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By Mairyanne S. S. Souza, Sergio Neves Monteiro, Victor Tomazinho Bartolazzi, Dienifer Daiana Konzen

Clay is used in the production and manufacture of materials for the construction of buildings from remote periods. Advances and improvements of its properties have allowed several applications to this raw material. In this work the quality of four types of ceramic tiles manufactured or used in the northwest of the state of Rio de Janeiro and in the southeastern state of Minas Gerais was evaluated. Geometric, physical and mechanical aspects were evaluated according to the Brazilian standard NBR 15310:2009. The results indicate numerous nonconfor- mities with highlights for geometric parameters, surface flatness and yield tests. The nonconformities found in the samples indicate that there was a failure in the production control of the product and in the approval of the control of the lots.

Mar 1, 2018

By Hidenori Okamoto, Katuto Itoh

"Nippon Mining & Metals' Hitachi Refinery refines 40% of the anodes produced at its Saganoseki Smelter & Refinery. Its current annual production stands at 180,000tons.The refinery always endeavors to increase productivity. One of the outcomes of its efforts is an originally developed automatic short-circuit detector used to inspect short-circuits between anode and cathode. The detector is designed to inspect the 56 pairs of anode and cathode in a cell by fluxgate sensors at once. It inspects 564 cells, automatically and un-manned, and gathers data to be put into a computer. The development of the detector led to a reduction of man-power and achieved a detection accuracy superior to that of a hand-held gauss-meter. In addition, statistical and historical processing of the data enabled early detection and early recovery of the cells with poor efficiency.The new system also contributed to raising the refining capacity and reducing the unit steam consumption, because it is possible to inspect even the cells covered with thermal insulation sheets.IntroductionInspection of cells is an important component of the operation management of a tank-house. At the Hitachi Plant, it used to be carried out by two workers who walked on and checked all the cells of its tank-house once a day to find out any short-circuits in the cells, using hand-held gauss-meters. They inspected about 33 thousand pairs of cathodes and anodes a day and removed nodules by hammers. This method had following problems:it needed much manpower.the walk on the cells sometimes deranged electrodes positions.there was radiation-loss connected with the inspection due tothe fact that the workers were obliged to uncover thermal insulation sheets on the cells while inspecting."

Jan 1, 2000

By Jogre A. S Tenório

he aim of the present investigation was to investigate technological features of the Fe-NbC dissolution in liquid Fe-C alloys. Fe-NbC is a Ferro-niobium alloy with 7%C, has a particle size smaller than 150 pm and its micro constituents are polygonal niobium carbides and an iron matrix. The obtained dissolution time was less than one-minute and the yields were in the range of 80-90% at 1873 K. In the Fe-NbC dissolution process, the dissolution occurs at first, and as a consequence the niobium carbides become free to dissolve. These carbides will dissolve until the melt reaches a saturation point. The non-dissolved carbides remain trapped in the liquid or will form a dross. The addition yields decreases when the niobium concentration reaches this limit value, that depends on the carbon concentration. These define a saturation curve.

Jan 1, 1994

By Edilson Marques Magalhães, Danielly Da Silva Quaresma, José Antônio da Silva Souza, João Nazareno Nonato Quaresma, Emanuel Negrão Macêdo

