The electric arc furnace
The electric arc furnace The Electric Arc Furnace (EAF), together with the basic oxygen process, is one of the two modern ways of making steel. In China, EAFs are used to produce special quality steels (steels alloyed with other metals) and some ordinary (non-alloy) quality steels - the lighter long products such as those used for reinforcing concrete. Unlike the basic oxygen route, the EAF does not use hot metal. It is charged with "cold" material. This is normally steel scrap (recycled goods made from steel which has reached the end of their useful life). Other forms of raw material are however available which have been produced from iron ore. These include direct reduced iron (DRI) and iron carbide, as well as pig iron, which is iron from a blast furnace which has been cast and allowed to go cold, instead of being charged straight into a basic oxygen vessel. The process Steel scrap (or other ferrous material) is first tipped into the EAF from an overhead crane...