Patent ID: 8176966

Claim:
A process for producing a copper alloy material from a copper alloy of a precipitation hardening type, comprising the steps of: placing at least one element source to include at least either one of Ni or Co, and Si selected from the group consisting of Ni, Co, Si, a Ni—Cu mother alloy, a Co—Cu mother alloy, an Si—Cu mother alloy, a Ni—Si—Cu mother alloy, a Co—Si—Cu mother alloy, a Ni—Si mother alloy, a Co—Si mother alloy, a Ni—Co—Si mother alloy, and combinations thereof into a high density melting furnace of a tilting type or of a pressure pouring type, melting said at least one element source in the high density melting furnace, under a heat of mixing the same, thereby forming a high density melt containing said at least either one of Ni or Co, and Si, at a high density; wherein the high density melt has a content of Ni, Co, or a total of Ni and Co of 80 mass % or lower and has a content of Si of between 0.2 and 0.4 times the content of Ni, Co, or the total of Ni and Co; placing pure copper into another melting furnace to provide a molten pure copper therein; pouring the high density melt from the high density melting furnace into the molten pure copper in said another melting furnace to form the copper alloy of a precipitation hardening type which is molten and has a given composition at given concentrations of elements; and subjecting the thus-formed molten copper alloy to continuous casting-and-rolling with a movable casting mold of a belt-and-wheel type or of a twin-belt type or casting into a slab or billet thereof with a vertical continuous casting apparatus to solidify the copper alloy material, wherein an amount of the molten copper alloy is monitored at a measuring spout having a weir provided at a downstream side of the high density melting furnace to control an amount of the high density melt to be poured into the molten pure copper based on: (A) a feed back of an amount of the molten copper alloy passing through the measuring spout calculated from an amount of the molten copper alloy in the measuring spout with respect to a predetermined relationship between a tilting angle of the high density melting furnace of a tilting type and the amount to be poured such that a predetermined amount of the high density melt would be continuously added into the molten pure copper, or (B) a feed back of an amount of the molten copper alloy passing through the measuring spout calculated from an amount of the molten copper alloy in the measuring spout with respect to a predetermined relationship between an injection volume of a pressurized gas to the high density melting furnace of a pressure pouring type and the amount to be poured such that a predetermined amount of the high density melt would be continuously added into the molten pure copper.