"The production of alumina from bauxite using the Bayer process generates the residue known by red mud. This material can be used as a source for concentration and recovery of valuable metals such as titanium. The greatest difficulty of concentrating titanium compounds is the large amount of iron oxide present in red mud > 30% by weight. This paper shows the extraction of the iron oxide, increasing the concentration of the titanium compounds. The red mud is leached with H2SO4 at 30% concentration and temperature range of 60°C, 80°C and 90°C. Analysis of the leached and concentrated was made to verify the effectiveness of the iron oxide extracting process and the titanium compounds concentration viability.2- IntroductionIn the state of Para is located the Industrial Unit Alumina of North of the Brazil S/A (Alunorte), created to produce and commercialize alumina, aluminum oxide, Al2O3. The ALUNORTE with Aluminum Brasileiro S/A (Albras) and Mining Rio do Norte S/A (MRN) complete the production cycle of aluminum in the state. Although the production of alumina has a importance great for the socio-economic status, as in any area other, generates a amount large of waste, thus causing environmental impacts. Pará State has produced 25 million tons of bauxite (Pinto, 2010), of which 60% were transformed into alumina plant in Pará and Maranhão by ALUNORTE by ALCOA, generating approximately 9,000,000 tons of waste known as Red Mud (RM). Due to the high reactivity this material is considered dangerous, and currently there is no operating process capable of reuse all the material produced at any refinery. The search for industrial processes in order to reuse these wastes can contribute to reducing the overall impact of the production process of alumina. In this context, this paper estudied, within the research line of Solid Waste valorization the mining industry and metallurgy, a process that makes possible the red mud as a source of raw material, in other words, seeks to maximize the use of red mud as raw material for concentration and or recovery of titanium compounds in both the crystalline form of anatase, rutile and ilmenite, avoiding the predatory extraction of natural resources of these materials. Applying definitely the concept of self-sustainability of the mining industry and metallurgy."

Jan 1, 2012

By Jorge Alberto Soares Tenório, Denise Crocce Romano Espinosa, Solange Kazue Utimura, Amilton Barbosa Botelho, Carlos Gonzalo Alvarez Rosario

In this study, the recycling of waste materials is interesting in the environmental aspect to reduce the amount of waste in land fill and attenuate the pollution of groundwater, air and soil due to the liberation of dangerous elements. Recycling materials is an important issue once it represents a potential source of valuable metals. Waste printed wired boards (PWBs) as a principal part of Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) and it is a fast growing stream with complex composition. The composite materials from PWBs are ceramic, polymers and metals. Biohydrometallurgical route may offer possibilities to recycle PWBs from discarded computers with the order to recover copper. The extraction of copper from PWBs by bioleaching processeswas studied using a mixed culture of acidophilic bacteria fromacid mine drainage (AMD) and the bacteria Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans (A. ferrooxidans). The bioleaching experiments were performed in shaker flasks at temperature 30 °C and 170 rpmwith 10% (v/v) inoculum and pulp density of 35 g/L. Themetals concentration was determined by energy dispersiveX-ray Fluorescence (XRF). The results showed that the maximum copper recovery from PWBs using A. ferrooxidans was approximately 89% and with a mixed culture of bacteria from AMD the copper recovery was 92%.

Mar 1, 2017

By Jin Yu, Fang-Qiu Zu, Yun Xi, Li-Na Mao

"According to the behaviors of resistivity-temperature of Cu-Sb70 melt, which suggests a partly reversible temperature-induced liquid structure transitions (LST) could occur in this alloy, in this paper, we investigated the dependence of solidification on the liquid state. Both resistivity and temperature were measured to track solidification process. The results show that the nucleating undercooling of the melt which experienced the LST increased and the solidified time decreased. Meanwhile, the solidified microstructures refined evidently, with the microscopic pattern of primary phase changes from disordered pillarlike dendrites into homotaxic ones. Moreover, it is verified that the microstructures would be different if the reversible part of the LST was restrained. The new phenomena and results reflected in this paper suggest that grasping the rules of melt structure change with temperature before material processing will give help for controlling the solidification more effectively and finally resulting in more ideal microstructures.IntroductionThe structure and quality of liquid alloys have a direct and important influence on the structure, performance and quality of the solidified ones. In recent years with in-depth study of liquid structure, researchers have found that some liquid structure transitions (LST) could occur on dependence of the temperature or pressure [1-5]. And the article [6] reported that a pressure-induced reversible LST was found in liquid triphenyl phosphite, which further confirmed the authenticity of the existence of the LST. Furthermore, in our earlier studies of Sn-based melts using resistivity method, some abnormal structure changes induced by temperature have been found at hundreds of degrees above liqiudus, and these LSTs are partly reversible[7]. This phenomenon has been discussed and it is suggested that the reversible LST in Sn-based melts are related to the short-range ordering (SRO) structures of Sn, which are tetrahedron structure with covalent bonding. However, does this reversible LST exist in other melts too?"

