Preparation method of high-strength ultrahigh-conductivity copper alloy
Technical Field
The invention relates to the technical field of alloy preparation, in particular to a preparation method of a high-strength ultrahigh-conductivity copper alloy.
Background
The contact reed materials of the relay used at home and abroad at present are roughly divided into two types, one is a noble metal material, such as silver-magnesium-nickel alloy, and the contact reed material has the characteristics of good electric conduction and heat conduction performance and strong electric arc resistance, can be used as a contact material after being plated with gold on the surface, and has smaller contact resistance under the action of small pressure. However, silver-magnesium-nickel alloys have low strength and elastic modulus and are expensive, and the use of the alloys is restricted by the inherent defects, and the other kind of alloys is copper-based alloys represented by beryllium bronze. The beryllium bronze alloy has high strength, elasticity, hardness, wear resistance, fatigue resistance and excellent electrical property, and is an ideal reed material for relays. However, the alloy contains a highly toxic substance beryllium, and the elasticity and strength of the material are sharply reduced under the environment of more than 120 ℃, so that the arc extinguishing capability and the counter force characteristic of the relay in the working state are changed, and the relay fails to work.
An invention patent with a patent application publication number of CN 101333610B discloses a CuNiSi series elastic copper alloy with ultrahigh strength and high conductivity and a preparation method thereof, and the composition of the alloy is as follows (weight percentage): ni: 6.4-8.2 wt%; si: 1.2-1.8 wt%; sn: 0.3-0.5 wt%; mg: 0.1-0.2 wt%; zr: 0.1-0.2 wt%; the balance being Cu; the preparation method comprises the following steps: (1) carrying out non-vacuum secondary remelting on CuNiSi and carrying out ingot casting; (2) homogenizing and hot rolling; (3) double-stage solution treatment; (4) cold rolling; (5) and (5) aging treatment. The invention has the advantages of reasonable alloy components, high alloying degree, simple production process, convenient operation, low production cost, high alloy strength, high conductivity and good stress relaxation resistance, can realize the preparation of large-size billets and the high Ni and Si contents in the prepared target alloy system.
However, the above-mentioned device still has some disadvantages in actual use, and what is more obvious is that in the processes of casting metal raw materials and casting ingot blanks, the metal raw materials or ingot blanks in the casting process are not stirred, so that the metal raw materials or ingot blanks cannot be heated uniformly in the casting process, and further the metal raw materials and the ingot blanks need to be heated for a longer time in order to ensure the casting effect, and such overheating can reduce the overall preparation efficiency of the alloy while causing the waste of electric energy.
Meanwhile, in the subsequent process of inputting nitrogen for protection, the energy generated in nitrogen input cannot be utilized, and further resource waste is caused.
Therefore, it is necessary to invent a method for preparing a high-strength ultra-high-conductivity copper alloy to solve the above problems.
Disclosure of Invention
The invention aims to provide a preparation method of a high-strength ultrahigh-conductivity copper alloy, which aims to solve the problems in the background technology.
In order to achieve the purpose, the invention provides the following technical scheme: a preparation method of a high-strength and ultrahigh-conductivity copper alloy is realized by using preparation equipment, wherein the preparation equipment comprises a furnace body, a nitrogen purification mechanism is fixedly arranged at the bottom of an inner cavity of the furnace body, a crucible bearing mechanism is rotatably arranged at the top of the nitrogen purification mechanism, crucible fixing mechanisms are fixedly arranged on two sides of the top of the crucible bearing mechanism, crucible components are arranged at the center of the top of the crucible bearing mechanism, the two crucible components fix the crucible fixing mechanisms, a plurality of heating pipes are arranged on the rear side of the crucible components, the plurality of heating pipes are fixedly arranged on the inner wall of the furnace body, an annular transmission mechanism is sleeved on the outer side of the crucible bearing mechanism and is rotatably connected with the inner wall of the furnace body through bearings, a repeated pressing mechanism is fixedly arranged at the top of the annular transmission mechanism, and a lifting stirring mechanism is arranged on the repeated pressing mechanism, lifting stirring mechanism and furnace body inner wall fixed connection, deposit the inside charcoal of calcining of drawer among the nitrogen purification mechanism and carry out purification treatment to external nitrogen gas after, nitrogen gas enters into the hollow disc among the crucible bearing mechanism to promote respectively hollow disc and the sliding plate among the crucible fixing mechanism, make crucible bearing mechanism drive the whole rotatory while of crucible subassembly, make the locating pin among the crucible fixing mechanism fix the crucible subassembly, extension plate among the annular drive mechanism drives repeated pressing mechanism synchronous revolution when being blown by nitrogen gas, annular briquetting among the repeated pressing mechanism is inside the crucible body of impressing the puddler among the lifting stirring mechanism to the crucible subassembly at rotatory in-process, makes the inside metal raw materials of crucible body stirred.
