Investigation of an alternative pyrometallurgical process for the production of copper-chromium alloys

von Janik Brenk

178 Seiten, Taschenbuch

Kurzbeschreibung des Verlags

In this work, an alternative process route for the production of copper-chromium alloys is developed. This involves copper-chromium alloys, which have a chromium content of around 15 - 25 wt.-% and are used as contact materials in medium-voltage switches. The production of copper-chromium alloys using a common pyrometallurgical process is not feasible because of the large miscibility gap in the phase field of copper and chromium. Usually established process routes are using hot isostatic pressing and/or vacuum arc remelting. The alternative route used in this work consist of two process steps: Alloying using aluminothermic reduction (ATR) followed by a refining step in a vacuum arc remelting (VAR) furnace.

The first part of this work deals with ATR and the challenges of creating an alloy without too many non-metallic inclusions, too much aluminium or too strong macro segregations. To avoid a consolidating melt phase that would lead to further segregations, inline casting is used to directly obtain electrodes remelt-able in a VAR out of the ATR process in a second part of this work. The third part of this work deals with the remelting of these electrodes in a VAR. The refining step of VAR is needed to remove aluminium and non-metallic inclusions which consist of slag particles from ATR as well as to homogenise the resulting ingot.

• Reihe: Schriftenreihe des IME
• ISBN: 9783819101632
• Sprache: Englisch
• Erscheinungsdatum: 07.08.2025
• Genre: Technik/Sonstiges
• Verlag: Shaker