Supergravity directional solidification melting furnace equipment

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11951540-B2
Application number	US-202017606455-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 27, 2020
Priority date	Sep 10, 2019
Publication date	Apr 9, 2024
Grant date	Apr 9, 2024

Abstract

Provided is a supergravity directional solidification melting furnace equipment, including a supergravity test chamber and, mounted in the supergravity test chamber, a high-temperature heating subsystem, a crucible, and an air-cooling system. The supergravity test chamber is mounted with a wiring electrode and a cooling air valve device. The high-temperature heating subsystem is fixed in the supergravity test chamber. The crucible and the air cooling system are provided in the high-temperature heating subsystem. The high-temperature heating subsystem includes upper, middle, and lower furnaces, a mullite insulating layer, upper and lower heating cavity outer bodies, upper and lower heating furnace pipes, and a crucible support base. A high-temperature heating cavity is divided into upper and lower parts, is provided therein with a spiral groove, and is fitted with a heating element. The crucible support base is provided therein with a vent pipe channel into which a cooling air is introduced. The crucible and the air cooling system include air inlet and exhaust pipes, a cooling base, a cooling rate adjustment ring, the crucible, and an exhaust cover.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A supergravity directional solidification melting furnace equipment, the supergravity directional solidification melting furnace equipment comprises a supergravity test chamber, and a heating subsystem, a crucible, and an air-cooling system mounted in the supergravity test chamber, the heating subsystem is fixed at a bottom of the supergravity test chamber, the crucible and the air-cooling system are provided in the heating subsystem;
the supergravity test chamber comprises a chamber interface member, an upper sealed dome, a chamber lifting lug and a chamber body; the chamber body has a cavity disposed therein, an upper end of the cavity is open, two side walls of the chamber body are each connected outwardly with the chamber lifting lug, and the chamber lifting lug on both sides is hingedly connected to a swing arm of a hanging basket of a supergravity centrifuge, the upper sealed dome is connected to a cavity opening end surface of the chamber body through a bolt to achieve sealed connection; a center of the upper sealed dome is provided with the chamber interface member, and the chamber interface member comprises a communication upper sealed hatch cover and a communication chamber body, the communication upper sealed hatch cover is provided at an upper opening of the communication chamber body, both the communication upper sealed hatch cover and the communication chamber body are provided with an outer flange, a first screw hole is opened on a step surface of the outer flange, the bolt passes through the first screw hole to connect to the upper sealed dome; the chamber interface member is further provided with an upper glass press-fitting flange, an upper flange fastening screw, a quartz glass and a vacuum socket, the quartz glass is fixedly arranged at an opening in a center of a top of the communication upper sealed hatch cover through the upper glass press-fitting flange, the upper glass press-fitting flange is fixed to the top of the communication upper sealed hatch cover through the upper flange fastening screw, the communication upper sealed hatch cover, a bottom of the communication chamber body is opened with a hole, and the hole is provided with the vacuum socket; an inner bottom surface of the cavity of the chamber body is fixed with a wiring frame and an air supply bracket, one side wall of the chamber body is provided with a first wiring hole and a first mounting hole, the other side wall of the chamber body is provided with a second wiring hole and a second mounting hole symmetrically, the first wiring hole is provided with a wiring electrode, the wiring electrode is connected to the wiring frame inside the chamber body through the first wiring hole, and a weak signal control wire is connected to the wiring frame through the first mounting hole; a cooling air valve device is arranged in the second mounting hole, cooling air is connected to the cooling air valve device through a pipeline, the cooling air valve device enters and exits air ports for communication through the pipeline on the air supply bracket and a test instrument in the chamber body;
