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

这个小型企业创新研究（SBIR）第二阶段项目将投入使用一个原型/试验设施，以评估高速明确分选高温合金小碎片的技术和商业可行性。Spectramet技术是一种平台光电制造技术，用于以以前无法实现的精度和高速分析金属和合金成已知合金，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技术的一个部分专注于分选有价值的超级合金，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。这项技术的更广泛的影响/商业潜力将减少在美国降级为劣质产品用途和应用的战略超合金金属的数量，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，因此它可以再次用作制造新超合金零件的超合金原料。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，因为二次冶炼消耗的能源比初级生产少得多。

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project will put into service a prototype/pilot facility to assess the technical and commercial feasibility of unambiguously sorting small chips of super-alloys at high speeds. Spectramet Technology is a platform optoelectronic manufacturing technology for analyzing metals and 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 super-alloys such as nickel-, cobalt-, and titanium based metals. This proposal is aims 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 broader impact/commercial potential from this technology will be reducing the amount of strategic super-alloy 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, so it can be used again as super-alloy feedstock for making new super-alloy 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.