Duval Corporation

Degussa Electronics Inc.

Demetron, Inc.

Electro Metals, a Division of Demetron, Inc.

Charles D'a Hunt

Archibald W Fletcher

A method is described for continuously casting an ingot of a metal alloy of a type having a substantial liquidus-solidus temperature range to produce internal microstructure of a desired fineness. Molten alloy is flowed along an electron beam heated skulled hearth while controlling the electron beam to maintain a solids content in the alloy on the hearth of between about 15% and about 40%. The alloy is poured from the hearth into the top of a continuous casting mold at a rate which produces a thixotropic region at the upper end of the fully solidified alloy in the mold. The ingot produced is characterized by a macrostructure in excess of one millimeter average grain dimensions with a non-uniform shape, orientation, and distribution, and is characterized by a microstructure of the order of fifty micron cell spacing of dendritic crystallites comprising the microstructure.

Ingot produced by a continuous casting method

Continuous casting method and ingot produced thereby

Method and apparatus for producing a fine-grain ingot are disclosed. A feedstock stick is melted to produce a series of fully molten drops which falls on the upper surface of an ingot being formed, to cover a portion thereof which is substantially less than the ingot's total upper surface. The mold is moved laterally with respect to the feedstock stick at a rate which is high enough so that the molten metal impinges upon different portions of the ingot's upper surface but which is low enough to prevent a substantial centrifugally outward flow of the metal impinging on the upper surface of the ingot. The molten metal melt rate is so selected that the impact region on the ingot's upper surface is at or below the solidus temperature of the alloy and above a temperature at which metallurgical bonding with the successive impinging metal can occur.

Method for high vacuum casting

It has been discovered that suprisingly effective removal of impurities from copper can be achieved using electron beam distillation, especially with respect to relatively low amounts of impurities such as Ag, Se, Te, S, Bi and Pb. Certain pretreatments of unrefined metal prior to electron beam irradiation significantly improve overall results. These include iron and/or oxygen removal treatments. In a particularly advantageous embodiment, these impurity removal treatments and combinations thereof are achieved in conjunction with a new method of electron beam distillation of metals which involves a horizontal multistage system with recycle of the condensed vapor phases.

Electron beam refinement of metals, particularly copper

A multistage method of refining a metal containing at least two metallic components in at least two sequential metal vaporization stages substantially horizontally arranged and each having a metal feed thereto, comprises,

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Occidental, CA, United States of America

Charles D'a Hunt