A team of scientists from South Ural State University patented two inventions under the Federal Target Programme for the Development of a Set of Process Engineering Solutions on the Production of New Metallic Materials for the Manufacture of Radioactive Waste Containers with the Improvement of the Method of Vitrification. Patents No. 2737906 "Method of Degassing of Molten Metal in a Ladle" and No. 2742094 "Method for Production of a Steel Pipe Billet with Increased Radiation Resistance" were obtained.
New Scavenging Method
Candidate of Sciences (Engineering), Professor of the Department of Engineering and Technology of Materials Production Valerii Chumanov, Doctor of Sciences (Engineering), Professor of the Department of General Metallurgy Ilia Chumanov, and Candidate of Sciences (Engineering), Research Engineer Dmitrii Sergeev patented a new scavenging method. The invention relates to the field of metallurgy.
Oxygen and nitrogen get into steel from the atmosphere of the furnace in the process of its production, and this significantly degrades the quality of the metal. Steel degassing is the removal of gases from molten steel. At the moment, there are many various metal-degassing facilities. The most common way is to vacuum the steel in a ladle.
"The technical problem addressed by the invention involves improving the efficiency of degassing molten metal in a ladle. The inventive method consists in removing the slag from the surface of the metal in the ladle, covering it with a lid, lowering a disk made of ceramic material from above onto the metal surface and connecting to a 10-2 Pa vacuum system. Then the disc is turned on to rotate at the speed of 20 rpm for 10 minutes, after which the rotation is turned off, the vacuum system is disconnected, the lid is opened and the metal is poured," explains Valerii Chumanov.
The invention makes it possible to increase the efficiency of steel degassing. As the ceramic disk rotates, a controlled upward flow of molten metal occurs. The effect is enhanced by increasing the depth of evacuation and constant renewal of the contact surface of the metal with the low-pressure zone.
Increasing the efficiency of steel degassing will significantly improve its quality. The output is steel with improved mechanical and anti-corrosion properties, which ultimately significantly increases the service life of products made from it.
New Technology for the Production of Steel with Increased Radiation Resistance
Candidate of Sciences (Engineering), Associate Professor at the Department of Engineering and Technology of Materials Production Andrei Anikeev, as a member of the team of scientists from the SUSU branch in Zlatoust, has patented a new method for producing steel pipe billets with increased radiation resistance.
Photo: Andrei Anikeev
The invention relates to foundry engineering. The goal of the project was to develop a more advanced method for producing steel pipe billets with increased radiation resistance. Scientists suggested feeding a mixture of dispersed particles of tungsten carbide, boron carbide, and yttrium oxide during the manufacturing process. Such billets can be used in the nuclear industry.
"The melt is poured into a mould rotating around a horizontal axis. The particles are fed simultaneously. Since the supplied dispersed particles have different densities, they are distributed in different layers of the formed steel billet under the action of centrifugal forces," says Andrei Anikeev. "The consistent presence of particles in the surface, middle and inner layers of the pipe billet provides effective prevention of radiation exposure, which significantly increases the product's service life in an aggressive environment."
The disadvantage of the existing production methods is the possibility of obtaining castings only with increased strength characteristics and the impossibility of obtaining billets with increased radiation resistance. The invention by the SUSU scientists enables to solve this problem.
South Ural State University (SUSU) is a university of digital transformations, where innovative research is conducted in most of the priority fields of science and technology development. In accordance with the strategy of scientific and technological development of the Russian Federation, the university is focused on the development of big scientific interdisciplinary projects in the field of digital industry, materials science, and ecology. In the Year of Science and Technology, it will take part in the competition under the Priority-2030 program. The university acts as a regional project office of the World-class Ural Interregional Research and Education Centre (UIREC).