated filter backwash and instrumented pipe assembly), a slag detection system using a thermographic (IR) camera in a water-cooled, purged enclosure, and the ITAP automatic tapping system with controlled EAF inclination and optional HD camera in a water-cooled jacket. The EAF Meltdown Model performs detailed non-linear modelling of the furnace control volumes (liquid, solid, gaseous phases) to monitor and predict thermal and metallurgical evolution and to track temperatures, total masses and masses of individual components in both the solid and liquid phases of steel and slag. The product is offered for special steel production and for ultra-fast melting unit applications as stated by the manufacturer. INTECO provides innovative solutions for CO2-neutral steel production in integrated steel plants, exemplified by INTECO’s Twin-EAF. The furnaces support flexible raw material use spanning 100 % scrap to 100 % DRI/HBI and even up to 60 % hot metal. INTECO Fuchs’ Telescope EAF is explicitly described for in-situ scrap preheating and single-bucket charging, including use with scrap densities below 0.5 t/m³. Mini-EAFs and electric reduction furnaces are described for development work or small batch production and for applications in iron and steel foundries, for ferroalloys and silicon metal, and for production of refractory materials. The company also offers digital solutions to enhance production and to utilize collected data for strategic adjustments and continuous progress.