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Article: Melting and heat treating metals using microwave heating: the Oak Ridge Y-12 National Security Complex (NSC) has developed and applied microwave metal processing techniques to a wide variety of metals and-alloys. Several emerging metalworking technologies are discussed in this article.(Melting/Forming/Joining)
- Article from:
- Industrial Heating
- Article date:
- May 1, 2005
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2005 BNP Media. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Melting and casting metals using microwave energy has been done at Y-12 National Security Complex (NSC) for over a decade. The technology has emerged from a lab-scale curiosity to a production scale process, and recently was licensed to several companies for commercial use. Metals that have been melted and cast include steels, titanium, zirconium, uranium, copper, brass, bronze, aluminum, and many other metals and alloy systems. Melt sizes range from a few pounds to more than 750 lb (few kg to 350+ kg). The potential of this technology is huge with possible scale-up.
Bulk metals do not readily couple directly with microwave energy at room temperature because they ...