The manufacture of continuous smelting electrodes from carbon paste briquettes

Abstract

Continuously consumed electrodes are used in the manufacture of ferro alloys, aluminium, silicon metal and calcium carbide. The raw material for the electrodes is a carbon paste which is normally added to the electrode in large solid sections. The option of manufacturing such electrodes from small paste `briquettes' is examined with respect to an industrial experiment used to predict the quality of a briquette-formed electrode. It is shown that successful predictive models may be formulated using a two-phase slow flow approach. Consideration is also given to the briquette manufacture of Persson and Bruff electrodes, two different commercially important devices for the production of silicon.