JP2593846B2 - Continuous casting equipment - Google Patents

Description

Description: TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a continuous casting apparatus, and particularly to an ingot having a unidirectionally solidified structure, an ingot having a single crystal structure, or a highly purified ingot. The present invention relates to an apparatus for casting.

FIG. 2 is a schematic view showing general continuous casting. As shown by an arrow A, a molten metal is poured from above the cooling mold 1, and the molten metal is drawn out from below the cooling mold 1 to obtain a continuous rod-shaped body 2. However, in this continuous casting method, since the molten metal solidifies from the inner wall surface of the cooling mold 1, a rod having a unidirectionally solidified structure or a rod having a single crystal structure cannot be obtained. Further, the effect of purification cannot be obtained. As a method for obtaining a rod having a single crystal structure, a directionally solidified structure or the like, or a purified metal rod, there is a floating zone melting method as shown in FIG. In the floating zone melting method, the rod 3 is held vertically, and a part thereof is melted by the high frequency coil 4. The melt 5 is stably held between the upper and lower solid parts by surface tension. When the high-frequency coil 4 is slowly moved upward, the melt zone 5 also moves upward with the movement, and finally a rod having a single crystal structure or a unidirectionally solidified structure is obtained.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] However, in the floating zone melting method as shown in FIG. 3, the production speed until a rod having a desired structure is obtained is slow, and the method is a batch type method. The length of the obtained rod is also limited to a short one.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a continuous rod having a single crystal structure and a directionally solidified structure with high productivity,
Another object of the present invention is to provide a continuous casting apparatus capable of obtaining a purified continuous rod.

[Means for Solving the Problems] The continuous casting apparatus according to the present invention forms a molten zone by melting a part of the rod-shaped body, and moves the molten zone relatively from the front end to the rear end of the rod-shaped body. A heating chamber forming an enclosed space, a rod-shaped body feeding mechanism for continuously supplying the rod-shaped body from the outside to the heating chamber in a substantially vertical downward or upward direction, and a heating chamber inside the heating chamber. A heating means which is arranged and melts a part of the rod-shaped body fed into the heating chamber by the rod-shaped body feeding mechanism to form a molten zone, and continuously withdraws the rod-shaped body solidified after the formation of the molten zone to the outside from the heating chamber. The apparatus includes a rod-shaped body withdrawing mechanism and cooling means for forcibly cooling the rod-shaped body drawn out of the heating chamber by the rod-shaped body withdrawing mechanism.

[Operation] A continuous rod is continuously supplied into a heating chamber, and a part of the rod is melted by a heating unit in the heating chamber to form a molten zone. Since the rod solidified after the formation of the molten zone is continuously drawn out from the heating chamber, the molten zone relatively moves from the front end to the rear end of the rod.

Since the heating chamber is partitioned, control of the heating atmosphere and temperature control are facilitated.

Embodiment FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing an example of an apparatus for performing a continuous casting method according to the present invention. The device shown is
The continuous bar 11 is cast continuously. The continuous bar 11 is continuously fed downward by the bar feed mechanism 10 so as to pass through the heating device 12. As shown, the heating device 12 includes a heating chamber forming an enclosed space, and a high-frequency coil 13 arranged in the heating chamber and heating only a small area. The rod 11 is partially melted by the high-frequency coil 13 to form a fusion zone 14. In order to prevent the rod 11 from being oxidized, the heating device 12 is preferably placed in a non-oxidizing atmosphere.

At the tip of the rod 11, a dummy pullout rod 15 is arranged. Therefore, in the first stage, the melting zone 14
It is supported by surface tension between 15 and the solid part located above the melting zone 14. After that, if the drawer rod 15 is pulled down, the melt 14 relatively moves from the front end to the rear end of the rod 11. Thus, a continuous rod having a unidirectionally solidified structure or a single crystal structure, or a purified continuous rod is obtained.

The rod-shaped body drawn out by the draw-out rod 15 is thereafter continuously drawn out at a predetermined speed by the rod-shaped body drawing out mechanisms 16 and 17. Preferably, a speed matching mechanism 18 is provided to control the feed speed of the rod feed mechanism 10 and the pull-out speeds of the rod pull-out mechanisms 16 and 17 in association with each other. The speed matching mechanism 18 draws the ratio between the feed speed of the rod feed mechanism 10 and the pull-out speeds of the rod pull-out mechanisms 16 and 17 based on the diameter of the rod fed to the heating device 12 and the heating device 12. It is controlled in accordance with the ratio to the diameter of the rod-shaped body. Such control makes it possible to reduce breakout in the melting zone 14 as much as possible. Note that a rod-shaped body winding mechanism may be provided below the rod-shaped body pull-out mechanisms 16 and 17, and the rod-shaped body may be wound together with the pull-out rod 15 or the rod-shaped body alone.