Preferably, nitrogen gas purification mechanism includes lower seal plate, upper seal plate, deposits drawer, filter screen, sealing door, nitrogen gas input tube and nitrogen gas output tube, lower seal plate and upper seal plate are all fixed to be set up in furnace body inner chamber bottom, and the upper seal plate is located lower seal plate top, deposit the drawer and slide and set up in lower seal plate top, the filter screen is fixed to be set up in depositing the inboard bottom of drawer, the sealing door is fixed to be set up in depositing the drawer left end, and the sealing door is located the furnace body outside, the nitrogen gas input tube runs through the sealing door and deposits the drawer left side wall and extend to depositing drawer inner chamber bottom, and nitrogen gas input tube and sealing door fixed connection, the nitrogen gas output tube passes through rotary joint and rotates and set up in upper seal plate top center department.
Preferably, the crucible bears the weight of the mechanism and includes hollow disc, extension casing, blast pipe and standing groove, hollow disc passes through rotary joint and rotates and set up in nitrogen gas output tube top, it all is provided with a plurality ofly, a plurality of to extend casing even fixed nestedly setting up in the hollow disc outside, a plurality of the blast pipe is fixed nestedly setting up respectively in a plurality of extension casing sides, the standing groove is seted up in hollow disc top center department.
Preferably, crucible fixed establishment includes position sleeve, fixed block, gas passage, spout, locating pin, sliding plate and first spring, the fixed crucible base side that sets up in the crucible subassembly of position sleeve, the fixed nested setting in hollow disc top of fixed block, gas passage and spout are all seted up inside the fixed block, and gas passage and spout intercommunication, the locating pin is located inside the spout, and its left end runs through the spout inner wall and extend to the fixed block outside, slide on the sliding plate horizontal direction and set up inside the spout, and with locating pin right-hand member fixed connection, first spring cup joints and sets up in the locating pin outside, and its one end and the laminating of spout inner wall to and the other end and the laminating of sliding plate.
Preferably, the crucible assembly comprises a crucible body and a crucible base, the crucible base is fixedly arranged at the bottom of the crucible body, and the crucible base is located inside the placing groove.
Preferably, the annular transmission mechanism comprises an annular rotating plate and a plurality of extending plates, the annular rotating plate is rotatably connected with the inner wall of the furnace body through a bearing, and the plurality of extending plates are fixedly arranged on the inner side of the annular rotating plate.
Preferably, all repeated pressing means include annular rotary disk, connecting rod and annular briquetting, the connecting rod is provided with a plurality ofly, and is a plurality of the even fixed setting of connecting rod is in the annular rotary disk outside, and is a plurality of the annular rotary disk respectively with a plurality of extension board fixed connection, annular briquetting is fixed to be set up in annular rotary disk bottom, and annular briquetting bottom is provided with continuous ripple face.
Preferably, all lift rabbling mechanisms are including installation piece, dead lever, puddler, elevator and second spring, dead lever fixed set up in installation piece right side, dead lever and furnace body inner wall fixed connection, run through the installation piece and with installation piece sliding connection in the vertical direction of puddler, the elevator regulation sets up in the puddler top, the second spring cup joints and sets up in the puddler outside, and second spring bottom and installation piece contact to and second spring top and elevator contact.