Jan 1, 2012

By Wenqiang Bao, Qijie Zhai, Ting Wang, Shaobo Zheng, Huigai Li

The type of inclusions with different sizes in as-cast low carbon steel strip which is deoxidized by Si–Mn has been characterized by scanning electron microscope (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). SEM observation and analysis suggested that the type of inclusions larger than 1 μm is manganese silicate. TEM analysis was carried out to investigate the composition and structure of nano-inclusions. Inclusions with diameter about 100 nm are manganese silicate, MnS–Si(Mn)Ox complex particles and isolated cubic Al2O3. Furthermore, HREM observations have revealed that there were two kinds of ultrafine particles in size range of 5–10 nm. One is spherical monoclinic Cu2S; the other is silicon-iron oxide particles with morphology of long strip. In addition, some thermodynamic calculations were performed to explain the corresponding relation between the type of inclusions and their size.

Mar 1, 2017

By Duclerc Fernandes Parra, Vijaya Kumar Rangari, Washington Luiz Oliani, Danilo Marin Fermino, Ademar Benevolo Lugao, Nilton Lincopan, Luiz Gustavo Hiroki Komatsu

Polyethylene is widely used for packing applications. Different grades of polyethylene, LLDPE and LDPE play a major role in the film blowing industry. The use of nanoclay in polymer matrices (non-polar) requires the use of a compatibilizer agent, ethylene graft maleic anhydride copolymer (PE-g-MA), which acts as a bridge for nanoclay-matrix-interaction. In our study, blown films of LLDPE, LDPE, and their blends were produced using a twin screw extruder. The combination of PEs as matrix, montmorillonite (MMT) and silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) intended to improve mechanical and thermal properties. Nanocomposites films with 1 wt% of montmorillonite and 0.5–1.0 wt% silver nanoparticles were prepared by blow extrusion and evaluated. Nanoclay intercalation/exfoliation degree was investigated by X-ray diffraction spectroscopy (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Mechanical and thermal properties were evaluated. The results showed optimum dispersion at intercalation/exfoliation levels for polyethylene nanocomposite (PENC), slight increasing in mechanical and especially improvement in thermal properties.

Mar 1, 2017

By L. Salinas

Lance injection of gas and particles into a molten bath is currently practised in metallurgical processes (Mitsubishi lances for example). Several experimental and theorical studies have been conducted in the past on this topic. However, neither detailed calculations nor experimental studies of local flow patterns have been published. In the present work, a numerical simulation of the interaction of a gaseous vertical descending jet and a liquid surface was done, using the turbulence k-e model. There is a fair agreement between the calculated and the experimental values. The results of this study demonstrate that it is crucial that the gas jet velocity profile and turbulent characteristic are correctly formulated in order to correctly simulate the system.

Jan 1, 1999

By Wufeng Jiang, Jiann-Yang Hwang, Suju Hao, Yuzhu Zhang

Magnetite powder and coke powder were used as experimental materials and H2 as reducing agent in a high temperature vacuum tube furnace. The change rules of magnetite powder (MP), mixed coke powder and magnetite powder (MCMP), and carbon coated magnetite powder (CCMP) in the process of reduction were studied. The samples were determined by field emission scanning electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction. The results show that, with the increase of reduction time, the reduction degree of magnetite powder is improved. Under the same reduction conditions, the addition of coke powder improves the reduction rate. Compared with MP, when the reduction time was 120 min, the reduction degree of MCMP was 30% greater; and the reduction degree of CCMP was 39% greater. The mixed grinding of magnetite powder and coke powder is a better way to add carbon. Under the same reduction conditions, compared with MCMP, the reduction degree of CCMP was 9% greater when the reduction time was 120 min. After the reduction of CCMP, the number of pores in the sample increased and the structure was loose. The results of this study have some reference value for improving the reduction rate of magnetite powder.

