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Products & Services

Helping Customers Around the World

Through highly engineered, industry-leading technical services and solutions and indispensable graphite electrode products, we help electric arc furnace operators increase productivity and decrease costs.

Serving You Better

As a global leader in graphite electrodes, we offer centuries of collective industry experience and indispensable products to help you achieve your business objectives.

Whether you’re looking for an advanced reporting and diagnostics system, value-added expertise to improve your operation or a reliable supply of graphite electrodes, look to GrafTech’s global and multidisciplinary network of experienced professionals for the quality you demand.

Products & ServicesManufacturing Process

Old refrigerators, used dishwashers, leftover vehicle parts. All the usable metal from manufacturing and consumption – where does it go? With the help of graphite electrodes, which conduct enough electricity to melt scrap steel, most of it gets turned into new steel.

At GrafTech, we help customers find ways to make a time-tested process as advanced and efficient as possible.

What is a Graphite Electrode

An essential component for the world's largest recycling industry.

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1

Mill mix and
forming

We crush, screen and hot-blend premium quality calcined petroleum coke with pitch in controlled proportions. We extrude the resulting plastic mass through a forming press and cut it into specified lengths – so-called green electrodes – before cooling them in a controlled water bath.

2

Baking

We place green electrodes into large cans called saggers (pronounced say-gers) and bake them in computer-controlled furnaces at 800°C (1400°F) for up to two weeks. We then cool, clean, inspect and sample-test the baked electrodes made of amorphous carbon.

3

Pitch Impregnation

We impregnate the baked electrodes with a special pitch to give them the higher density, mechanical strength and electrical conductivity they will need to withstand severe EAF operating conditions.

4

Rebaking

A second baking cycle, or “rebake,” carbonizes the pitch from impregnation and drives off remaining volatiles. Rebake temperatures reach almost 750°C (1300°F).

5

Graphitizing

We lay the electrodes end-to-end and heat them to over 3000°C (5000°F). This restructures the carbon to its crystalline form: graphite. Then we cool, clean, inspect and sample-test the electrodes again.

6

Machining

Next, we turn an electrode’s outer diameter to its finished dimension and add threaded sockets to its ends. Along with threaded graphite connecting pins, these sockets allow our customers to join electrodes together into columns.

Shipping

Finally, we inspect, cap and palletize finished electrodes for our global customers. A prominent UCAR® Graphite Electrode logo speaks to the shipped product’s pedigree and quality.

Products & ServicesUCAR® Graphite Electrodes

Electric arc furnaces demand graphite electrodes – the only product that can conduct the power and withstand the heat necessary to make steel. Because one size does not fit all, we offer multiple grades and sizes of graphite electrodes to meet the needs of our global customers.

GrafTech Safety Data Sheets

Choosing the Right Electrode Reliable Delivery

Choosing the Right Electrode

Our technical experts can help you select the right UCAR® graphite electrode by assessing the specifics of your operating environment.

  • Burner and oxygen usage
  • Conversion costs
  • Electrode consumption goals
  • Electrode strength and oxidation
  • Fume control system
  • Furnace design
  • Power level and power input program
  • Productivity goal
  • Refractory consumption goal
  • Scrap types/charging practice
  • Slag practice
  • Steel type and grade
  • Tap-to-tap time
  • Water spray rings
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Reliable Delivery

Our four manufacturing facilities in different continents provide a global footprint and a reliable graphite electrode supply in each region.

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Products & Services

ArchiTech® Furnace
Productivity System

AGX logo

ArchiTech® System 6.0 is a 24/7/365 advanced high-speed EAF diagnostic, analysis, and reporting system.  It is small, self-contained, scalable, easy to install and supported by customer technical service representatives.

ArchiTech® System 6.0 has helped customers to reduce cost, increase productivity and maintain uninterrupted flow.

GrafTrack logo

Now available: GrafTrack® System*

  • Electrode tracking and reporting
  • Inventory management assistance

* Patented. See Patents.

On-Demand Furnace Analysis and Expert Diagnostics

To Learn More, Visit the ArchiTech® Portal Download ArchiTech® Overview

Products & ServicesInnovative Services,
High-tech Solutions

Electric furnace steelmaking is a proven process. It’s also a process we’re continuing to improve. One of the largest in the industry, bringing hundreds of years of combined expertise, our Customer Technical Service (CTS) team helps customers push the boundaries of their melting operations – increasing productivity, reducing costs and improving safety.

Backed by a solid reputation for practical solutions – and powered by the latest analytical technologies – we focus on your ability to operate more efficiently and profitably. Our multi-disciplined engineers and technicians work side-by-side with your furnace operators, making first-hand observations, recommending tailored improvements and recording results.

GrafTech Customer
Technical Service

Helping you achieve your business objectives.

