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Metal scrap packages and methods and apparatus capable of being used therewith

a technology of metal scrap and metal scrap, applied in the field of metal scrap, can solve the problems of large quantity of alloy scrap, large amount of scrap metal generated, and prior attempts to recover scrap al—li alloys have been limited to large scrap

Inactive Publication Date: 2006-02-16
PECHINEY ROLLED PRODS
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  • Summary
  • Abstract
  • Description
  • Claims
  • Application Information

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

"The present invention provides a method for recycling and incorporating metal alloys, particularly aluminum lithium alloys, of any size. The invention involves using a meltable housing that can receive and hold metal alloy scrap, which can then be quickly and efficiently loaded into a casting furnace. The meltable housing has a melting point lower than the casting temperature of the metal alloy, and can be made of a suitable material such as 3003. The invention also includes methods of recycling metal and metal packages and products formed thereby. The technical effects of the invention include improved recycling efficiency, reduced waste, and improved cost savings."

Problems solved by technology

With the large volume of products made of metal worldwide, there is inevitably an issue about what to do with the huge quantities of scrap metal that is left over after many manufacturing and machining operations.
Moreover, since many metal alloys are constantly being reengineered and developed, large quantities of alloy scrap are often generated for every pound of usable metal produced.
Furthermore prior attempts recovering scrap Al—Li alloys have been limited to large scrap that is produced during the manufacturing process at the mill, i.e., ingot heads and ingot butts.
Thus, Al—Li alloy pieces of small sizes cannot be successfully recycled at all due to these problems, and hence, often goes to waste.
However, none of the methods proposed heretofore has provided a reliable and simple mechanism that can be used in any shop or facility that enables storage and separation of particular metal alloys.

Method used

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  • Metal scrap packages and methods and apparatus capable of being used therewith
  • Metal scrap packages and methods and apparatus capable of being used therewith
  • Metal scrap packages and methods and apparatus capable of being used therewith

Examples

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example 1

Container and Method Description:

[0026] An aluminum 3003 expanded mesh sheet was formed into a rectangular basket and wired together using 6063 aluminum wire. For an Al—Li alloy furnace, a basket having dimensions of 30″×30″×60″ was produced and filled with 3000 lbs. of remnant Al—Li alloy material having size dimensions ranging from 1 to 2000 cubic inches. The package was secured using 6063 aluminum wire, and shipped to the cast house. The basket contained approximately 3000 lbs of solid remnant with a wire basket weight of about 46 lbs. In this example, the weight ratio between the 3003 basket and remnant material was 1.5% and this ratio allowed for dilution of any undesirable alloy elements such as Fe in the 3003 basket material. The filled basket was heated to a temperature of 250° F. that was suitable to off-gas any moisture or other contaminates prior to lowering into the induction furnace. A typical range for such heating could be between 100° F. and 500° F. After heating t...

example 2

[0027] According to Example 2, the following materials were prepared as set forth below: [0028] 100% virgin aluminum standard ingot (no baskets) [0029] 60% virgin aluminum ingot+40% scrap (Two 2500 lb baskets) [0030] 20% virgin aluminum ingot+80% scrap (Four 2500 lb baskets)

[0031] The material employed was aluminum mesh—2 pieces 0.125″ thick×30″×210″ to produce a form. The form was broken at the locations 70 as shown in FIG. 2 and sheets 10 were combined together using the center section 80 as a “double bottom” to provide additional strength. The basket was filled with solid scrap and compressed chips, segregated by alloy. The top of the basket 20 was closed and the edges were interwoven with the sides of the basket as shown in FIG. 4. The basket was shipped to a casting facility with the basket labeled with the name of the alloy. The basket was heated in an air furnace to above 250° F. to remove water and oils that may have been on the surface of scrap and this temperature was hel...

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Abstract

The present invention relates to a material package comprising a housing, at least one piece of scrap material contained in the housing, wherein the weight of the housing is from 1 to 5% of the weight of said scrap material, and the housing and the scrap material have melting points that are greater than about 300° F. The present invention further relates to associated methods and products employed with material packages as well as meltable housings, per se.

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION [0001] This application claims priority from U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10 / 452,194, filed Jun. 3, 2003, which was converted to provisional application prior to the filing of the instant application.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0002] 1. Technical Field of the Invention [0003] The present invention relates generally to metal scrap and associated methods, and in particular, to methods suitable for use with Al—Li alloy scrap as well as associated apparatus and products produced thereby. [0004] 2. Description of Related Art [0005] With the large volume of products made of metal worldwide, there is inevitably an issue about what to do with the huge quantities of scrap metal that is left over after many manufacturing and machining operations. The scrap metal produced from these operations varies in size from small machined chips or swarf to various sized solid remnant. Moreover, since many metal alloys are constantly being reengineered and devel...

Claims

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Application Information

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Patent Type & Authority Applications(United States)
IPC IPC(8): C22C21/00C22B21/00
CPCC22B21/0092C22B21/0069Y02P10/20
Inventor AUSTIN, L. K.
Owner PECHINEY ROLLED PRODS