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Concept
Electric arc furnace
Summary
An electric arc furnace (EAF) is a furnace that heats material by means of an electric arc.
Industrial arc furnaces range in size from small units of approximately one-tonne capacity (used in foundries for producing cast iron products) up to about 400-tonne units used for secondary steelmaking. Arc furnaces used in research laboratories and by dentists may have a capacity of only a few dozen grams. Industrial electric arc furnace temperatures can reach , while laboratory units can exceed .
In electric arc furnaces, the charged material (the material entered into the furnace for heating, not to be confused with electric charge) is directly exposed to an electric arc, and the current from the furnace terminals passes through the charged material.
Arc furnaces differ from induction furnaces, in which the charge is heated instead by eddy currents.
In the 19th century, a number of people had employed an electric arc to melt iron. Sir Humphry Davy conducted an experimental demonstration in 1810; welding was investigated by Pepys in 1815; Pinchon attempted to create an electrothermic furnace in 1853; and, in 1878–79, Sir William Siemens took out patents for electric furnaces of the arc type.
The first successful and operational furnace was invented by James Burgess Readman in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1888 and patented in 1889. This was specifically for the creation of phosphorus.
Further electric arc furnaces were developed by Paul Héroult, of France, with a commercial plant established in the United States in 1907. The Sanderson brothers formed The Sanderson Brothers Steel Co. in Syracuse, New York, installing the first electric arc furnace in the U.S. This furnace is now on display at Station Square, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Initially "electric steel" produced by an electric arc furnace was a specialty product for such uses as machine tools and spring steel. Arc furnaces were also used to prepare calcium carbide for use in carbide lamps. The Stassano electric furnace is an arc type furnace that usually rotates to mix the bath.
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