Patents & Pioneers | 里程碑冶金专利与行业先驱档案馆
Landmark patent families, engineering biography, and primary-source retrieval methods
里程碑专利族、工程人物志与一手文献检索方法
The shift from open-floor dross cooling to controlled-atmosphere handling, and from manual skimming to mechanical pressing, is documented in patent texts. Those texts are the most reliable primary sources available: they state what a device was claimed to do, when, and by whom — with a named applicant and a publication date.
从敞口地面冷却到受控气氛处理、从手工扒渣到机械压榨的转变，都记录在专利文本中。这些文本是最可靠的一手来源：它们载明了装置被主张实现什么、何时、由谁——且附有具名申请人与公开日。
1. Case Study: Alcan Inert Gas Dross Cooling (IGDC)
Patent Record
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Publication number | US 4,842,255 |
| Title | Dross cooling apparatus |
| Assignee | Alcan International Limited (current assignee of record: Novelis) |
| Inventors | Andris B. Innus; Michel Villeneuve |
| Filing date | 30 October 1986 (application 06/925,741) |
| Publication date | 27 June 1989 |
| Priority date | 1 November 1985 |
| Classification | F27D99/00; C22B1/005; C22B7/04; C22B21/0007; F27D15/02 |
Technical Principle
Hot dross is loaded into an open-top metal pan divided by internal partitions into compartments. The pan mass acts as a heat sink. A hood fits over the filled pan to form a substantially closed cavity, and an inert gas — argon in the described embodiment — is introduced to displace oxygen.
The purpose is stated in the patent itself: to arrest the self-propagating exothermic reaction. Uncontrolled, fine free metal particles in hot dross continue oxidising (Al + O2 → Al2O3), and the heat released propagates further metal consumption. Patent literature elsewhere gives the heat of oxidation of aluminium as 8.7 kWh per kilogram of metal — which is why uncontrolled hot dross does not cool: it generates its own heat.
Published Performance
The accompanying paper — “The Alcan process for inert gas dross cooling”, Whiteley, Innus, Pomerleau & Bouchard, JOM, February 1991, pp. 52–53 (DOI 10.1007/BF03220143) — reports:
- A one-tonne dross load cooled to below 750 °F (400 °C) in under four hours
- Approximately 60% improvement in recovered aluminium relative to dross room cooling
- Installed as a replacement for dross room cooling at an Alcan casting centre with roughly 2,000 t/a dross throughput
- Project capital cost — equipment and building — about half that of the next most favourable system evaluated
1.1 Patent Lineage: Cited Prior Art
US 4,842,255 sits in a traceable chain. The prior art cited in the patent itself:
| Patent | Year | Title / Subject | Relevance |
|---|---|---|---|
| US 4,097,027 | 1978 | Device and process for limiting surface oxidation of glowing hot metal dross | Earlier pan cooling with a water-filled moat surrounding the container |
| US 4,386,956 | 1983 | Metal recovery process from aluminium dross — Roth, Culler & Heifner; assigned to Anaconda | Wedge-shaped ram compresses dross in a matching trough; ram and tray act as heat sink, diminishing thermite losses |
| US 4,637,591 | 1987 | Dross cooler and processor — McMahon et al. | Mechanical cooling route contemporary with the Alcan filing |
Two cooling philosophies therefore run in parallel through this period: mechanical cooling (rotary drums, cooled vessels) and atmosphere control (displacing oxygen with inert gas). The Alcan patent belongs to the second.
2. Industry Pioneers
Biographical entries in this archive are factual and chronological. The institute does not issue awards, rankings or commercial endorsements. Named individuals appear because their work is documented in patent records or published proceedings, not because of any standing conferred by this site.