Preferably, the method specifically comprises the following steps:
s1, adding the dried electrolytic copper, nickel, silicon and tin into the crucible body through the front feeding port of the furnace body, then drawing out the storage drawer, simultaneously adding calcined charcoal into the storage drawer, starting the heating pipe, inputting nitrogen into the storage drawer through the nitrogen input pipe, heating the crucible body after the heating pipe is started, further melting the metal raw material in the crucible body, simultaneously leading the nitrogen in the storage drawer to pass through the filter screen to be contacted with the calcined charcoal, leading a small amount of oxygen in the nitrogen to be contacted with the calcined charcoal and then to be combusted, leading the nitrogen to enter the hollow disc through the nitrogen output pipe and then to be sprayed out through the exhaust pipe, when the nitrogen is sprayed out from the exhaust pipe, driving the crucible body to rotate by taking the nitrogen output pipe as the axis under the thrust action of the nitrogen spraying, and simultaneously pushing the extension plate by the sprayed nitrogen, the extension plate drives the repeated pressing mechanism to integrally rotate through the annular rotating plate, the annular pressing block in the repeated pressing mechanism repeatedly presses down the lifting block due to the arrangement of the continuous corrugated surface at the bottom of the annular pressing block, the lifting block is continuously reset under the pushing of the second spring, and then the stirring rod is continuously and repeatedly inserted into the crucible body and pulled out of the crucible body;
s2, after impurities on the surface of the ingot blank are milled, the operation is repeated, the ingot blank is placed in the crucible body, heating is carried out again, after the ingot blank is melted, zirconium is added in a copper-zirconium intermediate alloy mode, magnesium is added in a copper-magnesium alloy mode, a CuNiSiSnMgZr alloy melt is formed after uniform melting, and the CuNiSiSnMgZr alloy melt is cast into a cast ingot;
s3, milling surface defects of the cast ingot, homogenizing in a hydrogen protection furnace, and carrying out hot rolling to obtain a hot-rolled plate blank;
s4, carrying out solid solution treatment on the hot rolled plate blank in a hydrogen protection furnace, then carrying out water quenching treatment, and finally carrying out surface milling treatment on the hot rolled plate blank subjected to water quenching to mill off the surface element-removed layer;
s5, performing cold rolling treatment on the hot rolled plate blank prepared in the step to prepare a cold rolled plate;
and S6, carrying out aging treatment on the cold-rolled sheet prepared in the step.
The invention has the technical effects and advantages that:
the invention is provided with the crucible bearing mechanism, the annular transmission mechanism, the repeated pressing mechanism and the lifting stirring mechanism, so that the purified hydrogen is utilized to drive the hollow disc in the crucible bearing mechanism to drive the crucible body to rotate, meanwhile, the hydrogen sprayed out of the crucible bearing mechanism is utilized to drive the annular transmission mechanism to rotate, further, the annular transmission mechanism drives the annular pressing block in the repeated pressing mechanism to repeatedly press the stirring rod in the lifting stirring mechanism, further, the stirring rod enters the crucible body in the rotating process of the crucible body, the metal raw material in the crucible body is stirred in cooperation with the rotation of the crucible body, further, the metal raw material is heated more uniformly, thereby ensuring the fusion casting effect, shortening the heating time required by the metal raw material, further avoiding the electric power waste caused by excessive heating, and simultaneously improving the whole preparation efficiency, in addition, the energy generated during nitrogen input can be effectively utilized, and the waste of resources is avoided.
Drawings
Fig. 1 is an overall front sectional structural view of the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a schematic top view of the crucible supporting mechanism of the present invention.
FIG. 3 is a front sectional view of the crucible supporting mechanism and the crucible assembly of the present invention.
Fig. 4 is an enlarged schematic view of a portion a in fig. 3 according to the present invention.
FIG. 5 is a schematic top view of the ring gear of the present invention.
Fig. 6 is a front cross-sectional structural schematic view of the repetitive pressing mechanism of the present invention.
Fig. 7 is a schematic front view of the lifting stirring mechanism of the present invention.
FIG. 8 is a schematic process flow diagram of the present invention.
In the figure: 1. a furnace body; 2. a nitrogen purification mechanism; 21. a lower sealing plate; 22. an upper sealing plate; 23. storing the drawer; 24. filtering with a screen; 25. a sealing door; 26. a nitrogen gas input pipe; 27. a nitrogen gas output pipe; 3. a crucible carrying mechanism; 31. a hollow disc; 32. an extension housing; 33. an exhaust pipe; 34. a placement groove; 4. a crucible fixing mechanism; 41. a positioning sleeve; 42. a fixed block; 43. a gas channel; 44. a chute; 45. positioning pins; 46. a sliding plate; 47. a first spring; 5. a crucible assembly; 51. a crucible body; 52. a crucible base; 6. heating a tube; 7. an annular transmission mechanism; 71. an annular rotating plate; 72. an extension plate; 8. a repeated pressing mechanism; 81. an annular rotating disc; 82. a connecting rod; 83. an annular pressing block; 9. a lifting stirring mechanism; 91. mounting blocks; 92. fixing the rod; 93. a stirring rod; 94. a lifting block; 95. a second spring.
