RECONSTRUCTION OF ELECTRON BEAMINSTALLATION TICO-15M

V.I. KOSTENKO1, P.A. PAP2, A.N. KALINYUK2, D.V. KOVALCHUK2, N.P. KONDRATY3 and V.B. CHERNYAVSKY4

1«Strategiya BM» Ltd, Kiev, Ukraine2NVO «Chervona Khvylya» Ltd, Kiev, Ukraine

3«KB VMO» Ltd, Kiev, Ukraine4Physico-Technological Institute of Metals and Alloys, Kiev, Ukraine

Experience of reconstruction of outdated electron beam melting installation with application of the latest developmentsin the field of electron beam engineering and technology is considered. Reconstruction of the installation with applicationof new gas-discharge electron guns and control system allowed mastering the new types of products, including thosewith increased requirements to chemical composition. The carried out works allowed increasing 2.5 times productivityof the equipment and making premises for further development.

K e y w o r d s : titanium, electron beam installation, recon-struction, feeding mechanism, control unit, ingot, oxygenequivalent

Early in 2006 «Strategiya BM» Ltd bought from the«Fico» company the TICO-15M electron beam re-melting installation. Within two months a team ofprocess engineers, engineers and melting operatorswas established, and in March first ingot of titaniumof Grade 2 from spongy titanium fabricated at ZTMK(Zaporozhie, Ukraine) was produced. Dimensions ofmelted ingots were as follows: diameter 640 mm,length up to 2000 mm, mass up to 2900 kg (Figure 1).

It should be noted that the TICO-15M installa-tion, developed in 1990, earlier never produced morethan 20 t ingots per month, and since 2003 did notwork at all. That’s why the primary task was resto-ration of its working capacity. For this purpose severalstructural elements and systems, service life of whichwas over, were replaced.

Then it became necessary to carry out reconstruc-tion of TICO-15M, which was performed in closecooperation with «KB VMO» Ltd that had great ex-perience in development of the electron beam meltingfurnaces.

The reconstruction concerned, first of all, feedingmechanism of the consumable billet. The new mecha-

nism envisages application of non-meltable boxes forfeeding charge into the melting zone. Mass of possibleloading of the charge was increased up to 4.6 t. Asyn-chronous motors and pulse converters of the «Mitsu-bishi» company (Japan) with self-control and self-di-agnostics systems, allowing their further connectingto the computerized control system of the electronbeam installation as a whole, were used for increasingreliability of operation of the drives used for feedingof consumable billets and drawing of the ingots.

Jointly with NTUU «KPI» new PGE-450 electronguns of nominal power 450 kW (acceleration voltage30 kV), developed at «KB VMO» Ltd, equipped withtwo focusing and one deviation coils, were installed.The guns are simple in fabrication, convenient in op-eration, and do not require for additional vacuumpumps for development of working pressure in theworking volume. Possibility of installation of the«crucible edge protection mode» sensor is envisagedin them.

A new main control panel of the installation (Fi-gure 2) is installed, which is based on new units ofthe electron gun control (Figure 3), developed by«Solo» Ltd (Kiev, Ukraine) that fulfill usual func-

Figure 2. Main control panel of TICO-15M installation

© V.I. KOSTENKO, P.A. PAP, A.N. KALINYUK, D.V. KOVALCHUK, N.P. KONDRATY and V.B. CHERNYAVSKY, 2007

Figure 1. Ingots from titanium of Grade 2

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tions (control movement of the electron beams, fo-cusing of the beams, and operation of the workinggas leaks). In addition, the units allow forming andprogramming from one to six beam configurationswith an independent task of one electron gun forcreation of the necessary temperature field and controlof the system of real-time sweeps by means of a built-inmanipulator of the joystick type, storing in the non-volatile memory up to six programmed in advanceforms of sweeps, and reflecting on the colored video-terminal established parameters of melting and formsof the sweeps in graphic, symbolic and digital forms.The units ensure so called crucible edge protectionmode, which means that electron beam in the processof melting can not get outside real geometric dimen-sions of the fitting-out. This function of the electrongun control units excludes emergency situations, con-nected with burning-through of the intermediate unit,mould and cooling systems. The units have built-inresources for ensuring self-control and self-diagnosticsconditions and are integrated with a peripheral com-puter by means of the RS-485 serial channel.

Majority of works, connected with reconstructionof the TICO-15M unit, were carried out without stop-ping the production. As a result of the reconstructionproductivity of the TICO-15M unit is 600 t of ingotsper year.

After beginning of the operation more than 650 tingots of non-alloyed titanium of Grade 1 and Grade 2ASTM B348 were produced.

One of the ways of increasing efficiency of pro-duction under changed conditions of the titanium mar-ket is melting of ingots of preset chemical composi-tion, in particular for non-alloyed titanium, and in-gots with a certain oxygen equivalent.

More than 200 t of Grade 2 ASTM B348 non-al-loyed titanium with oxygen equivalent Oeq within0.17--0.21 were produced from titanium sponge ofgrades TG-100, TG-110, TG-120 and TG-130. De-pending upon content of impurities (nitrogen, iron,carbon), which effect level of Oeq, ingots of 640 mmdiameter and mass up to 2.8 t with oxygen concen-tration within two ranges (0.11--0.13 and 0.14--0.16 %) were melted. Additional oxygen was intro-duced into the metal by addition of titanium oxide IV.

Results of chemical and gas analyses showed highhomogeneity of composition of the ingots over theirheight and section. Deviation of oxygen content fromthe mean value equaled 0.01, nitrogen ---- 0.002,iron ---- 0.01, carbon 0.002 abs.% for both ranges ofconcentrations.

Since late 2006 jointly with M.V. Frunze SumyMNPO the works were carried out, connected withmalleating of ingots of 640 mm diameter into flatslabs of 200 and 220 mm thickness (Figure 4).

The malleated slabs were successfully rolled intosheets at the enterprises of Europe. At present speci-fications are being developed on these products fororganization of their serial production.

In near future it is planned to carry out at theenterprise «Strategiya BM» Ltd the next stage of theTICO-15M installation reconstruction, due to whichlength of the produced ingots will increase up to3000 mm, mass up to 4.3 t, and annual productivityof the TICO-15M unit will increase up to 900 t.

At the enterprise the quality ensuring system isintroduced and works according to requirements ofthe DSTU ISO 9000 standard. At present the workis carried out, directed at getting a respective certifi-cate in «UkrSEPROZ».

Figure 3. Control unit of electron gun Figure 4. Malleated slabs of titanium of Grade 2

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