Patent ID: 7524356

Claim:
A method for continuously manufacturing a wire composed of a low-oxygen copper alloy containing silver, comprising: a step of preparing a starting material for low-oxygen copper; a step of melting the starting material by combustion in a reducing atmosphere in a melting furnace so as to produce molten copper; a step of sealing the molten copper in a non-oxidizing atmosphere in a substantially horizontally extending casting trough; a step of transferring the molten copper to a tundish by using the casting trough; a degassing step of passing the molten copper through the casting trough so as to dehydrogenate the molten copper, wherein the casting trough has a plurality of dikes; a step of adding silver to the dehydrogenated molten copper such that the content of silver in the molten copper is 0.005 to 0.2 wt %, wherein the dehydrogenated molten copper is controlled to 1 to 10 ppm in oxygen content, and 1 ppm or less in hydrogen content; a step of feeding the molten copper with the added silver to a belt caster type continuous casting machine so as to continuously produce a cast copper alloy; and a step of rolling the cast copper alloy so as to manufacture the wire composed of the low-oxygen copper alloy.