Zrclad Zirconium-Uranium Alloy Rod for Heat Thru-Put Test Page: 5
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5
Equ:pmeat Used
• *
• • •
The furnace charge was bottom poured by lifting a tboria stopper
rod which plugged a la;>oed hole la the crucible bottom.
Melting sad Diffuaing Furnace
The tapered bottoms required that a special pedestal be used to
support the crucible. These were machined from sir coala brick sad were
lined with a si ip-cast tboria funnel. The lower end of the funnel was fitted
into the mold and formed a hot top tor the casting when filled with metal.
The mold beater consisted of a 1-9/16" inside diameter alumina
tube wound with 25 feet of 0.030” platinum wire. This was placed inside s
fused silica tube which supported the melting sone assembly. Magnesia
spacer plates were machined to interlock with the various parts of the up-
per and lower assembly, holding them rigidly in place. Magnesia plates
were also used to insulate the mold heater from the water cooled pedestal
is the vacuum clumber. Power was supplied to the mold heater by a 20 amp
220 volt variable transformer through copper rods extruding through rubber
glands in the lower vacuum chamber cover. The heater would stand about
The melting sone of the furnace was hosted by induction to a
0.025" thick tantalum boater around the crucible. Two split cylinders of
0.005" molybdenum were placed concentrically around the heater. These
reflected the heat back town rd the heating none and kept the Vycor tube well
below its softening temperature, which was about 050*C. Thia furnace was
found to be as efficient heating arrangement. Nine kilowatts motor-generator
output heated the crucible and charge to 105O”C.
The tomace used for melting the sirconium-uranium alloy, tor
heating the mold and tor diffusion of the specimen ends and Jacket is shown
in Figure 2. The rircoaiun mold assembly is shown in Figure 3. The fur-
nace assembly was mounted on a vacuum system capable of maintaining an
indicated vacuum of between 10”* to 10“* mm Hg throughout the process.
The vacuum gauges were mounted on the vacuum chamber. Much higher
pressures would have been found in the mold heating none and at the upper
end of the furnace tube had it been possible to make measurements there.
See •*
Slip-cast tboria crucibles were used. These were spproximately
2-1/4" la diameter at the top. 1 •>/•“ is diameter at the bottom and if deep.
Each had a conical bottom tor clean drainage. Heavy walled crucibles, about
1/4 " thick, were used at first. Those were extremely susceptible to stress
crsckiag by nomstitorm heating and cooling. The wall thickness was reduced
to approximately 1/16". The thin walled crucibles, sithough fragile to handle
were found to allow high heating and cooling rates and were strong enough
to hold a full charge of metal.
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Shuck, Arthur B., 1918-. Zrclad Zirconium-Uranium Alloy Rod for Heat Thru-Put Test, report, April 17, 1952; Lemont, Illinois. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc1257374/m1/4/: accessed June 4, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.