Tungsten Zirconium Alloy Preparation by Self Consumable Smelting Process

Tungsten zirconium alloy is a typical energy containing structure material, which is fairly stable at room temperature and has high strength, and the zirconium based elements in the tungsten zirconium alloy are induced by impact and release a large amount of heat under impact loading. The tungsten zirconium alloy fragments made of this characteristic can use its strength to penetrate through the target and produce additional damage to the target by its release characteristics. Finally, it can significantly improve the damage effect of the fragment to the target, and has a broad application prospect in the military field.

There are two main methods for the preparation of tungsten zirconium alloy: (1) powder metallurgy: powder metallurgy can produce high tungsten alloy materials. This process belongs to solid phase sintering in the process of sintering. The diffusion between elements is less, and the degree of alloying is not high, so it is difficult to achieve absolute density. (2) vacuum melting method: vacuum melting can prepare alloy with high material properties and get smelting alloy material. However, due to the limitation of the melting temperature of non consumable arc melting, it is difficult to melt tungsten zirconium alloy with high tungsten content, and the tungsten element density is high. A high tungsten alloy with uniform tissue was prepared.

A preparation method of tungsten zirconium alloy with high tungsten content is provided for the existing technology. It is called the self consumable smelting process. The tungsten content of the finished product can reach more than 50% and up to 70%.

The technical programme includes the following steps:

(1) Mixing powder and mixing powder
ZrTi powder (zirconium titanium powder) and W powder (tungsten powder) each 50% (mass percentage) of powder, mixed with a mixing tank, mixing time is 2h, mixing powder after the mixing of 5%SBP glue and granulation.

(2) Suppression and sintering
A cold isostatic press 220MPa was used to press 2min, to press the blank by grading and pressure relief. The blank was defatted at 600 C, time was 2h, 1300 C was sintered, and 1.5h was heated, a fine car was removed from the oxide skin to make a cylindrical electrode, and the electrode was used as the self consumable electrode of the self consumable arc melting.

(3)Self consumable arc melting
The consumable arc melting has a vacuum degree of 10-1Pa or more, and the melting voltage is 30V, after two consumable arc melting.

A. Smelting
The melting current is 1 ~ 1.25KA, the arc current is 1.8 ~ 2.5A, the melting time is 2 ~ 3min, and it is cooled to below 150 C. The tungsten - zirconium alloy with high tungsten content (i. e. ZrTi-50W ingot) can be obtained after the furnace, and the copper crucible is used for water cooling.

B. Second time smelting
The first ZrTi-50W ingot prepared above is used as the two melting electrode, the melting current is 1.25 ~ 1.5KA, the arc current is 1.8 ~ 2.5A and the melting time is 3 ~ 6min. After the melting is completed, it is cooled to below 150 centigrade, and the tungsten - zirconium alloy can be obtained.

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