Further, in order to prevent the vibration of the melting zone 14, it is preferable to provide guide members 19 and 20 above and below the melting zone 14. Further, as shown in the drawing, it is desirable that the rod-like body drawn from the heating device 12 is forcibly cooled by the cooling devices 21 and 22. As the cooling medium, cooling water, cooling gas, or the like is used. The forced cooling increases the temperature gradient and makes it possible to obtain a unidirectionally solidified structure or a single crystal structure at a high speed.

Note that the rod-shaped body 11 may be heated in advance before being supplied to the heating device 12. By doing this,
The high-frequency coil 13 can form the molten zone 14 at higher speed. Means for forming the fusion zone 14 is not limited to the high-frequency coil 13. For example, the molten zone 14 may be formed using an electron beam, a laser, an infrared ray, or the like. Further, in the illustrated example, the rod-shaped body 11 is supplied substantially vertically downward, but the reverse may be applied, that is, the rod-shaped body 11 may be moved upward in the vertical direction.

Experimental example As raw materials, polycrystalline Mo wire (φ2mm), polycrystalline Si
Using a rod (φ10mm) and a rod (φ8mm) solidified with YAG powder,
Each was manufactured by the apparatus shown in FIG.

The frequency of the high-frequency coil 13 was 400 KHz. Initially, the first melt was solidified with a Mo dummy rod to which a single crystal of each material was attached, and drawing was started. Mo wire and
With respect to the Si rod, the ingots of φ2 mm and φ10 mm were obtained at the same material supply speed and the same withdrawal speed. Further, with respect to the bar in which the YAG powder was solidified, the supply speed and the withdrawal speed were controlled so that the raw material and the product bar were supplied without excess and deficiency in consideration of the powder filling rate.

Note that all the raw materials were forcibly cooled after being drawn from the heating device 12.

The structure of the ingot thus obtained was a continuous single crystal.

[Effects of the Invention] As described above, according to the present invention, a continuous rod-shaped body is continuously supplied into the heating chamber, a molten zone is formed in the heating chamber, and the solidified rod-shaped body after the formation of the molten zone is heated. Since the molten zone is continuously drawn from the chamber to the outside, the molten zone relatively moves from the front end to the rear end of the rod. Therefore,
A long single crystal can be obtained with high productivity. In addition, since it does not come into contact with a mold or a crucible during casting, there is no problem of contamination from the mold or the crucible even with a high melting point material. Further, since the melting zone is relatively moved, a refining effect is expected.

Furthermore, according to the present invention, since a heating chamber for forming a melting zone is formed as an enclosed space, control of a heating atmosphere and temperature control are facilitated.

The present invention having the above-described effects is, for example, a YAG
To obtain a single-crystal rod-shaped continuum consisting of a derivative such as YAG for laser emission, metal, semiconductor, high melting point material, etc., and a sound rod-shaped continuity used as an ingot for processing into ultrafine metal wires It can be advantageously used to obtain ingots.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic view showing an example of an apparatus for performing a continuous casting method according to the present invention. FIG. 2 is a schematic view showing general continuous casting. Third
The figure is a schematic diagram showing the floating zone melting method. In the drawing, reference numeral 10 denotes a rod-shaped body feeding mechanism, 11 denotes a rod-shaped body, 12 denotes a heating device, 13 denotes a high-frequency coil, 14 denotes a melting zone, and 15 denotes a drawing rod.

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Yoshihiro Nakai 1-3-1 Shimaya, Konohana-ku, Osaka-shi Sumitomo Electric Industries, Ltd. Osaka Works (56) References JP-A-51-63380 (JP, A) 1984-152295 (JP, A) JP-A 56-91381 (JP, U) WO 85/1523 (WO, A)

Claims (6)

(57) [Claims] 1. A molten zone is formed by melting a part of a rod-shaped body.
A continuous casting apparatus for relatively moving the molten zone from a front end to a rear end of a rod-shaped body, comprising: a heating chamber forming an enclosed space; A rod-shaped body feeding mechanism for continuously feeding the rod-shaped body downward or upward, and heating for disposing a part of the rod-shaped body fed into the heating chamber by the rod-shaped body feeding mechanism and forming a molten zone, the heating being arranged in the heating chamber. Means, a rod-like body withdrawal mechanism for continuously withdrawing the rod-like body solidified after the formation of the molten zone from the heating chamber to the outside, and a forcibly cooling the rod-like body withdrawn from the heating chamber by the rod-like body withdrawal mechanism. A continuous casting apparatus comprising: cooling means. 2. The ratio of the rod-like body supply speed to the heating chamber to the rod-like body withdrawal speed withdrawn from the heating chamber is determined by the diameter of the rod-like body supplied to the heating chamber and the heating chamber. The continuous casting apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the apparatus is controlled in accordance with a ratio of a diameter of a rod-shaped body drawn out of the casting. 3. The continuous casting apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said heating means is a high-frequency coil. 4. The continuous casting apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said heating chamber is set to a non-oxidizing atmosphere. 5. The continuous casting apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the rod-shaped body is heated before being supplied to the heating chamber. 6. The continuous casting apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the rod-shaped body supplied to the heating chamber is made by solidifying powder.