Eco-design and Practice of Multiplicity Rare Earth Tungsten Electrodes and Thoriated Tungsten Electrodes
YANG Kun1,2,3, CHEN Wenjuan2,3,*, YANG Jiancan2,3, GAO Feng2,3, GONG Xianzheng2,3,LIU Yu2,3, SUN Boxue2,3
1 China Automotive Engineering Research Institute Co., Ltd., Chongqing 401120, China 2 College of Materials Science and Engineering, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing 100124, China 3 National Engineering Laboratory for Industrial Big-data Application Technology, Beijing 100124, China
Abstract: Tungsten electrode materials are indispensable functional materials in machinery, nuclear power, aerospace and other industries, and are used in processes such as tungsten inert gas welding and plasma cutting. Rare earth tungsten electrodes account for nearly 50% of the tungsten electrode market, in which multiplicity rare earth tungsten electrodes as the main type. In addition, the radioactive thoriated tungsten electrodes still occupy certain share. Although the multiplicity rare earth tungsten electrodes can satisfy the performance requirements of the welding industry and avoid the radioactive pollution of thoriated tungsten electrodes, the production process needs to consume valuable rare earth strategic resources, so it is necessary to measure the comprehensive advantages of the both from the perspective of ecological design. Based on the idea of life cycle assessment (LCA), the eco-design of tungsten electrode material was carried out from three factors of resources, environment and performance. This study established a multi-factor comprehensive decision-making method model based on resources-environment-performance factors and fuzzy matrix theory. The results showed that the rolling process of the multiplicity rare earth tungsten electrodes is superior to the tho-riated tungsten electrodes. Compared to thoriated tungsten electrodes rotary forging process, its environmental load reduced by 37.84%, the resource impact potential reduced by 67.4% during the production phase. The demand of welding application is better than that of thoriated tungsten electrodes, and the comprehensive performance is about 35.50% higher. Considering different eco-design methods and design factors, the ecological implementation effect of multiplicity rare earth tungsten electrodes is superior than that of thoriated tungsten electrodes in the field of tungsten inert gas welding.
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