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2020 №04 (05) DOI of Article
10.37434/sem2020.04.06
2020 №04 (07)


Electrometallurgy Today (Sovremennaya Elektrometallurgiya), 2020, #4, 32-38 pages

Technology for smelting zirconium alloy ingots by vacuum arc remelting with a non-consumable electrode in a skull furnace

О.V. Ovchynnykov, O.E. Kapustian


Zaporizhzhia Polytechnic National University. 64 Zhukovsky Str., 69063, Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine. E-mail: aek@zntu.edu.ua

Abstract
The results of studying the possibility of obtaining ingots of zirconium alloy of the Zr–Nb–Ti system using the method of vacuum-arc remelting of charge material of various chemical compositions are presented. A technology was developed for producing a zirconium alloy of a given composition by vacuum-arc remelting with a nonconsumable electrode in a vacuum-arc skull furnace. A complex of technological and material science problems was solved, a study of technological factors, methods and processes of metallurgy associated with the choice of equipment, tooling and charge for melting was carried out, a technological process for obtaining ingots with a given homogeneous chemical composition was developed for further deformation processing, in order to obtain an initial billet. The content of the main alloying elements was estimated using a scanning microscope, and of oxygen — using a gas analyzer. The technological parameters of smelting are established and the transition coefficients of the charge elements during arc remelting with a non-consumable electrode in a vacuum-arc skull furnace are determined. It was established that the content of zirconium and niobium in the ingots corresponds to the calculated composition of the initial charge, and the titanium content is lower. Control ingots of 50 mm diameter were melted taking into account the transition coeffici ents by the method of vacuum-arc remelting with a non-consumable electrode in a vacuum-arc skull furnace. Ref. 15, Tabl. 5, Fig. 3.
Keywords: vacuum-arc remelting; furnace; zirconium alloy; ingot; chemical composition; transition coefficient

Received 30.09.2020

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