Application of New Generation Electromagnetic Stirring in Electric Arc Furnace

Today's electric arc furnace (EAF) normally operates with high power input and short tap-to-tap time and has high demands on the bath mixing capacity to improve the heat and mass transfer. A new generation of electromagnetic stirrer (ArcSave) for EAF operation has been developed by ABB Metallurgy and applied in the industrial furnaces. The stirrer installed underneath the furnace bottom creates a whole bath mixing effect thus accelerates the homogenization of the temperature and chemical composition of the steel. Two ArcSave systems have been installed in 2014. One has been installed on a 90 ton Eccentric Bottom Tapping (EBT) furnace for carbon steel production in the United States and the other installed on a 90 ton spout tapping furnace for stainless steel production in Sweden. The effect of ArcSave on the EAF process has been studied during the hot test period and the resulting performance has been compared based on 6-month-data without stirring and 6-month-data with ArcSave. This paper will present the detailed information of the investigation results obtained from these two installations. ArcSave speeds up the scrap and FeCr melt-down, reduces the scrap cave-ins, homogenizes the temperature and chemical composition of the steel bath, forces the metal/slag reactions closer to equilibrium state, increases the decarburization rate. ArcSave reduces the consumption of electric energy and increase the scrap yield which makes the electric arc furnace more cost effectiveness. ArcSave is a potential and reliable solution to improve the operation safety, increase the productivity, and reduce the cost.