Ladle furnaces are intended for arc heating, refining, alloying, conditioning and homogenization of metal melt teemed into the ladle from arc or open-hearth melting furnaces or converters.
     Ladle furnaces are equipped with a number of technological appliances: the system of argon purging through bottom porous plugs, tribe apparatus for feeding aluminium or powder-filled wire into the melt, bins with dosing system for alloying and slag-forming additions, tuyeres for powder blowing through the melt, temperature measuring and sampling devices etc.
     Ladle furnaces are power supplied from transformers or d.c. converters. The computer based control system of ladle furnaces includes a number of autonomous automatic regulators of all constituent technological appliances.
     The use of ladle furnaces provides the essential improvement of metal quality, decrease of melting cycle duration in main melting furnaces and also through specific consumption of energy, graphite electrodes, refractory and alloying materials.