Download CTS Overview Download Handling & Jointing Overview

Adding Value Benchmarking Analysis Optimizing Electrode Performance Seminars and Training Equipment Consultations and Best Practices Additional Resources

Adding Value

Our wide-ranging services and solutions help you reduce costs by translating and simplifying complex data into bottom-line results. Our team helps you increase productivity by identifying hidden problems and opportunities within your operation. And they help you maintain uninterrupted production flows by eliminating waste and streamlining your process.

When you work with GrafTech, we’ll help you achieve your business objectives with the benefit of seasoned industry expertise.

  • Electrode inventory management
  • Electrode recovery assistance
  • Industry-leading safety practices
  • Multiple plant sourcing capabilities
  • Product optimization and testing capabilities
  • World-class research and development
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Benchmarking Analysis

Our advanced analytical programs encompass the total EAF environment. With thorough furnace monitoring capabilities – whether in your shop or remotely from our technical facilities – we help optimize your operating parameters, reduce process variation and increase your overall productivity.

  • Electrical consumption (kWh/ton)
  • Electrode consumption
  • Furnace regulation
  • Maximum productivity
  • Optimum power profile
  • Oxygen usage
  • Power-on time
  • Time utilization
ArchiTech® Furnace Productivity System

Empowering full EAF optimization.

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Optimizing Electrode Performance

As a leading graphite electrode manufacturer, we know how to produce the best electrodes for your operations. We also know how to help you optimize their performance by helping you understand numerous factors impacting your overall operation.

  • Foaming slag
  • Furnace regulation
  • Handling practices
  • Jointing techniques
  • Oxygen and burners
  • Power programs
  • Raw materials
  • Time utilization
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Seminars and Training

Backed by state-of-the-art techniques and total quality management expertise, our team offers valuable, customized training programs and technology seminars that cover everything from furnace design to graphite electrode applications.

  • Chemical energy
  • Consumption modes
  • EAF benchmarking, productivity and raw materials
  • Electrical principles
  • Electrode handling
  • Equipment selection
  • Inventory management
  • Ladle furnace operations
  • Melt shop configurations and layouts
  • New furnace start-ups
  • Oxygen practices
  • Slag practices
  • Total energy utilization
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Equipment Consultations and Best Practices

We have close and confidential relationships with customers operating more than 2,000 electric arc furnaces in more than 50 countries. Our unique perspective, along with our extensive technical contacts throughout the steelmaking community, means we can offer an independent overview of new and emerging EAF equipment and technologies as you maximize your operations or plan new projects.

  • Comparative benchmarking analysis
  • Configuration and vetting
  • EAF developments and steelmaking trends
  • Equipment selection
  • Productivity and capability planning
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Additional Resources

Our UCAR® Electric Arc Furnace Electrode Digest is the classic melt-shop primer. With 12 in-depth chapters, the modern edition takes furnace operators and melt-shop managers to the next level by addressing the physics, chemistry and engineering aspects of EAF fundamentals.

To request your copy, contact us or talk to your local GrafTech representative.

White Papers and Thought Leadership

Respected GrafTech experts regularly share leading research and findings with industry peers.

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Products & ServicesSeaDrift Coke

Seadrift is one of the world’s only standalone petroleum needle coke operations. With an integrated premium supply, we help our customers push the boundaries of their electric arc furnaces without interruption.

Unfettered by the demands and constraints of typical oil refineries, Seadrift provides some of the highest-valued petroleum needle coke in the world. With a one-product focus – backed by sophisticated carbonization and microscopy technologies – we choose select feedstocks and optimize operating conditions for premium coke quality.

Safety Data Sheets

Useful information for Seadrift customers.

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Our Plant

Seadrift’s facility was designed specifically for the production of petroleum needle coke. The plant is nearly self-sufficient, requiring only feedstock supplies and fresh water to run continuously. Inside, our advanced equipment and process technologies can adapt to a wide variety of raw materials and process variables – while consistently delivering a high-quality product for customers.

Strategically located on the mid-Texas coast, we enjoy ready access to efficient shipping routes, a well-educated workforce and other Gulf refineries for feedstock supply.

Our Process

In our advanced facility, we produce petroleum needle coke through a multi-step process, which we continuously monitor, sample and test.

Coking

Decant oil feed is preheated, separated by fractionation and reheated to temperatures hot enough to induce an endothermic reaction and form green coke.

Drying

Superheated gases pass through the green coke in a drying drum. This reduces volatile matter and hardens the coke.

Removal and Calcining

High-pressure water removes or “cuts” the coke from the drum. The green coke then undergoes a calcining process: it is fed through a rotary kiln at temperatures in excess of 1100°C (2000°F), which controls coke density and burns off any remaining volatiles in the coke.

Cooling, Storage and Shipping

The newly formed needle coke is cooled and conveyed to a storage silo. The final product can then be shipped by rail, truck or barge.