Investigation of the Production Conditions of Nickelboron Master Alloy in a DC Arc Furnace

Authors: İsmail KARACAN, Bülent ŞİRİN, Onuralp YÜCEL, Okan ADDEMİR

Abstract: Ferroboron, cobaltboron and nickelboron containing 16-18 per cent boron (by mass) are used as master alloys in the production of transformer sheets, semiconductors, soldering materials, razor blades etc. The core losses of transformers manufactured from these sheets are approximately one-third of those for the conventional ordinary grain-oriented silicon sheet. As a result, the pollution is also decreased during the production of the energy from fosil sources. In the work described, mixtures of boric acid, nickel oxide, charcoal and wood-chips were smelted in a submerged arc furnace at a power rate of 270 kVA to produce nickelboron master alloy. It was found that, the production of nickelboron containing 15.02 per cent boron, 0.018 per cent carbon and 0.2 per cent silicon was achieved with 8.32 kWh per kilogram of nickelboron alloy energy consumption. The reaction mechanism of the alloy formation was investigated during the reduction smelting.

Keywords: Nickelboron, DC Arc Furnace, Carbothermic Reduction.