China Nonferrous Metallurgy

The current quality inspection process of finished praseodymium and other rare-earth alloy ingots uses manual drilling method and chemical analysis method, which has defects such as long quality inspection period, high cost and serious reliance on manual experience. This paper proposes a non-destructive physical inspection method based on the technology of acoustic feature analysis, combined with the theory of sensors, signal processing and classical engineering control. Firstly, the smelting process of praseodymium alloy obtained by molten salt electrolysis is analyzed to determine that its carbon content index can be used as a classification characteristic of metal quality, and the acoustic signal can be relied on to determine the metal carbon content. Secondly, the acoustic signal of praseodymium alloy is collected when it is excited by external pulses, and the inner correlation model between the carbon content of praseodymium alloy and its acoustic signal characteristics is established by analyzing the time domain waveform of the acoustic signal. Finally, the results of the orthogonal experiments show that the time domain characteristics of the acoustic signal can better distinguish the difference between high and low carbon of praseodymium alloy.