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Patented Feb. 18, 193E _ UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE PROCESS FOR THE PRODUCTION OF AL ' ' LOYS OF THE ‘EARTH METALS WITH LEAD OR OTHER METALS I ‘Gustaf?ewton Kirsebom, Oslo, Norway, assignor to Calloy limited, London, England, an English . joint-stock company -' . No Drawing. Application December 22, 1932, snug: No. 648,443. \In Great Britain June 11, 9 Claims. (Cl. 75—1) This'invention irelatesto a new or improved pounds of the alkaline earth metals, fox-example method of process for the production of alkaline from the alkaline earth metal silicates. earth metals and alloys thereof with lead or other . In the process as set out above it must be v_ metals such as are hereinafter de?ned. understood that the term.“alkaline earth metals" I ere are certainmetals, especially lead, and includes not only calcium, strontium and barium, ' cadmium which do not readily alloy with alu but also magnesium and beryllium. minium when both are in a molten condition and Where cadmium is employed in place of lead v in the presence of each other, e. g., when molten the procedure is similar and when‘ the alloy of lead is added to a bath of molten aluminium (or cadmium with the alkaline earth metal has been .10 whenlead and aluminium are melted together) formed-on completion of the process-the cad 10 . these two metals will not form an alloy but will mium can be distilled off so that the process af form separate layers which are not substantially fords a ready means of preparing the alkaline ' soluble in each other; and this I utilize in the earth metals in substantially pure condition. process according to the present invention for Broadly stated therefore the present invention 15 the production of alloys of the alkalineearth is for a process for preparing the alkaline earth 15 metals with lead or cadmium or other metals of ‘metals and alloys thereof, which process com~ the kind which do not readily alloy withalumin prises the steps ‘of mixing together in the molten . ium. ‘ vcondition a metal which does not readily form an. In my co-pending application for U. S. Patent alloy with aluminium and an alloy with alumin 20 Serial No. '620,574~?led 2nd July, 1932, I have ium of the said alkaline earth metal or metals .20 . described a process for producing alloys of the and allowing the ‘melt to form into two, layers and alkaline earth metals with aluminium (e. g. cal separating the aluminium. ' . cium-aluminium alloy, strontium-aluminium al According to a further feature of my present ‘loy, etc.) by the reduction of compounds of alka invention the alkaline earth metals can be sep 25 line earth metals by aluminium and the pro arated from'the metal (e. g. lead or cadmium) 25 duction thereby of said alloys of aluminium; such ‘which does not readily alloywith aluminium as process being carried out by introducing one or ‘aforesaid; and this separation can be effected more compounds of the alkaline earth”metals in by the step of volatilizing off the volatile. metal pieces not less thanabout 1 mm. size into a bath from the alloy containing it whereby the alkaline 30 of molten aluminium thereby to reduce said com- . earth metal remains alone; and pure alkaline 30. pound or compounds and alloy said alkaline earth ‘ earth metal can thus be obtained. metal or metals with the aluminium. The invention will now be more speci?cally Now the. present invention is as f.o1l0wsi—- ‘ described with the aid of examples. \ I have found that alloys of the alkaline earth‘ In the case of lead:-— . 35 metals with lead and cadmium (or with other 3 (a) The aluminium alone may ?rst be placed 35 ' ' . metals which latter do ,not themselves readily in the heating chamber and melted; and after the alloy with aluminium under the conditions above alkaline earth metal oxides in pieces or lumps _ referred to) can be produced, readily and eco have been placed on the bath of molten alumin nomically by reducing a ‘compound of an alkaline ium and reduced and an alloypof alkaline earth 40 earth metal in a bath of molten aluminium (e. g‘. metal or metals and aluminium has thereby been 40 in the manner hereinbefore referred ' to) and, formed as aforesaid; thereupon lead in a molten either before, during, or after, introducing said ‘condition (or otherwise) is introduced into said compound of the alkaline earth metals into said bath of‘ molten aluminium alloy through which bath of molten aluminium, admixing or otherwise latter the lead will descend and settle below’... 