Refining Tungsten Purification by Electron Beam Melting Based on the Thermal Equilibrium Calculation and Tungsten Loss Control

Abstract

AbstractElectron beam melting (EBM) technology has been considered as one of the key steps for preparing high purity tungsten, and reasonable setting of process parameters is the premise. In this paper, the optimum process parameters obtained from thermal equilibrium calculation and evaporation loss control of tungsten are presented. Effective power is closely related to melting temperature, and the required power for maintaining the superheating melt linearly increases with the increase of melt superheat temperature. The evaporation loss behavior of tungsten is significantly influenced by melting rate and melting temperature. Analysis of experiments show that the best results are realized at melting rate of 1.82 g/s, melting temperature of 4200 K, and the corresponding melting power of 130 kW, in which the main impurity elements in tungsten, such as As, Cd, Mg and Sn, present high removal ratio of 90%, 95%, 85.7% and 90%, respectively.