Graphite electrodes have a long history of over 100 years.
Graphite is the only material that has no known substitutes in the production of electrodes for electric arc furnaces (EAF).
The main characteristics of graphite are: high temperature resistance, excellent thermal conductivity, very low electrical resistance.
In the electric arc furnace graphite electrodes can conduct huge quantities of electricity to melt steel scrap thanks to their ability to withstand very high temperatures, even beyond 3.500°C.
Thanks to those property, graphite electrodes are used as conductors of electricity, that generate the electric arc with temperatures high enough to melt metal scrap and other raw materials used for the production of ferrous and non-ferrous steel.
Depending on what raw materials are used, different kind of steel can be produced. During its application, the consumption of graphite electrode, can be influenced by multiple variables.
In a modern high productivity steel mill, using UHP grade electrodes, it is possible to reach a specific consumption even lower than 1kg for metric tones (MT) of steel produced.
Without high quality UHP graphite electrodes there would be no high productivity EAF steel departments.