2.1 David J. Roth — Press Development
| Item | Record |
|---|---|
| Patent | US 4,386,956 — Metal recovery process from aluminium dross; Roth, Culler & Heifner; assigned to Anaconda Co.; filed 3 December 1980, granted 7 June 1983 |
| Principle | Compression of hot dross between a wedge-shaped ram and a matching trough; free metal drains through trough openings; the tooling acts as a heat sink to diminish thermite and oxidation losses |
| Career | Aluminium processing industry, with tenure at Alcoa, Arco Metals and approximately 25 years with Altek; subsequently founder of GPS Global Solutions (2009) |
| Publications | History and Development of Slag and Dross Pressing; Advances in Aluminium Dross Processing and Recovery Technology, TMS Light Metals Proceedings, 2003 |
| Patent count | Reported as 20 US and international patents in dross processing and scrap handling — self-reported figure; individual patent numbers to be verified before citation |
2.2 Chronology of Press Development
The published history of the technology, drawn from Roth’s TMS account:
| Period | Development |
|---|---|
| 1896 | Hot pressing first patented for the lead industry — W. H. Howard, Pueblo, Colorado. A separate 1896 patent by J. T. White established the pressing head and perforated container arrangement |
| 1977 | G. P. Ross and J. L. Bedortha, National Steel Corporation — zinc slag pressing; first patent to treat matching compression head contours to collection pan contours as the governing design variable |
| Early 1980s | First commercially marketed aluminium pressing systems — Pechiney (France) and Showa Aluminium (Japan) |
| Mid-1980s | Anaconda Aluminium developed a press internally and used it at several of its operations |
| Early 1990s | First commercially successful dross presses developed and marketed by Altek International |
| Since | Multiple manufacturers and in-house designs worldwide; pressing becomes the most widely used hot dross process in the industry |
Attribution note: the technology has a distributed origin — lead industry 1896, zinc 1977, aluminium 1980s. Claims that any single company “invented the dross press” should be read as referring to the first commercially successful aluminium implementation, not to the underlying principle.
Read the full pioneers entry →
3. Related Patent Families Worth Tracing
Additional families that mark the shift away from salt-flux processing:
| Patent | Assignee | Subject |
|---|---|---|
| US 5,421,850 | Alcan International | Salt-free recovery by plasma torch heating in a rotary furnace above 800 °C; eliminates the conventional salt bath, simplifying off-gas treatment and residue disposal. Filed 28 April 1993, issued 6 June 1995 — inventors Huni, Stevens, Lavoie & Dubé |
| US 6,159,269 | — | Controlled “thermitting”: hot dross charged directly to a preheated furnace, with measured oxygen injection supplying the heat of oxidation. Explicitly cites the Alcan inert-gas cooler as the prior alternative — noting that inert cooling preserves metal but discards the dross’s energy content |
The contrast is instructive and runs through the whole technologies section: cool and preserve versus keep hot and use the oxidation energy. Neither is universally correct; the choice depends on downstream capability and residue classification.
4. Retrieval Method
Recommended public registries for primary patent texts:
- Google Patents — broad coverage including CNIPA records, with machine translation. Useful for first-pass retrieval; searchable by assignee, inventor and classification code.
- Espacenet / EPO — best source for patent families and legal status, which is what determines whether a technology is still protected.
- WIPO Patentscope — PCT applications.
- USPTO and CNIPA — authoritative full text for US and Chinese filings respectively.
4.1 Citation Standard
Applied to every patent referenced on this site:
- Cited by publication number, applicant and publication date; inventor names included where available.
- Machine-translated claims are used for comprehension only and are never quoted as original text.
- Legal status changes over time; every entry records the date on which status was checked.
- Expired protection is not freedom to operate. A family may remain in force in other jurisdictions. This site states facts about filings; it does not give legal opinions.
4.2 Conference Literature
- TMS Light Metals — annual peer-reviewed symposia proceedings; the primary venue for dross processing papers.
- European Aluminium — publishes periodic environmental profile data for the European value chain.
- IAI — global production and emissions intensity datasets.
Verification Status
- Traced — publication number, dates and parties verified against a patent registry or the published paper.
- Self-reported — figure originates from a company or individual statement without independent confirmation; flagged inline.
- Unverified — cannot be traced to a primary source; not presented as established.
One claim commonly repeated in secondary literature — that Alcan cooler designs remain in service at specific mega-smelters — has not been confirmed against a primary source by this institute and is therefore excluded from this page pending verification. Where a plant configuration is documented, it is cited to the audit or disclosure that documents it.
