METHOD FOR OBTAINING HAFNIUM INGOTS IN ELECTRON BEAM FURNACE Russian patent published in 2012 - IPC C22B9/22 C22B34/14 

FIELD: metallurgy.

SUBSTANCE: method involves loading of charge and metal melting with electron beam with electromagnetic mixing of the melt; melting is performed in a melting pot with slag lining in three-stage mode: 1-st stage - warming of the charge and making of fluid bath at electron beam power P₁=K₁·Pmax, where K₁≤0.5; 2-nd stage - averaging and purification of metal at electromagnetic mixing of the melt with direction of mixing towards walls of slag lining at electron beam power P₂=K₂·Pmax, where 0.5<K₂<0.9; 3-rd stage - drain of the melt at electromagnetic mixing of the melt with direction of mixing towards the melting pot centre at electron beam power P₃=K₃·Pmax, where 0.9≤K₃≤1, where P₁; P₂ and P₃ - beam power at stages 1, 2 and 3 of the mode; K₁, K₂ and K₃ - beam power coefficients; Pmax - maximum electron beam power.

EFFECT: invention allows stabilising the melting mode owing to excluding breakdowns of electron beam gun, increasing the uniform distribution of impurities as per the volume of ingots and reducing specific electric power costs.

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