Gas and shrinkage porosity in the cast structure can seriously impair the achievement of a fully sound weld deposit.

These are seen to have similar concentrations to other rare earth companies like the Mount Weld deposit owned by Lynas.

Thermal arc blow is not as severe as magnetic arc blow, but can still leave undesirable defects in the weld deposit.

A recent computer model for the prediction of microstructure in low-alloy steel weld deposits is modified to account for the presence of solidification-induced alloying element segregation.

This work outlines the use of an artificial neural network to model the yield and ultimate tensile strengths of weld deposits from their chemical composition, welding conditions and heat treatments.

The process of reaustenitisation in weld deposits, beginning with a microstructure of acicular ferrite and austenite, has been studied in order to enable the prediction of the reheated microstructure of welds.

Available for various grades of aluminium and stainless steel, these provide a new level of arc characteristic, achieving excellent edge wetting, shorter operating arc length and a bright weld deposit, together with reduced arc noise.

Its high carbon- and oxide content (COX) facilitates the formation of finer droplets, helps to eliminate pore formation in the weld deposit, and ensures decreased levels of silicon and microslag inclusions.

The shape of austenite grains in low-alloy steel submerged-arc weld deposits has been examined; it is found that the grain morphology can be approximated as a honeycomb of hexagonal prisms with the c-axes aligned along the major heat-flow direction.

In U.S.A. where coated filler rods are used, it is claimed that no special skill is required by the welder and that the carbon-arc process is superior when metallic arc welding does not permit the necessary control of the weld deposit.

The Mount Weld deposit is owned by ASX-listed Lynas Corporation, which raised A$450 million equity from J. P. Morgan in 2009 to fund the development of a mine and also a processing plant in Kuantan, Malaysia.