Mar 1, 2018

By Mingchun Lu, Zhijia Liu, Xueqi Zhang, Jianliang Zhang

"In order to solve the problem of shortage of scrap, especially high quality scrap, a new substitute for scrap or DRI has been developed. The decarbonization mechanism of granular pig iron has been analyzed and the technical process and decarbonized granular pig iron have been evaluated in this paper. The research result shows that this new process is superior to direct reduction process in product quality, construction investment, operation flexibility, production efficiency etc. Decarbonized granular pig iron (DGPI) not only can be used as conventional scrap but also can be charged into EAF as high purity .burden equivalent to heavy scrap:IntroductionIn the past years, with the universal application of continuos casting technique in China, the amount of scrap generated inside steelworks has been reducing continually. On the other hand, the EAF steel proportion is increasing and this gives to the obvious change in structure of steel product. At present, the requirement on both scrap quantity and scrap quality is being paid more and more attention. Because China is a country which is devoid of scrap and poor in resource (nature gas and high grade iron ore) for developing direct reduction iron (DRI) so that sponge iron can not be produced cosmically in China and has to be mainly imported. Instead of part of scrap, some cold pig iron in cold state has been charged into EAF in China. However the high carbon content in pig iron has limited its proportion in EAF metal burden. Because the price of pig iron is lower than that of imported DRI in China, the technique of granular pig iron decarboniztion is hopeful to become effective way to produce substitute for scrap or DRI."

Jan 1, 2000

By Hong Li, Chenxiao Li, Wenwen Mao, Hua Lu

Directly charging limestone into slag in BOF is a newly emerging technique which broke through the traditional BOF slagging principle. It is necessary to study the decomposition behavior of limestone in converter slag during BOF steelmaking. FeOx, SiO2, MnOx and pre-melting slags were mixed with limestone according to different quality proportion to simulate the environment of limestone in converter slag. TG-DTA results indicated that slag with individual component, including FeOx, SiO2 and MnOx, all had obvious effects on reducing the decomposition temperature of limestone. Pre-melting slags with multiple components had further reducing effects than individual component. XRD results showed converter slag component would react with decomposition product of CaCO3 and generate solid solution or oxide, reducing the activity of CaO and the decomposition temperature of CaCO3.

Mar 1, 2017

By R J. Singh, E. Z. Chacko, Devilal, S. K. Jha, Rina Sahu, Sheshank Shekhar

"Breakouts are one of the biggest problems encountered during continuous casting of steel billets. Billets get cracked locally or break completely in two parts during solidification causing the liquid part of the partially solidified billet to empty inside the cooling chamber. Proper control of important parameters is necessary to avoid break outs during continuous casting. In the present work, the nature of the break outs at a billet caster at Tata Steel was studied. Data analysis was also done for certain casting parameters and the Sulphur tracer test was conducted to understand solidification in the mould. It was found that to reduce the occurrence of break outs, it was necessary to tune the operations based on the grade being cast and the design of the mould tube being used.IntroductionA break out during the continuous casting process is a rupture of the partially solidified shell inside the secondary cooling chamber, causing the contained liquid steel to spill out. In the mid 1970s while continuous casting technology was still in early stage of development, causes of breakouts was not well understood. Today, with technological development much has been understood about breakouts but, most of the understanding has been in the slab casting process wherein due to the higher level of instrumentation, a lot of information has been gained. In billet casting however, due to the geometry of the mould housing with the tube mould, multiplied by the complexity of the multiple strands, instrumentation has not been used and obtaining data for analysis has been difficult.Breakouts at billet casters are still the main hindrances to production. A break out results in a loss in production since the strand which has had a break out is now not available to produce and thus a six strand caster would be reduced to a five strand caster, increasing the time for casting the same tonnage. Additionally extra set up time is required as more often than not a mould change is required in order to have the strand casting again."

