From 25th February to 10th March 2010, the Φ710mm UHP graphite electrode of our company functioned well in the EAF furnace in the north area of the second steel plant of Taiyuan Iron & Steel (Group) Co., Ltd. It was reported in the experimental evaluation of the second steel plant of Taiyuan Iron & Steel (Group) Co., Ltd. that the consumption rate of our product was the same as that of American UCAR electrode, and lower than that of the products of Shanghai SGL and Japanese SDK, which were used at the same time.

The physical and chemical properties of Φ710mm UHP electrode and the consumption rate are the same as that of import. Since it was put into commercial production in 2007, Φ710mm UHP electrode has been used in many steel manufactures and received remarkable recognition, such as Xingcheng Steel, Hangzhou Iron & steel Group, Liangzhong Stainless Steel Corporation in Guangzhou, Bayi Iron & Steel Corporation in Xinjiang, etc. Although it has entered international market, the product has not been yet massively used in 160t large stainless EAF, which represents the most advanced steelmaking technology in the world. Therefore, it is the pursuing goal of our company to produce qualified Φ710mm UHP electrode that is applicable in high surge current EAF with stringent operating condition and to gain good trust of steel manufacturers with large EAF. 

 The stainless production line of the north area of the second steel plant of Taiyuan Iron & Steel (Group) Co., Ltd. is the biggest stainless steel production line in the world, which was put into operation in May 2006. The specifications are as follow: nominal capacity 160 tons, transformer capacity 140MVA, rated current 65-70KA, and surge current 95WVA. At present, the furnace is the biggest and most advanced smelting furnace in China, which requires very stringent physical and chemical properties of electrodes. The furnace had been using imported electrode until successful trial of KFCC’s electrode, for there were no domestic product that could meet its requirements. 

The need of Taiyuan Iron & Steel to reduce cost and hope the desire of nationalization of electrode for steelmaking provided our salespersons good opportunity to set up cooperative relationship with it. Owing to the qualified product and mature technology of KFCC and the hard work of both sides, more than 100 tons electrodes of KFCC were used in the three-phase AC furnace of 160 tons in the stainless production line in February 2010. In the trial, the red hot length of the electrodes was proper, and there were no openings in the connection, nor thread off, cracks or butt falling caused by poor quality. In normal production conditions, general consumption rate of our product was 2.99 kg/t; while Shanghai SGL and Japanese SDK was 3.05 Kg/t which were used at the same time. The application proved that our product could meet the requirements of the second steel plant of Taiyuan Iron & Steel (Group) Co., Ltd. 

 The successful trial of Φ710mm UHP graphite electrode in the second steel plant of Taiyuan Iron & Steel (Group) Co., Ltd. represents that our company has mastered the key technology in producing Φ710mm UHP graphite electrode, and that the quality of our product has reached international level. Moreover, it shows that we have become one of the leading companies in the production of large size UHP graphite electrodes over the world.