Advancement of Cold-Hearth Melting for Production Titanium Alloys

Utilization of Cold-Hearth Melting Processing of aerospace and automotive/industrial applications has placed significant demand on melter’s for products to be used in cast, wrought, and direct-machining applications. Current technologies used in ingot manufacturing include Plasma Arc melting, Vacuum Arc melting, Electron-Beam and Induction Skull melting. Subsequent processing may include forging, re-melting + casting. Over the past several years, Arconic Engineered Structures has developed a process to better determine and control the liquid pool level within the casting copper mold. The process is used as real-time feedback when using Plasma and EB cold-hearth melting technologies which can to help reduce the ingot chemistry variation and improve the ingot surface wall condition.