Jan 1, 2014

By Christian Bernhard, Mario Hartl, Susanne K. Michelic

"One aspect of an efficient process and product optimization of the liquid steelmaking process is the understanding of reactions and interactions between the components steel, slag and nonmetallic inclusions. The present paper focuses on a fundamental study of this topic by combining the powerful methods of thermodynamic modeling with systematic experiments on a laboratory scale and subsequent SEM/EDS analyses. The modeling aspect is addressed by the commercial software FactSage 6.1; laboratory experiments are performed for a low-alloyed, Ca-treated carbon steel combined with varying slag compositions. The consequent SEM/EDS analyses provide a detailed insight into the inclusion landscape which offers a strong tool for characterizing the modification of inclusions. In the present study the combination of these methods is mainly applied to oxides, due to their crucial influence on the final product quality, thus giving important indications for further optimizing the secondary metallurgy processes.IntroductionIn recent years, the range of application for steels has been enlarged continuously; also resulting in extreme surrounding conditions combined with considerable stresses for the material. This trend is directly linked with higher demands on the properties of steels. In order to optimize the final product quality, the cleanness of steels is an important criterion. For this reason, the broad topic ""Steel Cleanness"" has become one of the main research points at the Chair of Metallurgy. Next to the continuous optimization of methods for the characterization of cleanness, the primary aim is to combine thermodynamic modeling and laboratory experiments in order to describe the changes in inclusion landscape under different conditions.The steel cleanness can particularly be influenced in the processes of secondary metallurgy. In different processes the reactions and interactions between the components steel, slag and nonmetallic inclusions (NMI) are essential for the final inclusion landscape. Consequently, the understanding of the occurring reactions is a fundamental aspect for further development and process optimization. In secondary metallurgy especially oxide-slag systems consisting of the components Ca0-Ah03-Mg0-Si02, which significantly influence the modification of NMI, are of importance. Several works dealing with the interactions of oxide non-metallic inclusions with different slag systems have been published in the last years [1-4]. In order to observe the dissolution of oxides in different slag compositions a Laser Scanning Electron Microscope is frequently used. A very detailed study on the ternary system Ah03-Ca0-Mg0 and its subsystems was also done by De Aza et al. [5, 6]."

Jan 1, 2011

By A. Mikula, S. Karlhuber

"Unique physical and mechanical properties made the Pb-Sn solders attractive for low temperature joining of electronic parts. But since lead in solder materials has become a great enviromental problem and health concern, lead will be slowly replaced by other materials in soft solders. Some of these materials which are currently under investigation are ternary tin alloys. Many different physical properties like wetting behavior, electrical and thermal conductivity and surface tension are measured on these alloys, but on the thennodynamic properties and the phase diagram of the alloys under discussion there is only little information available. We investigated the (Ag, Au, Cu)-Sn-Zn systems and determined the thermodynamic properties over the whole composition range by emf-measurements. From these measurements we also got some information on the liquidus. In the Sn-rich corner the phase diagrams are still under investigation.IntroductionSoldering is technically defined as the joining of two base materials, mostly metals or metal coated nonmetallic substrates, with a third metal. The melting temperature of the third metal or metal alloy should be well below those of the substrates. Solder alloys can be categorized in soft and hard solders. Soft solder alloys usually contain lead, tin, bismuth, indium or cadmium and hard solders gold, zinc, aluminium or silicon. The difference between soft and hard solders is the melting temperature of the soldering material. This temperature is around 350°C.An interesting brief history of solders is given by Vianco and Frear [1]. They report, that in 4000 B.C. solders were already used in Mesopotamia. From archaeoligical evidence those solders were gold-based hard solders.Tin-lead soft solders and their use are not easily found, because in course of time tin has been reduced to stannic acid, making the identification quite difficult. Well preserved soft solder artifacts were discovered in King Tut's tomb dating from 1350 B.C. In ancient time Pb-Sn solders were used primarily for the manufacture and repair of cooking utensils and metal tools. The Romans used lead-tin solders extensively in the construction of the aqueducts."

