Chemistry modification of high oxygen-carbon powder by plasma melting
State-of-the-art melting of tantalum and tantalum alloys has relied on electron beam (EB) or vacuum-arc remelting (VAR) for commercial ingot production. The limited number of melting techniques for these materials are the result of high melting temperatures and reactivity with conventional mold/crucible materials. In addition, the required vacuum levels used in the EB and VAR processes limit these techniques to relatively low interstitial content material due toe extensive outgassing during melting. Plasma arc melting (PAM) provides and alternative for melting tantalum and offers the advantage or processing under inert or other gases rather than vacuum, The plasma process is not sensitive to materials outgassing and allows for the direct recycling of material that would otherwise be reprocessed by chemical extraction. The current work examines melting of high interstitial content tantalum powder by the plasma arc process. Various cover gases of argon-hydrogen and helium-hydrogen were investigated to determine best melt quality. Melted ingots were characterized by chemical and metallographic methods to determine overall interstitial content, compound and morphology.
- Research Organization:
- Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
- OSTI ID:
- 237244
- Report Number(s):
- LA-UR-96-893; CONF-960202-25; ON: DE96009776
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: Annual meeting and exhibition of the Minerals, Metals and Materials Society (TMS), Anaheim, CA (United States), 4-8 Feb 1996; Other Information: PBD: [1996]
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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