Stassano furnace

The Stassano furnace is an electric arc furnace for the production of steel. Invented by Ernesto Stassano in 1898, it is the first electric furnace in history for ferrous metallurgy.

Stassano had the idea of building an electrical furnace for ferrous metallurgy in 1896, while he was working in Pont-Saint-Martin, Aosta Valley, on electrical furnaces for the production of calcium carbide.

Stassano moved to the workshops of Santa Maria dei Cerchi in Rome, in 1898. Here he carried out his first experiments to obtain steel from iron ores using a small shaft furnace equipped with two electrodes capable of heating the minerals thanks to a 95 kW indirect arc. In the same year, in Darfo (BS), he carried out other tests on a similar furnace, equipped with three electrodes working at 370 kW. As a result of his experiments, Stassano modified the structure of the furnace, reducing the space above the electrodes and separating the section destined to electrodes and the one for the production of the material. He also moved from mineral-only burdens to mixed loads composed of ores, scrap and cast iron. With these adjustments, Stassano obtained high-quality steel from burdens containing 80% scrap and 20% cast iron, thus obtaining a product that could economically compete with imported steel.

In 1898 Stassano patented the principles and technical solutions of his furnaces in Italy, Austria, Spain, Luxembourg, Belgium, Norway, England, Sweden, Germany and USA. In 1901 in France and Hungary, and in 1902 in Switzerland.

Based on the Darfo furnace, in 1901 Stassano produced a furnace with a final configuration and installed it in the Arsenal in Turin.

In 1904 Stassano founded the Società Forni Termoelettrici Stassano (Stassano Society of Thermoelectric Furnaces) and opened in Turin the first foundry where steel was obtained electrically. The foundry was activated in 1905, using for its purposes two 1-ton furnaces, two 2-ton furnaces and one 5-ton furnace.

Between 1906 and 1907 a number of Stassano furnaces were activated at the Bonner Faserfabrik plants in Bonn (Germany), in St. Polen (Austria), in Dunston-on-Tyne and Newcastle (UK), in Bridgeton and Redondo (USA). In 1910 Stassano furnaces will also be installed in the Ansaldo steel plants in Genoa and in the Vanzetti plants in Milan.

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Wikipedia