Improvement in the quality of self-firing anodes of aluminum electrolyzers and other carbon articles

An effective method is demonstrated for improving the quality of carbon materials and graphite, whose articles are used extensively in different branches of the national economy. This method with use of the “nudel process” includes preparation of a strong and compact filler. The low temperature for filler preparation (550°C) provides a synchronous nature for its shrinkage with the binder during subsequent heat treatment, which reduces to a minimum structural defects for the final material, and as a consequence, it considerably increases the physicomechanical and operating properties similar to the properties of normal high quality materials, and the level of quality for the latter is achieved by repeated production cycles of impregnation of coal tar medium-temperature pitch, i.e. firing. The operational properties of articles made from the material exceeds the similar properties of articles made from traditional materials. The marked production advantages of the suggested version for carbon material using the nudel process are a significant reduction in the time of graphite preparation, a reduction of discharge into the atmosphere of cancerous substances (pitch vapors) and carbon dust; reduced gas flow rate, electric power, spilled materials, and other material expenditures. __________ Translated from Novye Ogneupory, No. 8, pp. 37–40, August 2007.