Detailed Description
The technical solutions in the embodiments of the present invention will be clearly and completely described below with reference to the drawings in the embodiments of the present invention, and it is obvious that the described embodiments are only a part of the embodiments of the present invention, and not all of the embodiments. All other embodiments, which can be derived by a person skilled in the art from the embodiments given herein without making any creative effort, shall fall within the protection scope of the present invention.
Example 1
The invention provides a preparation method of a high-strength ultrahigh-conductivity copper alloy as shown in figures 1-8, which is realized by using preparation equipment, wherein the preparation equipment comprises a furnace body 1, the bottom of an inner cavity of the furnace body 1 is fixedly provided with a nitrogen purification mechanism 2, the top of the nitrogen purification mechanism 2 is rotatably provided with a crucible bearing mechanism 3, two sides of the top of the crucible bearing mechanism 3 are fixedly provided with crucible fixing mechanisms 4, the center of the top of the crucible bearing mechanism 3 is provided with crucible components 5, the two crucible components 5 fix the crucible fixing mechanisms 4, the rear side of the crucible components 5 is provided with a plurality of heating pipes 6, the heating pipes 6 are fixedly arranged on the inner wall of the furnace body 1, the outer side of the crucible bearing mechanism 3 is sleeved with an annular transmission mechanism 7, and the annular transmission mechanism 7 is rotatably connected with the inner wall of the furnace body 1 through a bearing, annular drive mechanism 7 top is fixed and is provided with repetition pressing mechanism 8, repetition pressing mechanism 8 is provided with lift rabbling mechanism 9, lift rabbling mechanism 9 and 1 inner wall fixed connection of furnace body, deposit the inside calcination charcoal of drawer 23 in the nitrogen purification mechanism 2 and carry out purification treatment to external nitrogen gas after, nitrogen gas enters into hollow disc 31 in crucible bearing mechanism 3 inside to promote sliding plate 46 in hollow disc 31 and crucible fixed establishment 4 respectively, make crucible bearing mechanism 3 drive the whole rotation of crucible subassembly 5 simultaneously, make locating pin 45 in the crucible fixed establishment 4 fix crucible subassembly 5, extension plate 72 in annular drive mechanism 7 drives repetition pressing mechanism 8 synchronous revolution when being blown by nitrogen gas, annular briquetting 83 in the repetition pressing mechanism 8 is at rotatory in-process in the crucible body 51 of impressing the puddler 93 in the lift rabbling mechanism 9 in the crucible subassembly 5 So that the metal raw material inside the crucible body 51 is stirred.
As shown in fig. 1, the nitrogen purification mechanism 2 includes a lower sealing plate 21, an upper sealing plate 22, a storage drawer 23, a filter net 24, a sealing door 25, a nitrogen inlet pipe 26, and a nitrogen outlet pipe 27.
More specifically, the lower sealing plate 21 and the upper sealing plate 22 are both fixedly arranged at the bottom of the inner cavity of the furnace body 1, and the upper sealing plate 22 is positioned above the lower sealing plate 21, the storage drawer 23 is slidably arranged on the top of the lower sealing plate 21, the filter screen 24 is fixedly arranged at the bottom of the inner side of the storage drawer 23, the sealing door 25 is fixedly arranged at the left end of the storage drawer 23, and the sealing door 25 is positioned outside the furnace body 1, the nitrogen input pipe 26 penetrates through the sealing door 25 and the left side wall of the storage drawer 23 and extends to the bottom of the inner cavity of the storage drawer 23, and the nitrogen input pipe 26 is fixedly connected with the sealing door 25, the nitrogen output pipe 27 is rotatably arranged at the center of the top of the upper sealing plate 22 through a rotary joint, so that a small amount of oxygen in the nitrogen gas contacts the calcined charcoal after the nitrogen gas inside the storage drawer 23 contacts the calcined charcoal through the filter mesh 24 and is burned.
