NICKEL SCRAP RECYCLING BY ELECTRON BEAM MELTING METHOD.

Experimental-production melting of low-grade nickel scrap was conducted to obtain nickel ingots of not lower than NP2 grade, which are furtheron used to produce semi-finished products in the form of hot- and cold-formed seamless pipes, including capillary, thin-walled and particularly thick-walled pipes, rings, squares, hexagons, etc. It is shown that during electron beam melting a significant removal of impurity elements from the nickel scrap occurred, and metal quality began to correspond to nickel grade not lower than NP2. In order to further study the produced ingot quality, comprehensive research work was performed on manufacturing semi-finished products in the form of elongated soft rods of 40 mm diameter and wire of 3 mm diameter. It was determined that mechanical properties of semi-finished products from EBM nickel fully meet the standard requirements. It is shown that electron beam melting is an efficient method of producing nickel ingots from secondary raw materials, as it allows ensuring a high level of the produced material quality, and the semi-finished product quality fully meets the standard requirements by chemical composition, structure and mechanical properties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]