3 minutes of power-on

One of the more spectacular startups of a steelmaking electric arc furnace. This video is a few years old, so practices and equipment seen here - even the whole furnace - have changed. Draws about 50-60MW of active power (65MVA for the electricians) - almost the same amount of power as a 747 needs while cruising. Recorded with a good microphone, so turn up the volume and let the thunder rattle your bones!

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• EAF
• electric
• arc
• furnace
• power
• steel
• industry
• fire

[gjgjkg]

This looks like something you would see at Chernobyl lol

[sentinel76]

@gjgjkg I hope not! Any steel mill melting scrap - and that includes integrated mills making steel from iron - would have radiation detectors installed that screen all scrap deliveries to ensure that nothing radioactive gets through.

[Pinkrearea234]

how many volts does this furnace use?

[sentinel76]

@Pinkrearea234 Secondary voltage (phase-to-phase arc voltage) is about 1000V - primary is 22kV. What generates the heat in arc furnaces is the current - the current in the arcs in this furnace is about 45-50kA.

[Turbocharge1000]

is that an oxygen torch at the bottom side?

[sentinel76]

@Turbocharge1000 Kinda... It's the oxygen lance. Torches a bit, but really used to inject oxygen into the liquid steel and carbon into the slag.

[cortexedge]

looks at those cables reppeling:]

[envisionelec]

Might be a good mic, but the level is still clipped to hell.

[douro20]

Vacuum arc furnaces for preparing titanium metal can be even more dangerous. They generate hard x-rays.

[douro20]

You say that this furnace was replaced? How old was it?

[TheCrazyk1997]

See the wires behined it Jumping cause the Power going through it??

[sentinel76]

@stgloar I know that the common perception of steel mills is 'hellish' ('cause it's hot, y'all) but really, what we do here is take scrap steel, melt it and burn out the impurities (silicon, aluminium, phosphorous, sulphur, manganese, carbon). Not much else other than the metal survives - it's all incinerated - so it's pretty much a 'cleansing' fire, which I think is attributed more to heavenly than hellish sources.

[HelmutVillam]

@RealTalkOnlyBro

nothing's gone wrong, it's making steel and lots and lots of money!

[mrcraig41]

Simply spectacular!!!

[DeutschlandPorsche]

awesome :) love that angry thunder