(V) Investigating Temperature Profile in Induction Heated Billets and As-Cast Grain Structure Using Computer Simulation

Wednesday, September 15, 2021: 2:00 PM
224 (America's Center)
Mr. Tareq Eddir , Fluxtrol Inc., Auburn Hills, MI
Mr. Robert C. Goldstein , Fluxtrol Inc., Auburn Hills, MI
Mr. Robert Haun , Anspanner, Healdsburg, CA
Cold wall induction applications are widely used for melting or processing metals, oxides, glasses, and other reactive or high purity materials. The rise of additive manufacturing has resulted in renewed interest in the use of cold wall induction applications for powder manufacturing and recycling. The emerging additive manufacturing techniques require highly consistent powders with a small range of size, shape, and chemical composition. Current powder production techniques tend to have relatively low acceptable yield for additive manufacturing. Recycling processes which use cold wall induction techniques to convert the out of specification powder back into raw billets for reprocessing are receiving renewed interest.

Billet casters are used for recycling powder by melting the powder on top of billets. The billet is pulled down vertically while powder is fed from the top. The typical as-cast grain structure in the transverse direction of a small diameter, 50mm to 100mm, is predominately columnar. These sizes of ingots are produced in segmented water-cooled copper molds heated by induction. Some as-cast equiaxed grains are present in the center of the ingot. The ideal as-cast grain structure is equiaxed with a relatively fine grain size in the 100 microns to 200 microns range. This paper will present the results of a study of the thermal profile of the cold-wall induction melted and heated titanium alloy ingot. A correlation will be drawn between the thermal profile and the as-cast grain structure.