First International Symposium on the Science and Technology of Ingot Niobium

1. First International Symposium on the Science and Technology of Ingot Niobium September 22th - 24, 2010 Jefferson Lab, Newport News, USA

2. CBMM worldwide presence offices and warehouses CBMM dedicates special attention to its customers, wherever they may be around the globe.

3. Production CONCENTRATION Araxá, MG REFINING STANDARD NIOBIUM OXIDE HP FERRONIOBIUM FeNb VG SPECIAL ATR NiNb VG OXIDES Nb METAL Products for Sale

4. CBMM expansion plan Expansion

5. CBMM 2nd ELECTRON BEAM FURNACE Innovate, Respect, Compete

6. CBMM ELECTRON BEAM FURNACE Electron Beam 01 Electron Beam 02 • Start up in 2003 • Capability – 150 ton/year • Power : 3 x 600 kW (3 guns) • Beam accelerating voltage: 45 kV • Start up in 1989 • Capability – 60 ton/year • Power : 2 x 250 kW (2 guns) • Beam accelerating voltage: 35 kV Innovate, Respect, Compete

7. CBMM ELECTRON BEAM FACILITIES • Ingots from 250mm to 400mm in diameter • Lengths up to 2,000mm and weigth of 2 tonnes

8. Development of High Purity Niobium Metal at CBMM CBMM has been improving continuously its refining process to attend the demanding specifications of the market, such as high purity niobium ingots for superconductive cavities. This market has been growing up and is expected to have a high tonnage consumption during the next years. For that purpose CBMM has carried out several tests in order to optimize its process between 2008 and 2010.

9. Development of High Purity Niobium Metal at CBMM 1ststep tests with feeding rate and argon:

10. Development of High Purity Niobium Metal at CBMM 2ndstep: remelting of 02 ingots Two ingots, with the best results (test 3 and test 5), of the nine ingots produced in the first step were selected to be remelted.

11. Development of High Purity Niobium Metal at CBMM 3rd step • To evaluate the influence of continous remelting in the purification of niobium metal ingots, the ingot 3 and 5 were remelted for the fifth time: • the feeding rate was kept the same in both ingots; • Argon reduction ; • Ti as a guetter • The ingot 3 presented reduction of 62% in O and 51% in N respectively and the ingot 5 presented reduction of 33% in O and no reduction of N.

12. Development of High Purity Niobium Metal at CBMM 4thstep Production of 2 ingots with low Ta content Two ingots, with lower Ta content, were produced with the best operational condition developed during the optimizing process of the tests one, two and three.

13. Development of High Purity Niobium Metal at CBMM Chemical Analysis Mechanical Properties

14. Development of High Purity Niobium Metal at CBMM GDMS To confirm if there is any residual element in niobium ingots produced by CBMM which can interfere in its quality, CBMM performed GDMS analysis of the ingots 3,5,10 and 11 after the last melting. Seventy seven elements, in each ingot, were analyzed though this technique and just three of these elements (O,N and Ta) presented values higher than 2 ppm.

15. Development of High Purity Niobium Metal at CBMM Final Remarks Aiming at producing high purity niobium metal for particular purposes, such as SRF cavities, CBMM produced special ingots under controlled processing conditions from fourth to sixth melt. As a result, high purity niobium ingots with oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen and carbon contents lower than 10 ppm were obtained in most of the ingots. Considering these results CBMM confirm the high quality of its niobium metal and conclude that this material can be used as a mother material for special applications, such as SRF cavities, preventing from excessive extra work such as further remelting and thermomechanical processing

16. Thank You!