Patents Examined by Tima McGuthry-Banks
  • Patent number: 10450634
    Abstract: A method (101) is provided for making a scandium-containing alloy. The method includes providing a molten metal (103), and mixing the molten metal with a scandium-containing precursor (113) which undergoes thermal decomposition at the temperature of the molten metal to produce scandium oxide, thereby producing a scandium-containing alloy.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 31, 2017
    Date of Patent: October 22, 2019
    Assignee: Scandium International Mining Corporation
    Inventor: Willem P. C. Duyvesteyn
  • Patent number: 9376734
    Abstract: Provided are an extraction agent and extraction method that selectively extract and, at a low cost, recover indium from an acidic solution containing indium and zinc. The indium extraction agent comprises an amide derivative represented by general formula (I). In the formula, R1 and R2 each indicate the same or different alkyl group, R3 indicates a hydrogen atom or an alkyl group, and R4 indicates a hydrogen atom or any given group, other than an amino group, bound to the ?-carbon as an amino acid. The general formula preferably has a glycine unit, a histidine unit, a lysine unit, an aspartic acid unit, or an N-methylglycine unit. By extracting indium from an acidic solution containing indium and zinc by means of solvent extraction using the extraction agent, it is possible to selectively extract indium.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 26, 2013
    Date of Patent: June 28, 2016
    Assignees: Kyushu University, National University Corporation, SUMITOMO METAL MINING CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Masahiro Goto, Fukiko Kubota, Yuzo Baba
  • Patent number: 9096914
    Abstract: The present invention describes an advantageous and effective streamlined process for the production of iron ore pellets, the green pellets replacing the burnt pellets for covering the metallic surface in “travelling grate” furnace during the burning step, the process comprising at least some or all of the steps of grinding the iron ore; filtering the crushed iron ore; mixing the filtered iron ore with at least one binder; pelletizing the mixture; drying the green pellets; transferring the pellets to the side and bottom grids of a “travelling grate” furnace equipment and screening the burnt iron ore pellets. An optimized process for the production of iron ore pellets is provided that is innovative, efficient and economical when compared to currently known processes.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 23, 2013
    Date of Patent: August 4, 2015
    Assignee: VALE S.A.
    Inventors: Hamilton Porto Pimenta, Marcus Eduardo Emrich Botelho
  • Patent number: 8409322
    Abstract: Process for agglomerating industrial dusts comprises: kneading in a vat the dusts to be agglomerated in the presence of a first binder comprising a polymer with a molecular weight above 500,000 g/mol, which is in the form of a reverse emulsion; then adding to the vat separately, while still kneading, a second binder comprising a silicate of an alkaline metal; and finally compacting the resulting agglomerates under pressure.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 2, 2009
    Date of Patent: April 2, 2013
    Assignee: S.P.C.M. SA
    Inventors: Gilles Zakosek, Alain Senetaire
  • Patent number: 7559971
    Abstract: The invention relates to a method for removing silver from a chloride solution in a copper recovery process. According to this method, silver is removed using fine-grained copper powder and mercury. Silver removal occurs in at least two stages and mercury is fed into the solution at a certain molar ratio with regard to the silver in the solution.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 30, 2003
    Date of Patent: July 14, 2009
    Assignee: Outotec Oyj
    Inventors: Olli Hyvärinen, Marika Jyrälä
  • Patent number: 7547345
    Abstract: A liner (18) for a shaped charge (10) that utilizes a high performance powered metal mixture to achieve improved penetration depths during the perforation of a wellbore is disclosed. The high performance powdered metal mixture includes powdered tungsten and powdered metal binder. The powered metal binder may be selected from the group consisting of tantalum, molybdenum, lead, cooper and combination thereof. This mixture is compressively formed into a substantially conically shaped liner (18).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 22, 2002
    Date of Patent: June 16, 2009
    Assignee: Halliburton Energy Services, Inc.
    Inventors: David J. Leidel, James Phillip Lawson
  • Patent number: 6602322
    Abstract: An improved method and apparatus for recovering metal values from Electric Arc Furnace dust, particularly zinc and iron values, by mixing EAF dust and carbonaceous fines to form a particulate mixture; heating the mixture at a sufficient temperature and for a sufficient time to reduce and release volatile metals and alkali metals in a flue gas; collecting the released metals, and removing the metal values from the process as product.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 1, 2001
    Date of Patent: August 5, 2003
    Assignee: Midrex Technologies, Inc.
    Inventor: James M. McClelland, Jr.
