Hot Rolling Thick Uranium Molybdenum Billets
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Solution Overview
Problem
Hot rolling processes fail to effectively reduce the thickness of thick cast billets of uranium molybdenum alloys, leading to material breakage and high scrap rates, making it difficult to produce suitable stock for cold rolling into foil.
Innovation Solution
Heating the uranium molybdenum alloy billet to 790° C. to 860° C. and using a combination of light, medium, and heavy rolling passes, along with annealing, to gradually reduce the thickness and produce a cold-rollable sheet, with specific temperature and reduction percentage ranges for each pass.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If standard hot rolling processes are used on thick cast billets of uranium alloyed with molybdenum, then the billets can be reduced in thickness, but the billets typically fail (break) during the hot rolling process
Solution Approach 1:
The hot rolling process is segmented into multiple passes with different reduction percentages. Light rolling passes reduce thickness by about one to two percent each, medium rolling passes reduce by about eight to twelve percent each, and heavy rolling passes reduce by about fifteen to twenty-five percent each. This segmentation allows progressive deformation without exceeding material strength limits at any single stage, preventing billet breakage while achieving overall thickness reduction.
2Ease of manufacture
If a thick billet is milled to one-tenth inch thickness for subsequent cold rolling, then the starting material for cold rolling can be obtained, but an unacceptable amount of scrap is produced
Solution Approach 1:
The hot rolling process performs preliminary thickness reduction to bring the thick cast billet down to approximately one hundred mils thickness before cold rolling. This preliminary action prepares the material for cold rolling while preserving most of the original billet mass, in contrast to milling which removes excessive material as scrap.
3Reliability
If thin castings are used as starting material for hot rolling, then billet breakage is avoided, but very large quantities of thin castings would be required to produce the amount of foil needed for commercial applications
Solution Approach 1:
The process changes the temperature parameter to enable hot rolling of thick billets. By heating the uranium molybdenum alloy to between about 790° C. to about 860° C., the material becomes more ductile and can withstand the deformation stresses of hot rolling without breaking, allowing thick billets to be processed successfully.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This method allows for the reliable production of a cold-rollable sheet from thick uranium molybdenum alloy billets, reducing scrap and enabling efficient foil production by maintaining material integrity and quality.
Implementation Method 1
heating to between about 790° C. to about 860° C. a starting billet of the uranium molybdenum alloy
Implementation Method 2
reducing the thickness of the heated starting billet to form a thinned billet by using at least one light rolling pass
Implementation Method 3
the thin strip of the uranium molybdenum alloy or the medial plate of the uranium molybdenum alloy is annealed between about 620° C. and about 640° C.
Data Source
AI summary
Disclosed herein are processes for hot rolling billets of uranium that have been alloyed with about ten weight percent molybdenum to produce cold-rollable sheets that are about one hundred mils thick. In certain embodiments, the billets have a thickness of about ⅞ inch or greater. Disclosed processes typically involve a rolling schedule that includes a light rolling pass and at least one medium rolling pass. Processes may also include reheating the rolling stock and using one or more heavy rolling passes, and may include an annealing step.