Sheffield Forgemasters completed an investment of approximately $2.57 million into its melting facility to make refined steel with reduced energy consumption. The project included stripping out almost 80% of the primary electric-arc furnace to replace the furnace gantry, electrode columns and current carrying arms, cabling, automation and control systems, hydraulics and water cooling with upgraded equipment to achieve a 15% efficiency improvement. The process took seven months from the original design stage, including a seven-week production outage for the decommissioning, installation and commissioning.

Sheffield Forgemasters’ electric-arc furnace was installed in the 1960s with a capacity to melt 90 metric tons. According to the company, with the exception of the main hearth and staging, it has essentially built a new furnace that will operate much faster and be capable of producing even cleaner steels. Sheffield Forgemasters supplies bespoke components to the U.K. and U.S. defense industries, civil nuclear power, power generation, offshore oil and gas, and materials-processing markets.