  • Patent number: 6554915
    Abstract: Fairly pure metallic nickel may be efficiently dissolved in non-oxidizing acid. If the nickel includes individual pieces longer than 0.5 mm in any linear dimension, oxidizing agent is preferably added from the beginning of dissolution, while if the nickel is powdered so that no single piece has a linear dimension longer than 0.35 mm, oxidizing agent is preferably added only after most of the originally supplied nickel has been dissolved. After oxidizing agent is added, most or all of the remaining undissolved nickeliferous solid will then dissolve. The temperature of the reaction mixture of acid liquid and solid nickel preferably is room temperature at the beginning of dissolution but is raised in steps to a final value of at least 65° C. and maintained at that temperature for several hours.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 12, 2001
    Date of Patent: April 29, 2003
    Assignee: Henkel Corporation
    Inventor: David R. McCormick
  • Patent number: 6547849
    Abstract: A steel charge and slag forming material is heated in a ladle to form molten steel covered by a slag containing silicon, manganese and calcium oxides. The steel is stirred by injection of an inert gas such as argon or nitrogen to cause silicon/manganese-deoxidation and desulphurization to produce a silicon/manganese killed molten steel. Stirring of the molten steel by the inert gas injection while in contact with slag high in calcium oxide generates low free oxygen levels in the steel and desulphurization to sulphur levels below 0.009%. The slag may subsequently be thickened by lime addition to prevent reversion of sulphur back into the steel and oxygen may be injected into the steel to increase its free oxygen content to produce a steel that is readily castable in a twin roll caster.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 2, 2002
    Date of Patent: April 15, 2003
    Assignee: Nucor Corporation
    Inventors: Clay Gross, Rama Ballav Mahapatra, Walter W. Blejde, Steve Leonard Wigman
  • Patent number: 6537346
    Abstract: This invention relates to a method for preventing the ignition of molten magnesium by contacting the molten magnesium with a gaseous mixture comprising a fluorocarbon selected from the group consisting of perfluoroketones, hydrofluoroketones, and mixtures thereof.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 9, 2001
    Date of Patent: March 25, 2003
    Assignee: 3M Innovative Properties Company
    Inventors: Dean S. Milbrath, John G. Owens
  • Patent number: 6533838
    Abstract: In a process for separating impurities from a raw gallium material containing impurities, a process for refining gallium comprising progressively solidifying a raw gallium material provided in a liquid state inside a vessel while applying stirring, such that the diameter of the tubular solidification boundary gradually advances from the inner wall plane of the vessel towards the center of the vessel to reduce the diameter of the tubular solidification boundary, and separating the liquid phase remaining in the central portion of the vessel from the solidified phase before the entire raw material inside the vessel is solidified. The process above is repeated as required by using, as the raw gallium material, the solidified phase from which the liquid phase is separated. A metallic gallium favorably used for the preparation of a compound semiconductor can be obtained by analyzing the impurity concentration of the impurity-concentrated Ga separated from the solidified layer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 19, 2000
    Date of Patent: March 18, 2003
    Assignee: Dowa Mining Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Takeharu Yamamura, Hidekazu Kato, Takashi Ohgami, Kishio Tayama, Kanichi Okuda
  • Patent number: 6530971
    Abstract: A braze material and method for repairing an article, such as a gas turbine engine combustor liner formed from a nickel-base or cobalt-base superalloy. The braze material is composed of a nickel-base braze alloy that is preferably in powder form and may be dispersed in a suitable vehicle to yield a slurry, putty or solid tape. The braze alloy is formulated to be capable of withstanding the high temperature operating environment of a combustor liner, and to have a melting temperature below the grain growth or incipient melting temperature of the superalloy to be repaired. A preferred braze alloy is formed by combining at least two nickel-base powders. A suitable composition for the braze alloy is, in weight percent, about 10 to about 19 chromium, about 3 to about 10.5 cobalt, about 1.75 to about 4.9 titanium, about 0.75 to about 3.4 aluminum, about 1.25 to about 4.1 tungsten, about 1.25 to about 4.1 molybdenum, about 0.025 to about 0.225 carbon, about 0.005 to about 0.15 zirconium, about 0.50 to about 2.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 29, 2001
    Date of Patent: March 11, 2003
    Assignee: General Electric Company
    Inventors: Joel Heywood Cohen, David Edwin Budinger, James Michael Caldwell, Michael Glenn Gordon, Edward John Emilianowicz
  • Patent number: 6527826
    Abstract: A protective furnace gas for protecting a bath of magnesium in furnace equipment includes a mixture of inert gas such as nitrogen and 0.3 to 1.5% by volume of SO2, the mixture being provided in a temperature-controlled room wherein the temperature is at least 22° C. and preferably 25° to 35° C.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 24, 2000
    Date of Patent: March 4, 2003
    Assignee: TCG Unitech Aktiengesellschaft
    Inventor: Helmut Schwaiger
  • Patent number: 6524362
    Abstract: The direct reduced iron (DRI) which for at least 80 wt-% has a grain size of not more than 3 mm is melted in an electric arc furnace. The furnace contains a bath of liquid iron. During the operation of the furnace a foamy slag layer is formed on the bath and the DRI falls by gravity through at least one movable lance into the foamy slag layer on the iron bath. Preferably, the distance of the aperture of the lance to the iron bath is kept practically constant.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 17, 2000