Jan 1, 1996

By James C. Sever

The mode of operation of dolomite kilns at a magnesium reduction plant using the Magnatherm process was designed to minimize operation cost and maximize kiln refractory life. Analysis of downstream operation issues shows the quality metric for dolime changed from loss on ignition to specific surface area. This produced a complete change in kiln operation; the net results being major plant productivity increases decrease in operating cost, and increases in both kiln operating costs and reline frequency.

Jan 1, 2015

By Jong Hyeon Lee, Go-Gi Lee, Chang-Kyu Lee, Hong Youl Ryu, Sung-Koo Jo

This study deals with research on the reduction process of neodymium oxide by molten salt electrowinning. Neodymium fluoride and lithium fluoride electrolyte were used for feed stock of electrolyte and neodymium oxide was added as precursor. Cell current was confirmed that cell potential was applied as constant potential of 4.5V. Argon gas injection into the electrolyte was carried out to confirm convection effect on current efficiency. Applied current was gradually decreased without argon flow, but applied current was kept within a certain range with argon flow in electrolyte.

Jan 1, 2015

By Yuanbo Zhang, Zijian Su, Bingbing Liu, Guanghui Li, Tao Jiang

With the depletion of rich manganese ores, high-Fe content manganese ores are becoming the mainstream resources for manganese extraction. Reduction roasting-magnetic separation process is reported as a relatively effective route to realize the separation of manganese and iron. This study investigated the phase transformation of MnO2 and Fe2O3 briquettes (molar ratio 1:1) roasted under various temperatures and CO–CO2 atmospheres. Results showed that when the CO content was in the range of 0–10 vol%, MnxFe3−xO4 (x = 0−1) phase was formed and its content increased with the rising of temperature. The formation of ferromagnetic MnxFe3−xO4 with strong magnetism resulted in an inferior separation of manganese and iron by magnetization roasting-magnetic separation process. With the increase of CO content to over 25 vol%, the MnxFe3−xO4 content decreased while the content of feebly magnetic substance (MnO)y(FeO)1−y(y = 0−1) increased. Further increasing the CO content to over 80 vol%, (MnO)y(FeO)1−y was reduced to MnO and metallic iron.

Mar 1, 2017

By K:-I. Rhee

The recovery of tellurium from Te-cement obtained during the processing of copper anode slimes was carried out by a series of hydrometallurgical processes, i.e. leaching Te-cement in NaOH solution, precipitation of impurites with the addition of Na2S followed by direct electrowinning of tellurium in NaOH solution. The optimum conditions for each process were determined and discussed in terms of various parameters associated with each step to maximize the recovery and purity of tellurium. The final purity of tellurium from electrowinning in alkaline solution was found to be more than 99.9 %.

Jan 1, 1997

By Józef Czernecki

The Polish copper concentrates are characterised by low content of sulphur and iron. At KGHM Polska Miedz S.A. two copper production technologies are in use. The shaft furnace process is used at the Legnica Copper Smelter and the Glogów I Copper Smelter. A single-stage direct to blister Outokumpu flash smelting process is used at the- Glogów II Copper Smelter. Melting copper concentrates in the shaft furnaces is carried out in a reducing atmosphere and the product obtained is a matte. Instead, a result of melting copper concentrates by an oxidising flash process blister copper of a quality similar to that of converter copper is obtained. The annual copper production at KGHM Polska Miedz S.A. exceeds 450,000 tons. Another important metal is silver produced from slimes from copper electrolysis (about 1000 t/y). Moreover, such metals as Pb, Ni, Se, As, Au and other precious metals, including Pt and Pd, are recovered from various semiproducts. This paper presents technological flow sheet of the copper production in plants using the shaft furnaces and in another plant in which a single-state flash process is applied. Characteristics of products, methods of their utilisation, main parameters of particular technological operations, and advantages and shortcomings of the solution applied are presented. There are also discussed: the natural environment protection as well as directions of the KGHM Polska Miedz S.A. plants modernisation.

Jan 1, 1999