METHOD OF CONTROL OVER VACUUM ARC FUSION Russian patent published in 2008 - IPC C22B9/20 F27B3/28 

FIELD: metallurgy of non-ferrous metals.

SUBSTANCE: invention is related to the electric metallurgy and may be used to control the vacuum arc fusion of the high reactivity metals - such as, for instance, titanium. In the method and quality of the technological parameter, an area of a visible section of the liquid metal bath must be chosen. This is then fixed with an optical transducer unit containing an optical axis that runs in parallel to the furnace axis and is located between an internal surface of the casting mold and an outside surface of an electrode being spent. This must be compared with its estimated value expressed as the single-valued function from an argument of displacement of the electrode axes with regard to the furnace axes in two mutually perpendicular directions, and the length of the electrode spent. The safety of an entire fusion process can be thereupon evaluated with the measured and estimated values of the visible image area of the liquid metal bath section that must coincide with each other. The following steps need to be taken to rectify and eliminate any production accidents: to shift the argument values of displacement of the electrode axes more than the threshold values, whereas the electrode's length must be shifted less than the said threshold value. Use of this invention allows to avoid any accidents that could otherwise occur when one performs a process of melting high reactivity metals and alloys. When this is implemented, it shall be possible to nip in the bud any initial moments when the aforementioned accidents may come into play, owning to a range of various technical reasons, e.g. fusion of an electric holder or an alignment error found in the electrode. The invention will preclude appearances of any faulty goods which could happen when, for example, an ingot is fused or when there are any discrepancies discovered in the operation of the furnace.

EFFECT: accident prevention and eradication of any potential faults which might occur when the melting process is conducted.

2 cl, 2 dwg, 1 ex