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Tantalum ingots smelting mainly involves the following steps:
Raw material preparation
• Select high purity tantalum raw materials, generally tantalum powder or tantalum block.The purity of these raw materials is crucial to the quality of the final tantalum ingots.For example, tantalum ingots used in the electronics industry may require raw material purity of more than 99.9%.
Smelting equipment selection
• Vacuum arc melting furnaces are usually used.This is because tantalum is easy to react with oxygen and nitrogen in the air at high temperatures, and the vacuum environment can effectively avoid such oxidation and nitriding reactions.And arc melting can produce very high temperature, meet the melting point of tantalum (2996℃) requirements.
Smelting process
• Place the prepared tantalum raw material into a water-cooled copper crucible (only as a container, tantalum will not react with it) or a tantalum crucible (if it is a tantalum crucible, it can better ensure purity).
• Open the vacuum system and pump the furnace to a certain vacuum degree, generally requiring a high vacuum environment of 10⁻³ -10 ⁻⁴ PASCAL to reduce impurity gas.
• Start the arc to provide heat through the arc generated between the electrode and the tantalum raw material, so that the tantalum raw material gradually melts.In the melting process, due to the effect of electromagnetic force and other factors, the molten pool will produce convection, which is conducive to the uniform mixing of raw materials.
• Control the melting speed and power to ensure that the tantalum can be fully melted, and avoid overheating resulting in liquid splash and other conditions.According to the amount of tantalum raw materials and the power of the furnace, the melting time is reasonably adjusted, and the general melting process may last several hours.
Cooling solidification
• After melting is completed, the arc heating is stopped, and the tantalum liquid is slowly cooled and solidified in the crucible to form tantalum ingots.The cooling rate needs to be properly controlled, because if it is cooled too quickly, it may lead to stress concentration inside the tantalum ingot, affecting its quality.
Follow-up treatment
• Surface treatment of cooled tantalum ingots to remove impurities and oxide layers that may be attached.At the same time, the quality of tantalum ingots can be checked by some testing means, such as ultrasonic flaw detection, chemical composition analysis, etc.
Tantalum ingots smelting mainly involves the following steps:
Raw material preparation
• Select high purity tantalum raw materials, generally tantalum powder or tantalum block.The purity of these raw materials is crucial to the quality of the final tantalum ingots.For example, tantalum ingots used in the electronics industry may require raw material purity of more than 99.9%.
Smelting equipment selection
• Vacuum arc melting furnaces are usually used.This is because tantalum is easy to react with oxygen and nitrogen in the air at high temperatures, and the vacuum environment can effectively avoid such oxidation and nitriding reactions.And arc melting can produce very high temperature, meet the melting point of tantalum (2996℃) requirements.
Smelting process
• Place the prepared tantalum raw material into a water-cooled copper crucible (only as a container, tantalum will not react with it) or a tantalum crucible (if it is a tantalum crucible, it can better ensure purity).
• Open the vacuum system and pump the furnace to a certain vacuum degree, generally requiring a high vacuum environment of 10⁻³ -10 ⁻⁴ PASCAL to reduce impurity gas.
• Start the arc to provide heat through the arc generated between the electrode and the tantalum raw material, so that the tantalum raw material gradually melts.In the melting process, due to the effect of electromagnetic force and other factors, the molten pool will produce convection, which is conducive to the uniform mixing of raw materials.
• Control the melting speed and power to ensure that the tantalum can be fully melted, and avoid overheating resulting in liquid splash and other conditions.According to the amount of tantalum raw materials and the power of the furnace, the melting time is reasonably adjusted, and the general melting process may last several hours.
Cooling solidification
• After melting is completed, the arc heating is stopped, and the tantalum liquid is slowly cooled and solidified in the crucible to form tantalum ingots.The cooling rate needs to be properly controlled, because if it is cooled too quickly, it may lead to stress concentration inside the tantalum ingot, affecting its quality.
Follow-up treatment
• Surface treatment of cooled tantalum ingots to remove impurities and oxide layers that may be attached.At the same time, the quality of tantalum ingots can be checked by some testing means, such as ultrasonic flaw detection, chemical composition analysis, etc.
