SBIR Phase I: A Fundamentally New X-ray Driven Manufacturing System for Recycling Materials

这项小型企业创新研究（SBIR）第一阶段的研究开发了一种高速明确分类高温合金小芯片的方法。Spectramet技术是一种平台光电制造技术，用于分析富铜、富铝、富锌、钴和富镍合金，以前所未有的精度和高速分析已知合金，以满足冶炼厂的规格。该技术平台不仅旨在将合金分类为基本金属组，而且还可以按合金类型对合金进行分类。Spectramet技术的一部分专注于分选有价值的高温合金，如镍，钴和钛基金属。该提案旨在通过一种全新的创新传感器方法来扩展现有技术，以处理先前应用的千分之一大小的颗粒，并以比以往快数千倍的速度识别和分选这些颗粒。该项目将专注于从高温合金废料中分选干净的机器碎片，并在颗粒的基础上进行100%的检查，识别和分选。在重新使用之前，将去除使碎片无法回收到原始合金中的污染物。 这项研究的更广泛影响将是减少在美国降级为劣质产品用途和应用的战略高温合金金属的数量，以便这种非常有价值的废金属可以回收到其最高价值的应用中，即它可以再次用作制造新高温合金零件的高温合金原料。回收这种材料而不是将其降级为低价值应用的结果将减少美国对初级精炼厂从矿石中回收的战略原生金属供应的依赖（其中大部分是从国外购买的），使用废料而不是矿石和原生材料节省大量能源，并大大减少排放，因为二次熔炼消耗的能源比初级生产少得多，然后再熔炼。

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I research develops a method of unambiguously sorting small chips of superalloys at high speeds. Spectramet Technology is a platform optoelectronic manufacturing technology for analyzing copper-rich, aluminum-rich, zinc-rich, cobalt and nickel-rich alloys at previously unachievable accuracy and high speeds into known alloys to meet smelter specifications. The technology platform is not only aimed at sorting alloys into base metal groups, but can also sort the alloys by alloy type. One part of the Spectramet Technology focuses on sorting valuable superalloys such as nickel-, cobalt-, and titanium based metals. This proposal is aimed at extending the existing technology with an entirely new innovative sensor approach to process particles one-thousandth the size of prior applications and to identifying and sorting those particles at speeds thousands of times faster than has ever been done before. The project will focus on sorting clean machine chips from superalloy scrap with 100% inspection, identification and sorting on a particle-by-particle basis. Contaminants that would make the chips unusable for recycling into the original alloy will be removed prior to reuse. The broader impact of this research will be to reduce the amount of strategic superalloy metal that is downgraded to inferior product uses and applications in the U.S. so that this very valuable scrap metal can be recycled into its highest value application, namely so it can be used again as superalloy feedstock for making new superalloy parts. The result of recycling this material rather than downgrading it to lower value applications will be reduced U.S. dependence on supplies of strategic virgin metals recovered at primary refineries from ore (most of which are purchased abroad), substantial energy savings from use of scrap rather than ore and virgin materials, and greatly reduced emissions because secondary smelting consumes much less energy than primary production followed by remelting.