the heating subsystem comprises a mounting base and an upper furnace, a middle furnace, a lower furnace and a mullite insulating layer arranged on the mounting base and connected in sequence from top to bottom, an upper heating cavity outer body, a lower heating cavity outer body, an upper heating furnace pipe, a lower heating furnace pipe, a crucible support base, and a heating element; the crucible support base is provided at a bottom of a lower cavity insulating layer of the lower furnace, a bottom of the crucible support base is fixed at the mounting base, a heating cavity is arranged on the crucible support base, the heating cavity comprises the upper heating cavity outer body, the lower heating cavity outer body, the upper heating furnace pipe, and the lower heating furnace pipe, the upper heating cavity outer body and the lower heating cavity outer body are both sleeve structures, the upper heating cavity outer body and the lower heating cavity outer body are respectively and coaxially fixed for abutment, the upper heating furnace pipe and the lower heating furnace pipe are respectively sleeved in the upper heating cavity outer body and the lower heating cavity outer body, the upper heating cavity outer body and the lower heating cavity outer body are filled with the mullite insulating layer between an upper cavity insulating layer of the upper furnace, a middle cavity insulating layer of the middle furnace, and a lower cavity insulating layer of the lower furnace; a spiral groove is processed on outer walls of the upper heating furnace pipe and the lower heating furnace pipe, the spiral groove is provided with the heating element which is in a form of a spiral, heat generated by the heating element is evenly radiated to a heating furnace pipe composed of the upper heating furnace pipe and the lower heating furnace pipe;
the crucible and the air-cooling system are placed inside the upper heating furnace pipe and the lower heating furnace pipe on the crucible support base, the crucible and the air-cooling system comprise an air inlet pipe, a cooling base, a cooling rate adjustment ring, the crucible, an exhaust cover and an exhaust pipe; the cooling base is arranged on a top surface of the crucible support base, the crucible is arranged on the cooling base, the exhaust cover is arranged on a top of the crucible, and the cooling rate adjustment ring is arranged in a middle of the crucible; a center cavity, a cooling hole, a temperature gradient adjustment block, a heat radiation groove, a positioning flange block, a heat-dissipating groove, and an air discharge hole are arranged on the crucible, a main body of the crucible is a columnar structure, and a center of a top surface of the crucible is provided with a cylindrical blind hole as the center cavity, the center cavity is filled with metal melt/metal sample to be solidified by supergravity directional solidification; the top surface of the crucible around the center cavity is provided with multiple vertical through holes as cooling holes along the circumference; the cooling holes are evenly spaced along a circumferential direction, the cooling air passes through a lower end of the cooling hole; each of the cooling holes is provided with the temperature gradient adjustment block for realizing and adjusting the temperature gradient for directional solidification, there is a gap between the temperature gradient adjustment block and a wall of the cooling hole, the temperature gradient adjustment block is capable of moving up and down in an axial direction in the cooling hole; a ring-shaped bump serves as the positioning flange block is fixed at a lower circumferential surface of the crucible, an outer peripheral cylinder surface of a lower part of the positioning flange block is provided with multiple heat-dissipating grooves, the heat-dissipating grooves extend radially outward from an inner wall of the crucible body to an outer wall of the positioning flange block, an outer peripheral cylinder surface of the crucible above the positioning flange block is provided with the multiple heat radiation grooves, and the multiple heat radiation grooves are evenly spaced along the circumferential direction, the heat radiation grooves are provided at an outer peripheral cylinder surface of the crucible between two adjacent cooling holes, on both sides of the crucible side wall at a top surface of the positioning flange block, through holes are symmetrically opened as air discharge holes, which connect the cooling holes with an exterior of the crucible; the upper end of the cooling base has an opening, and there is a lower annular groove in the opening, a lower end of the crucible is arranged in an upper opening of the cooling base, and various cooling holes of the crucible are connected through the lo

Assignees

• Univ Zhejiang

Inventors

• Wei Hua
• Xie Yadan
• Zhao Jianjiang
• Lin Weian
• Zhang Ze
• Chen Yunmin

Classifications

• B22D27/045 Primary

  Directionally solidified castings · CPC title

• B22D46/00

  Controlling, supervising, not restricted to casting covered by a single main group, e.g. for safety reasons (controlling or regulating in general G05) · CPC title

• H05B3/03

  Electrodes · CPC title

• C30B11/00 Primary

  Single-crystal growth by normal freezing or freezing under temperature gradient, e.g. Bridgman-Stockbarger method (C30B13/00, C30B15/00, C30B17/00, C30B19/00 take precedence; under a protective fluid C30B27/00) · CPC title

• C30B30/00

  Production of single crystals or homogeneous polycrystalline material with defined structure characterised by the action of electric or magnetic fields, wave energy or other specific physical conditions · CPC title