Electron Beam furnace ELP-30 is a unique metallurgical facility, designed for melting of all kinds of metals and alloys under high vacuum by means of electron beam. This furnace enables to produce ingots with diameter 500, 800, 1100, 1300 mm and slabs with section 180 х 1070 mm, 300 х 1070 mm and length up to 4 m ( the mechanism of ingot drawing is designed for 42 tones). Beside existing mold-cups, the mold-cups of different sizes can be manufactured.
The Electron-Beam Melting (EBM) furnace is furnished with two independent faci-lities for feeding the raw material into a melting zone. The fee-ding system permits input of the raws in the form of baskets, made of titanium waste and waste of other materials. The baskets are regularly filled with blend charge (sponge, waste, alloying element etc). Bulk of initial loading amounts to 2000 kg. In the process of melting the additional loading through the transfer chambers is performed. Furnace charge blend is homogenized in a cold-hearth unit, and the liquid melt is being continuously poured in a mold-cup, where the surface of the melt is constantly maintained in liquid state by the electron beam. In the process of solidification, the ingot is being drawn from the mold-cup by a special device. Possible chemical heterogeneity of the ingot is eliminated by the blend preparation (pounding, mixing, bracketing etc.) and by mixing of the hot melt in the cold-hearth unit - 350-400 kg. Partial mixing takes place in a mold-cup, with depth of bath 50-100 mm.
The process described above enables to skip at least three stages as compared to traditional Russian technology and allows for considerable energy and time savings and is more ecologically safe.