中文摘要 · 专利与先驱人物档案馆
为什么以专利为据：从敞口地面冷却到受控气氛处理、从手工扒渣到机械压榨的转变，都记录在专利文本中。它们载明了装置被主张实现什么、何时、由谁，且附有具名申请人与公开日，是最可靠的一手来源。
Alcan 惰性气体铝渣冷却（IGDC）专利档案：US 4,842,255《Dross cooling apparatus》，申请人 Alcan International Limited（现著录权利人 Novelis），发明人 Andris B. Innus 与 Michel Villeneuve，申请日 1986-10-30（申请号 06/925,741），公开日 1989-06-27，优先权日 1985-11-01。
技术原理：热渣装入由内隔板分为若干敞口格腔的金属盘，盘体质量充当吸热体；装上罩体后形成基本密闭腔室，充入氩气等惰性气体置换氧气。专利自身写明目的为阻断自持放热反应——细粒自由金属持续氧化（Al + O₂ → Al₂O₃），释放的热量又推动金属继续消耗。专利文献给出铝的氧化热为 8.7 kWh/kg 金属，这正是失控热渣不会自行冷却的原因。
公开性能数据（Whiteley、Innus、Pomerleau、Bouchard，《The Alcan process for inert gas dross cooling》，JOM 1991 年 2 月，52–53 页）：1 吨铝渣在 4 小时内冷却至 750°F（400°C）以下；相对渣房冷却，回收铝提升约 60%；在某 Alcan 铸造中心替代渣房冷却，处理量约 2000 吨/年；项目总投资（设备与厂房）约为次优方案的一半。
专利谱系（US 4,842,255 自身引用的在先技术）：US 4,097,027（1978，Michel，容器外围水沟的盘式冷却）；US 4,386,956（1983，Roth、Culler、Heifner，Anaconda，楔形压头配合槽体压缩，工具充当吸热体以抑制铝热损失）；US 4,637,591（1987，McMahon 等，冷渣机与处理器）。可见两条路线并行：机械冷却（回转滚筒、冷却容器）与气氛控制（惰性气体置换氧气），Alcan 专利属后者。
David J. Roth：US 4,386,956《Metal recovery process from aluminium dross》，与 Culler、Heifner 共同发明，Anaconda Co. 为申请人，1980-12-03 申请、1983-06-07 授权。原理为楔形压头在配合槽体内压缩热渣，自由金属经槽体开孔流出，工具同时充当吸热体。职业生涯涵盖 Alcoa、Arco Metals 及约 25 年 Altek，2009 年创办 GPS Global Solutions。发表《History and Development of Slag and Dross Pressing》及 2003 年 TMS Light Metals 会议论文。其”20 项美国及国际专利”为自述数据，引用前须逐件核实。
压榨技术发展年表：1896 年热压榨首见于铅工业（W. H. Howard，科罗拉多 Pueblo），同年 J. T. White 确立压头与开孔容器结构；1977 年 G. P. Ross 与 J. L. Bedortha（National Steel）处理锌渣，首次将压头轮廓与承接盘轮廓的匹配作为关键设计变量；1980 年代初 Pechiney（法）与昭和铝（日）推出首批商用铝用压榨系统；1980 年代中期 Anaconda 内部开发并在多处使用；1990 年代初 Altek International 推出首批商业成功的压榨机；此后多家厂商与自制机型并存，压榨成为行业最常用的热渣工艺。
归属提示：该技术来源分散——铅工业 1896、锌 1977、铝 1980 年代。”某公司发明了压榨机”的说法应理解为首个商业成功的铝用实现，而非底层原理的首创。
值得追踪的相关专利族：US 5,421,850（Alcan，等离子炬在回转炉中 800°C 以上无盐回收，1993-04-28 申请、1995-06-06 授权，发明人 Huni、Stevens、Lavoie、Dubé）；US 6,159,269（受控”铝热”法：热渣直接入预热炉，计量供氧提供氧化热，明确将 Alcan 惰性气体冷却器列为在先方案，并指出惰性冷却保全金属但弃用了热渣的能量）。二者构成冷却保全与保热利用氧化能的路线对照，贯穿本站技术与工艺板块。
检索与引用规范：Google Patents（含 CNIPA 记录、机翻，适合初检）、Espacenet/EPO（查同族与法律状态最优）、WIPO Patentscope（PCT）、USPTO 与 CNIPA（美中全文权威）。引用须载明公开号、申请人、公开日，发明人可获则列；机翻权利要求仅助理解、不作原文引用；法律状态随时间变化，每条注明核查日期；保护期届满不等于可自由实施，同族可能在他国仍有效——本站只陈述申请事实，不出具法律意见。
核验状态分三级：可追溯（公开号、日期、主体经专利数据库或已发表论文核对）、自述（源自企业或个人陈述、无独立佐证，随文标注）、未证实（无法追溯一手来源，不作为既成结论呈现）。二手文献中常见的”Alcan 冷却设计仍在某某巨型铝厂服役”一说，本机构未能核对到一手来源，故在本页移除，待核实后再补；确有文献记载的工厂配置，则注明其审计报告或披露出处。