Study of the Boron Effect on the Physicochemical Properties of Ligatures

One of the effective ways to improve the quality of semi-finished products made from aluminum alloys is to eliminate the columnar and fan-shaped structure in them, refine the grain and achieve homogeneity, is modification and alloying. Modification of the melt is carried out using ligatures and allows a significant increase in the casting rate without fear of an excessive increase in the degree of zonal segregation during crystallization, as well as ensuring the uniformity of the chemical composition over the section. An important role in the quality of modification is also played by the manufacturing technology of the master alloy itself, which should ensure an increase in the cooling rate during crystallization. To obtain an alloy with the required properties, the quality of the charge materials used must be considered. First of all, this concerns master alloys, which are used for alloying and modifying the alloy. The most common for the manufacture of ingots and shaped castings are master alloys containing boron or boron and titanium. The boron content in these ligatures is 1-5%. It is generally accepted that a large amount of boron (except for the rise in the cost of the alloy itself) upon accelerated cooling promotes the refinement of the internal structure of the grain, but can lead to an increase in large inclusions of TiB2.

Comprehensive Evaluation of Blast Casting Results Based on Unascertained Measurement and Intuitionistic Fuzzy Set

In order to make a scientific and accurate evaluation of blast casting results, according to the characteristics of blast casting-dragline stripping system, effective casting rate, looseness coefficient, limit vibration velocity, powder factor, fragmentation distribution, muck pile shape, boulder generation, damage degree of coal seam step, and dust pollution are selected as the evaluation indicators of blast casting results, and a classification standard is established. The unascertained measure theory was adopted to determine the membership degree of influencing factor indicator, which expanded the expression method of fuzzy information of evaluation indicators. The Analytic Hierarchy Process was used to determine the subjective weight of indicators, the entropy weight method was used to determine the objective weight of indicators, and the intuitionistic fuzzy set was used to express the range of the comprehensive weights of indicators. An evaluation model of blast casting results was constructed based on unascertained measurement and intuitionistic fuzzy set. The measured and processed data of blast casting in Heidaigou Open-Pit Coal Mine were calculated by the evaluation model. Besides, the sensitivity of indicator weights to the evaluation result of blast casting results was also analyzed. The results show that the blast casting results are level III (well). The effective casting rate ranks first in terms of the influence on the evaluation result, followed by damage degree of coal seam step, muck pile shape, looseness coefficient, powder factor, dust pollution, limit vibration velocity, and boulder generation/fragmentation distribution, and it was proved that the weight fluctuation of the evaluation indicator has no obvious correlation with weight.

Influence of Casting Rate on TiNb Microalloyed Steel Slab Surface Area Microstructure

Two slabs of Ti-Nb microalloyed steel were analysed in this work. The first slab was transitional with the initial pulling rate 0.43 m.min-1 and the final pulling rate 0.9 m.min-1. The second slab was cast at the real production pulling rate 1.03 m.min-1. The presence of larger amounts of oscillation marks was observed on the first slab at both pulling rates. The second slab showed no oscillation marks. At the lowest pulling rate, cracks were discovered below the slab surface, often below oscillation marks. Cracks were seldom observed at pulling rate 0.9 m.min-1. In the first slab, especially at the low pulling rate, the presence of cracks and pores was found. Pores were observed often with clusters of aluminum oxides. The microstructure of the slab surface zone was characterised by heterogeneity of ferrite grain sizes at all three pulling rates. This heterogeneity was manifested mainly in the marginal cut-outs at all pulling rates. In the marginal cut-outs the microstructure was granulometrically finer at all three pulling rates than in the central cut-outs. Non-equilibrium microstructure in the marginal cut-outs was also observed.