Steam exhaust ports are located around a perimeter of a direct chill casting pit, at various locations from below the top of the pit to the pit bottom to rapidly remove steam from the casting pit with addition of dry excess air. Gas introduction ports are also located around a perimeter of the casting pit and configured to introduce an inert gas into the casting pit interior.

A method for producing a metal film from an over 50% nickel alloy melts more than one ton of the alloy in a furnace, followed by VOD or VLF system treatment, then pouring off to form a pre-product, followed by re-melting by VAR and/or ESU. The pre-product is annealed 1-300 hours between 800 and 1350 C. under air or protection gas, then hot-formed between 1300 and 600 C., such that the pre-product then has 1-100 mm thickness after the forming and is not recrystallized, recovered, and/or (dynamically) recrystallized having a grain size below 300 m. The pre-product is pickled, then cold-formed to produce a film having 10-600 m end thickness and a deformation ratio greater than 90%. The film is cut into 5-300 mm strips, annealed 1 second to 5 hours under protection gas between 600 and 1200 C. in a continuous furnace, then recrystallized to have a high cubic texture proportion.

Described herein are novel aluminum containing alloys. The alloys are highly formable and can be used for producing highly shaped aluminum products, including bottles and cans.

A process for producing metal ingots includes the steps of: a) filling at least one ingot mould at a filling temperature with at least one metal charge in the solid state, which has a melting temperature higher than ambient temperature, b) melting the metal charge by heating the ingot mould to a heating temperature higher than or equal to the melting temperature of the metal charge, c) solidifying the molten metal charge into an ingot by cooling the ingot mould to a cooling temperature lower than the melting temperature of the metal charge and higher than the ambient temperature, d) extracting the ingot from the ingot mould at an extraction temperature, and e) repeating steps a) to d). At steady state, both the filling temperature and the extraction temperature are lower than or equal to the cooling temperature and higher than the ambient temperature.

The present disclosure provides a nickel-containing high-toughness controllably degradable magnesium alloy material, a preparation method therefor and use thereof, and relates to the technical field of magnesium alloys. The magnesium alloy material comprises the following components in percentage by mass: 0.3 to 8.5% of Ni, 0.5 to 28% of RE, with the balance being Mg and unavoidable impurities. RE represents rare earth elements. By adding Ni and RE elements to introduce an Mg.sub.12RENi-type long-period phase, an Mg.sub.2Ni phase and an Mg.sub.xRE.sub.y phase, the magnesium alloy material provided by the present disclosure significantly improves mechanical properties of the alloy material, the tensile strength being up to 510 MPa. At the same time, the presence of the Mg.sub.12RENi-type long-period phase and Mg.sub.2Ni phase enables the alloy material to be controllably degradable, and enables the degradation rate to be adjustable between 360 and 2400 mm/a. Downhole fracturing tools manufactured by using the magnesium alloy alleviates the technical problem existing in current downhole tools and satisfy the requirements in the field of oil and gas exploitation.

In various embodiments, three-dimensional layered metallic parts are substantially free of gaps between successive layers, are substantially free of cracks, and have densities no less than 97% of the theoretical density of the metallic material.

The present invention discloses a method for producing high-purity magnesium by semi-continuous distillation, comprising the following steps of: (1) melting crude magnesium or recycled mixed metal containing magnesium containing various impurities in a melting boiler; (2) feeding the molten crude magnesium into a second boiler by a magnesium liquid delivery pump, and maintaining a temperature of 665 C. to 700 C.; (3) sucking the high-temperature magnesium liquid into a crude distillation column in vacuum by a magnetic liquid suction pipe that is inserted into the intermediate boiler and connected to the crude distillation column. Magnesium is condensed into liquid in the rectification column, then discharged from a liquid seal of the rectification column, and ingoted in a refined magnesium die to obtain high-purity magnesium products.

In the technical field of metal melting, a unisource high-strength ultrasound-assisted method for casting large-specification 2XXX series aluminum alloy round ingots applies in an ingot guiding process, a unisource high-strength ultrasonic vibration system to the center of a hot-top crystallizer, ultrasound directly acts on the center position of a crystallizer, and enough ultrasonic field energy is provided for a melt by controlling the power of the ultrasonic vibration system, so that an aluminum alloy solidification process is implemented under the effect of ultrasound, homogenization of microstructures and components of ingots is promoted, and the existing problems that microstructures are thick and crystal phases are enriched due to slow cooling of centers of large-specification round ingots are effectively solved, meanwhile, the problems of great operation difficulty and heavy workload during multisource ultrasonic coupling are avoided.

An aluminum-iron alloy for casting includes aluminum, iron, silicon, and niobium present in the aluminum-iron alloy in an amount according to formula (I): (Al.sub.3Fe.sub.2Si).sub.1-x+x Nb, wherein x is from 0.25 parts by weight to 2.5 parts by weight based on 100 parts by weight of the aluminum-iron alloy. A method of forming a component including forming the aluminum-iron alloy is also described.

The invention relates to metallurgical production, and more particularly to preparing a charge ingot which is used for producing bronze ingots by casting. As a starting charge material, a spent inert anode previously used in the electrolytic production of aluminium is utilised, that is covered with alumina, allowing same to react with a bath which flows out of the anode during a thermal treatment performed at a temperature within a range of 950-1200 C., followed by soaking in a furnace for at least 3 days. The invention makes it possible to obtain a charge ingot with a minimal electrolyte content.