AK Steel has upgraded its specialty steel businesses by adding a new ladle metallurgy furnace and electric arc furnace to its Butler Works plant in Pennsylvania.
Electric arc Furnace at Butler Works
Steel was melted in the electric arc furnace on March 4, 2011. In addition, the company has begun the molten steel process on the ladle metallurgy furnace.
AK Steel’s Chairman and CEO, James L. Wainscott commented that the new melting furnaces will help improve product quality, boost steelmaking capacity and reduce production costs. He also added that the furnaces provide greater flexibility in altering the production levels as well as the product mix up based on market conditions.
AK Steel replaced three existing electric arc furnaces with new 175-ton capacity electric arc furnace at the Butler Works facility. The furnace can melt 1.4 million tons of steel annually.
Primary raw material is used by EAF as recycled steel scrap, which is loaded into the furnace and melted at more than 3,000°F. The ladle metallurgy furnace, an intermediate steel processing equipment, purifies the temperature and chemistry of the molten steel before the casting process.