Graphite Electrodes and Needle Coke

Graphite electrodes are the well-known heating components and parts used in furnaces, like electric arc furnaces, ladle furnaces or blast furnaces. It is a key material for the steelmaking process where scrap from old cars or appliances is melted to manufacture new steel types. The electrodes are part of the furnace lid and assembled into columns. While electricity passes through the electrodes, it can form extremely intensive heat in the arc that makes scrap steel molten. With the use of graphite electrodes, producing steel from iron ore is cheaper with EAF compared with the fuel by coking coal. However, in terms of steel scrap and the consumption of electricity, the cost of steelmaking is higher. The capacity of electricity required for this process is sufficient for a town with a population of 100K. In modern electric arc furnaces, each process takes probably around one and a half hours to melt 150 tons of steel.

 

Needle coke is the main raw material used in graphite electrodes. Including baking and rebaking to convert the coke into graphite, it takes up to six months to make graphite electrodes. There are petroleum-based needle coke and coal-based needle coke, and either can be used to make graphite electrodes. Besides the manufacturing technology, the quality of raw materials, like needle coke, is very important for the final products of graphite electrodes. Xinhui Carbon has reliable and fixed resources of raw materials, so we can ensure that provide our clients with excellent quality products at favorable prices. Besides graphite electrodes, we can provide more graphite related products for our customers, like graphite rods, graphite blocks, graphite crucibles and furnace carburizer. If you have any requests or questions, please contact us directly via email: wendy@lzxhcarbon.com for more information.