ТНЕ REFINING OF TITANIUM BY METHOD OF ZONE RECRYSTALLIZATION IN AN ELECTRIC FIELD

The physical substantiation and an experimental study results of the application of zone recrystallization method in an electric field for the refining of titanium are presented. The elemental composition, microstructure and microhardness of the samples have been investigated. It is shown that refining process made it possible to significantly reduce the content of both metallic and gas-forming impurities. The oxygen concentration was reduced by 2.2 (from 0.033 to 0.015 wt.%), carbon – by 3.3 (from 0.01 to 0.003 wt.%), nitrogen – by 22 times (from 0.009 to 0.0004 wt.%). The purity of the obtained samples was characterized by a value of 99.95 wt.% by titanium content. The total amount of impurities had been reduced by a factor of 2.4 (from 0.12 to 0.05 wt.%).