Smelting of Primary Ingots and Their Remelting in Plasma-Arc Furnaces with Cooled Molds

Abstract

At the present time the overwhelming majority of titanium and titanium alloy ingots are produced in vacuum-arc furnaces. Double remelting is the typical method of producing sound ingots. Primary ingots are smelted from sponge, scrap, and alloying elements compressed in the electrode or fed into the melting zone as separate portions of the lump charge. Smelted ingots are subjected to secondary remelting for the purpose of homogenization, removal of structural defects, and improvement of surface quality, but in spite of the double remelting of the metal we cannot completely get rid of the chemical and physical heterogeneity of the ingots.