Verkhnyaya Pyshma (Sverdlovsk Region)
JSC "Uralelectromed" (an enterprise of the metallurgical complex of UMMC) has implemented its own innovative development, which makes it possible to effectively use production waste - copper seedings. From this raw material, the enterprise began to produce cathode rods (copper rod), which are used to obtain copper powder. As the head of the copper powder workshop Anton Davletshin noted, this project was implemented within the business system of the enterprise and made it possible to comprehensively solve key problems: -first, it made it possible to efficiently use the production waste of the workshop, and secondly, to reduce the cost of purchasing blanks for cathode rods, which were previously purchased from third-party organizations, "he explained.
Copper seeding is a semi-finished product more coarse fraction, which remains at the final stage of sifting copper powder. The seedings are sent to the powder products workshop, where they are used to obtain copper rods with a diameter of 12 mm and a length of 1 meter. The cathode rod manufacturing process has several stages. Initially, cylindrical briquettes are formed from the semi-finished product by pressing, then copper rods are squeezed out using hot pressing. Then they undergo a drawing operation to give the material the required hardness and the required diameter.
The project was developed and implemented by specialists from the research center of the Copper Powders Shop and the Powder Products Shop. The results of pilot tests showed high technical characteristics of the rods in terms of hardness and lack of porosity, which is important in the production of copper powders. The time for testing pilot batches of samples was six months. At the moment, the copper powder workshop of the enterprise is equipped with about 6 thousand units of copper rods of its own production, which is half of the total. Copper rods are used as cathodes in electrolysis baths, where copper powder is deposited on them during electrolysis. The service life of the cathode bar is calculated up to 5 months, depending on the grade of copper powder obtained. After a complete transition to our own cores, the economic effect will be about 1 million rubles per year.
