Device and method for preparing low-impurity regenerated brass alloy through step-by-step insertion of electrode

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11981979-B2
Application number	US-202318379213-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 12, 2023
Priority date	May 10, 2022
Publication date	May 14, 2024
Grant date	May 14, 2024

Abstract

A device and method for preparing a low-impurity regenerated brass alloy through step-by-step insertion of an electrode are provided. The device includes a melt heating apparatus, an electrode displacement apparatus, and a pulse current generation apparatus. The automatic electrode lifting apparatus is controlled to adjust an insertion depth of the graphite electrode plate in the metal melt, and the pulse current generation apparatus is controlled to adjust the parameters of pulse current to achieve the impurity reduction on the metal melt. The preparation of a low-impurity regenerated brass alloy involves a short production process, simple operations, low energy consumption, and high impurity removal efficiency, and is suitable for regeneration and large-scale continuous production of non-ferrous metal alloys.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for using a device for preparing regenerated brass alloy through a step-by-step insertion of an electrode, the device comprising a melt heating apparatus, an electrode displacement apparatus, and a pulse current generation apparatus, wherein the melt heating apparatus comprises a heating source, a metal melt, and a melting pool; the electrode displacement apparatus comprises a graphite electrode plate, a connector, a connecting rod, a fixation knob, a telescopic rod, a hydraulic unit, a motor, a sliding plate, a parallel metal sliding plate base, a fixation base, and a fixation nut;
the graphite electrode plate has one end inserted into the metal melt and the other end connected to the connector; the connector is connected to the connecting rod through the fixation nut; the connecting rod penetrates through the telescopic rod and is configured to control the graphite electrode plate to move back and forth through the fixation knob; the telescopic rod is configured to control the graphite electrode plate to move up and down through the hydraulic unit and the motor; the hydraulic unit and the motor are arranged on the sliding plate, and the sliding plate is connected to the parallel metal sliding plate base; the sliding plate and the parallel metal sliding plate base are configured to control the graphite electrode plate to move left and right; the parallel metal sliding plate base is arranged on the fixation base; the connector is connected to the pulse current generation apparatus through a metal wire, wherein the method comprises the following steps:
S1: placing a impurity containing brass raw material to be regenerated in the melting pool, and starting the melt heating apparatus, such that the impurity containing brass raw material is melted, stirred, and incubated;
S2: connecting the graphite electrode plate to the pulse current generation apparatus through a metal wire, starting an automatic electrode lifting apparatus to insert the graphite electrode plate into a resulting metal melt, and starting the pulse current generation apparatus to allow a pulse current treatment on the metal melt for a fixed time;
S3: controlling the automatic electrode lifting apparatus to descend to increase an insertion depth of the graphite electrode plate in the metal melt, and conducting a pulse current treatment, wherein a descending distance is consistent with a distance of the graphite electrode plate from a surface of the metal melt in S2, and a time of the pulse current treatment is the same as a time of the pulse current treatment in S2;
S4: repeating S3 until a bottom of the graphite electrode plate is close to a bottom of the melting pool;
S5: after a final pulse current treatment is completed, collecting and testing a sample of the metal melt, adjusting a temperature of the metal melt, and discharging the metal melt to obtain the regenerated brass alloy.

2. The method for using the device for preparing regenerated brass alloy through the step-by-step insertion of the electrode according to claim 1 , wherein in S1, the metal melt is heated at 1,000° C. to 1,200° C.; the metal melt is stirred for 1 min to 60 min; and the metal melt is incubated at 900° C. to 1,200° C. for 1 min to 500 min.

3. The method for using the device for preparing regenerated brass alloy through the step-by-step insertion of the electrode according to claim 1 , wherein in S2, the pulse current treatment is conducted with a current of 1 A to 5,000 A, an electrical pulse frequency of 1 Hz to 120 kHz, a pulse width of 1 μs to 1,000 ms, and a voltage of 1 V to 36 V, an insertion depth of the graphite electrode plate in the metal melt each time is 2% to 50% of a total height of the metal melt, and each pulse current is applied for 1 min to 60 min, wherein finally, a distance between the bottom of the graphite electrode plate and the bottom of the melting pool is 2 cm to 30 cm.

4. The method for using the device for preparing regenerated brass alloy through the step-by-step insertion of the electrode according to claim 1 , wherein in S5, the temperature of the metal melt is adjusted to 850° C. to 1,100° C., and then the metal melt is discharged.

5. The method for using the device for preparing regenerated brass alloy through the step-by-step insertion of the electrode according to claim 4 , wherein impurity elements in the impurity containing brass raw material to be regenerated comprise one or more selected from the group consisting of the following elements: Pb: 0.001 wt. % to 7.0 wt. %, Bi: 0.001 wt. % to 6.0 wt. %, Fe: 0.1 wt. % to 2.5 wt. %, Al: 0.01 wt. % to 2.45 wt. %, Si: 0.01 wt. % to 2.5 wt. %, and Sn: 0.1 wt. % to 2.0 wt. %.

Assignees

• Univ Beijing Science & Technology

Inventors

• Zhang Xinfang
• Zhang Baoyu
• Huang Xiaoshan
• Zhou Mengcheng
• Liu Changhao
• Zhang Di
• Yan Longge

Classifications

• C22C1/02 Primary

  by melting {(C22C1/1036 takes precedence)} · CPC title

• C25C3/34 Primary

  of metals not provided for in groups C25C3/02 - C25C3/32 · CPC title

• C22C1/03 Primary

  using master alloys · CPC title

• C22C9/08

  with lead as the next major constituent · CPC title

• C22C9/00

  Alloys based on copper · CPC title