GB536470A - Method and apparatus for making alloy bodies - Google Patents

Abstract

536,470. Alloys; casting processes. HOPKINS, R. K. Jan. 17, 1940, No. 1058. Convention date, Feb. 23, 1939. [Class 82 (i)] [Also in Group XXII] Alloys, for example iron alloys containing one or more of the elements chromium, nickel, manganese, vanadium, silicon, tungsten, molybdenum, and niobium are made in the form of semi-finished bodies such as slabs or billets by supplying the raw materials into a mould through a blanket of flux under which they are fused and superheated by an electric arc, the mould being cooled to solidify the alloy during the formation of subsequent increments. The feed of the separate constituents may be controlled to give an alloy of the desired composition. One of the constituents may be supplied in the form of a hollow electrode through which another constituent is supplied. In the apparatus shown, a flat metal strip 16 from a coil 17 is formed into a hollow electrode 18 by. means of rollers 15, the electrode being fed to a watercooled mould 26 at a rate controlled by the arc which is formed between the end of the electrode and an alloy plug 43 under a blanket of flux 44. Other ingredients are fed through the electrode 18 by a tube 25 to which they are supplied at a measured rate from hoppers 22. In a modification for the production of flat slabs a number of hollow or solid electrodes side by side may be used. The production of the following steel alloys is specifically referred to : (1) 18 per cent. of chromium and 8 per cent. of nickel, with or without 1 per cent. of manganese; (2) 12-14 per cent. of chromium and 1 per cent. of manganese.