    Date of Patent: February 25, 2003
    Assignee: Metallgesellschaft AG
    Inventors: Heinz Eichberger, Siegfried Schimo, Michael Stroeder, William Wells
  • Patent number: 6524367
    Abstract: The present is a hydrometallurgical procedure for nickel and cobalt recovery, which involves leaching with ammonia-ammonium carbonate solution of the nickel and cobalt bearing mineral material, using a tubular reactors aid mineral material is previously submitted to processes such as selective reduction, cooling, new ammonia leaching, liquid/solid separation and/or nickel and/or cobalt extraction by solvent or ion-exchange resin, allowing the recovery of all the extractable nickel and up to the 130% cobalt extraction reported by the standard ammonia-ammonium leaching.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 1, 2001
    Date of Patent: February 25, 2003
    Assignee: Centro de Investigaciones Para la Industria Minero-Metalurgcia (CIPIMM)
    Inventors: Jose Castellanos Suarez, German A. Alvarez Villanueva, Ana Maria De La Cruz Fuxa, Pilar Martin Gonzalez, Isabel Lobaina Urtafe, Oscar Perez Laurencio, Milagros Escalona Rodiguez
  • Patent number: 6524406
    Abstract: A novel shape memory alloy of Fe—Mn—Si system containing at least Fe, Mn, and Si wherein the alloy contains niobium carbide in the structure and is improved in that a sufficiently satisfactory shape memory effect is provided without carrying out a special treatment termed training.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 9, 2001
    Date of Patent: February 25, 2003
    Assignee: National Research Institute for Metals
    Inventors: Takehiko Kikuchi, Setsuo Kajiwara, Daozhi Liu, Kazuyuki Ogawa, Norio Shinya
  • Patent number: 6521017
    Abstract: An apparatus for melting a metal provided with a metal melting furnace (10) for melting a metallic raw material with a flame of an oxygen fuel burner (11) to which oxygen is supplied as a combustion assisting gas; and an oxygen supply source for supplying oxygen as a combustion assisting gas to the oxygen fuel burner (11). The metal melting furnace (10) has a preheating section (13) for preheating the metallic raw material above a melting section (12) to which the oxygen fuel burner (11) is attached and a reduced section (14) located between the melting section (12) and the preheating section (13), the reduced section having an inside diameter smaller than those of the melting section and preheating section. The oxygen supply source is a pressure swing adsorption separator (30) employing an adsorbent which adsorbs preferentially atmospheric nitrogen and supplying a low-purity oxygen having an oxygen content of 65 to 94% to the oxygen fuel burner (11).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 29, 1998
    Date of Patent: February 18, 2003
    Assignee: Nippon Sanso Corporation
    Inventors: Toshio Suwa, Yoshiteru Kikuchi, Nobuaki Kobayashi, Atsushi Inoue, Hideyuki Honda
  • Patent number: 6521018
    Abstract: An improved method of processing a nonferrous metal and alloys of said metal using a blanketing gas having a global warming potential is provided. The improvement involves reducing the global warming potential of the blanketing gas by blanketing the nonferrous metal and alloys with a gaseous mixture including at least one compound selected from the group consisting of COF2, CF3COF, (CF3)2CO, F3COF, F2C(OF)2, SO2F2, NF3, SO2ClF, SOF2, SOF4, NOF, F2 and SF4.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 9, 2001
    Date of Patent: February 18, 2003
    Assignee: Air Products and Chemicals, Inc.
    Inventors: John Peter Hobbs, James Francis Heffron, Andrew Joseph Woytek, Zbigniew Zurecki
  • Patent number: 6517605
    Abstract: A procedure for starting up a direct smelting process for producing iron from a metalliferous feed material in a metallurgical vessel is disclosed. The vessel is of the type which includes a plurality of feed material injection lances/tuyeres (11, 13). The start-up procedure includes the steps of: (a) preheating the vessel; (b) supplying a charge of molten iron to the vessel and forming a molten bath in the vessel, (c) supplying carbonaceous material and flux to the molten bath and injecting oxygen-containing gas through one or more than one feed material injection lance/tuyere and combusting carbon and bath derived gas (if present) and thereby heating the molten bath and generating slag; and (d) suppling metalliferous feed material to the vessel while continuing supply of carbonaceous material and flux and injection of oxygen-containing gas and smelting metalliferous feed material and producing molten iron and thereby completing the start-up procedure.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 7, 2000
    Date of Patent: February 11, 2003
    Assignee: Technological Resources Pty. Ltd.
    Inventors: Cecil Peter Bates, Peter Damian Burke
  • Patent number: 6511632
    Abstract: A cathode material of an electron beam device comprising 0.5 to 9.0% by weight of a rare-earth metal of the cerium group, 0.5 to 15.0% by weight of tungsten and/or rhenium, 0.5 to 10% by weight of hafnium and the balance of iridium is provided. Since the cathode material has excellent plasticity, it is easy to manufacture small-size emitters. Also, since the density of the electron emission of the cathode material is high and the working temperature is low, a long lifetime can be ensured. Also, the cathode material is useful as a cathode material of an electron beam device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 26, 2001
    Date of Patent: January 28, 2003
    Assignee: Samsung SDI Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Jong-Seo Choi, Yoon-Chang Kim, Kyu-Nam Joo, Nikolay Osaulenko, Vladislav Shutovsky, Oleg Kultashev