It consists of a hearth equipped with graphite electrodes. The arc jumps between the electrodes and the metal to melt. The high temperature in the arc (above 6000 ° C) provides a powerful melting capacity.
This type of furnaces are the most used for the production of steel, especially the three-phase, where three vertical columns of electrodes are used. The electrodes pass through the holes provided for it in the furnace arch, which consists of a horizontally movable lid to ease the loading of the different scrap baskets that are loaded for the same cast. Oxygen and graphite are also injected through other intakes to perform the metallurgical process in the molten bath.
The melting capacity is variable. The most common is to produce meltings from 100 to 200 tons per cast.