In general, the electrode-consuming graphite electrode consumes 5 in the smelting process: electrode tip evaporation, electrode sidewall oxidation, electrode breakage, electrode residue loss, and electrode tip peeling. The loss of electrode breakage, surface peeling and rapid loss can be collectively referred to as abnormal consumption, which is different from the chemical reaction loss mainly caused by oxidation.

In combination with the consumption factors of the above graphite electrodes on the electric furnace, for high-quality graphite electrodes, under the conditions of careful operation, the abnormal consumption in the amount of graphite electrode consumption is not very large, accounting for about 1%-15% of the total consumption. Electrode breakage during electric steelmaking is a common failure. It is pointed out in the literature that in the practice of electric furnace production, as long as the performance of the electrode, the current load and the operating method of the electric furnace meet the requirements, the incidence of electrode breakage accidents is low, and the influence of continuous consumption on the total consumption of the electrodes is the most important.

However, for downstream customers, graphite electrodes only account for a very small part of their total cost. The quality and stability of graphite electrodes have a significant impact on their continuous production. In the steelmaking process, electrode breaks directly lead to electrode loss and increased consumption. In addition to increasing the cost of smelting, it is more important that production will be interrupted and production losses will be caused by the loss of production. Disposing the electrode to break the residue is the most difficult task in the operation, and the result must be excessive consumption, lengthening the smelting cycle, reducing the yield, and increasing the cost. Downtime and dead furnaces caused by graphite electrode quality problems will generate a large amount of indirect costs, so downstream customers are relatively more sensitive to electrode breakage problems.