45 bringing-lead or cadmium‘?or other such metal ‘ same in the-heating chamber; or-*- - ' as aforesaid) in a molten condition into contact (b) ,The lead and aluminium may be, néatea with the molten aluminium alloy whereupon the (melted) together in a suitable heating chamber - alkaline earth metal leaves the aluminium and .or the lead may be heated (melted) ?rst and goes to the lead' or cadmium (or other such metal then ‘the aluminium; and thereafter the alkaline to as aforesaid) ‘and alloys with the lead (or other earth metal oxides in other than powder form, 50 such metal .as aforesaid). } ' ' 1. e. in pieces or lumps, introduced by placing It is to. be understood that'the alkaline earth ' said pieces or lumps on top of the molten alu (metals can be prepared-by they process of the , minium. ‘ present invention-not only from the alkaline ‘whereupon, whichever procedure is followed,‘ 65 earthv metal oxides but ‘also from other com itwillbefoundthatthealkalineearthmetal 2 2,031,486 or metals in the aluminium will have left the molten alloy and allowed to settle therethrough. latter and gone into the lead and in alloy there This enables the process to be carried out in one with. operation. (0) Or an alkaline earth metal alloy of alu I have carried out this operation in a graph minium may be melted down and molten lead ite crucible which was heated in a furnace of added' to the melt and thereupon the lead will usual type to the desired temperatures. extract the alkaline earth metal from the alu Any suitable type of furnace can be used for minium thus forming an alkaline earth metal the operation. alloy with the lead, which latter will sink to the I have found that a great recovery of the alka 10 bottom leaving the aluminium on top of the bath line earth metal or metals was obtained in the 10 substantially free from alkaline earth metal. lead, inthe case of extracting calcium from cal For example, I have in this way melted down cium-aluminium alloy by means of lead, viz. as a calcium aluminium alloy containing 10% cal much as ‘90% of the calcium went into the cium, viz. I have melted same at about 700-l000° lead, while not a trace of calcium was found in 15 C.; and, after having melted some lead at about the remaining aluminium. 15 350° C. I have added this molten lead to the I have further found that it is possible tov get alloy bath; and on pouring out this melt I found higher percentages of the alkaline earth metal that after cooling, there were present two differ into the lead by passing the total amount of the ent layers the top one consisting of substantially lead (or other such metal) to be passed once 20 pure aluminium and the bottom layer of lead (or more than once if desired) through the bath 20 containing 6.5% Ca and containing but small of molten aluminium alloy slowly and yell dis traces of ‘aluminium. tributed throughout the bath in order to obtain In a similar manner I have made strontium a better contact of the metals. lead from strontium-aluminium alloy by pour v25 A convenient way of securing good distribution ing molten lead over the molten strontium-alu of the lead throughout the bath is to add the 25 minium alloy, and in this way obtained a stron lead in granulated form to the molten bath. tium lead of a crystalline structure and analyz Furthermore (as aforesaid) the production of ing 5.3% strontium. the aluminium alloy is not confined to oxides of In a similar way I have produced barium the alkaline earth metals as starting materials 30 lead containing 3% barium. but other compounds may be used and in par 30 Similarly magnesium was introduced into lead ticular silicates. Thus if burnt magnesite rich from a magnesium-aluminium alloy containing in silica (l6 per'cent) is used, an aluminium up to 5% Mg; and a magnesium lead alloy ob magnesium-silicon alloy is produced. In the tained running up to 2% Mg. same way other alkaline earth silicates produce Also beryllium has been obtained in the lead the triple alloy of aluminium silicon and alka 35 or cadmium in this way. line earth metal. When this triple alloy is treat In the case of beryllium; the following is an ed with lead or cadmium the alkaline earth sili example of carrying my present invention into cide in the alloy is broken up, the alkaline earth practice:— metal going to the lead or cadmium and the sili To a molten bath of aluminium heated to about con remaining with the aluminium. 40 1100° C. I add thereto natural beryl (in lumps Where cadmium is employed in place of lead or pieces) which is a mineral consisting of a the temperature of the aluminium alloy bath is beryllium aluminium silicate with a formula lowered, for example, to 700°-800° C.