As shown in fig. 2 and 3, the crucible carrying mechanism 3 includes a hollow circular disk 31, an extension housing 32, an exhaust pipe 33, and a placement groove 34.
More specifically, hollow disc 31 rotates through rotary joint and sets up in nitrogen gas output tube 27 top, it all is provided with a plurality ofly, a plurality ofly to extend casing 32 with blast pipe 33 extend the even fixed nestification of casing 32 and set up in the hollow disc 31 outside, and is a plurality of the blast pipe 33 is fixed nestification respectively and is set up in a plurality of extension casing 32 sides, standing groove 34 is seted up in hollow disc 31 top center department to nitrogen gas then enters into hollow disc 31 inside through nitrogen gas output tube 27, then through the blast pipe 33 blowout, when nitrogen gas was spout in by blast pipe 33, at this moment because nitrogen gas spun thrust effect, hollow disc 31 uses nitrogen gas output tube 27 to rotate as the crucible body 51 that the axle center drove in the crucible subassembly 5.
As shown in fig. 3 and 4, the crucible assembly 5 includes a crucible body 51 and a crucible base 52.
More specifically, the crucible base 52 is fixedly arranged at the bottom of the crucible body 51, and the crucible base 52 is located inside the placing groove 34.
As shown in fig. 5, the endless transmission mechanism 7 includes an endless rotating plate 71 and an extending plate 72.
More specifically, the annular rotating plate 71 is rotatably connected with the inner wall of the furnace body 1 through a bearing, the plurality of extending plates 72 are arranged, and the plurality of extending plates 72 are fixedly arranged on the inner side of the annular rotating plate 71, so that when the exhaust pipe 33 in the crucible bearing mechanism 3 sprays hydrogen, the hydrogen can push the extending plates 72, and then the extending plates 72 drive the annular rotating plate 71 to rotate.
As shown in fig. 6, all of the repeated pressing mechanisms 8 include an annular rotating disk 81, a connecting rod 82, and an annular pressing piece 83.
More specifically, a plurality of connecting rods 82 are provided, the connecting rods 82 are uniformly and fixedly arranged outside the annular rotating disk 81, and the plurality of annular rotating discs 81 are respectively and fixedly connected with the plurality of extension plates 72, the annular pressing block 83 is fixedly arranged at the bottom of the annular rotating discs 81, and the bottom of the annular pressing block 83 is provided with a continuous corrugated surface, so that during the rotation of the annular pressing block 83, when the bottom of the ring-shaped pressing block 83 is protruded and the position is pressed on the top of the lifting block 94 in the lifting stirring mechanism 9, the stirring rod 93 of the lifting stirring mechanism 9 can be made to enter the crucible body 51, meanwhile, when the concave position at the bottom of the annular pressing block 83 presses the top of the lifting block 94 in the lifting stirring mechanism 9, the stirring rod 93 of the elevating stirring mechanism 9 can be prevented from being positioned above the crucible body 51, without entering the interior of the crucible body 51, thereby avoiding affecting the subsequent removal of the crucible body 51.
As shown in fig. 7, all the elevating and stirring mechanisms 9 include a mounting block 91, a fixing lever 92, a stirring lever 93, an elevating block 94, and a second spring 95.
More specifically, dead lever 92 is fixed to be set up in installation piece 91 right side, dead lever 92 and 1 inner wall fixed connection of furnace body, puddler 93 runs through installation piece 91 and with installation piece 91 sliding connection in the vertical direction, elevator 94 prescribes and sets up in the puddler 93 top, second spring 95 cup joints and sets up in the puddler 93 outside, and second spring 95 bottom and installation piece 91 contact to and second spring 95 top and elevator 94 contact, so that when elevator 94 was extruded, elevator 94 drove puddler 93 and descends, and then makes puddler 93 enter into crucible body 51 inside.
As shown in fig. 8, the preparation method specifically includes the following steps:
s1, adding the dried electrolytic copper, nickel, silicon and tin into the crucible body 51 through the feeding port on the front side of the furnace body 1, then drawing out the storage drawer 23, simultaneously adding calcined charcoal into the storage drawer 23, starting the heating pipe 6, inputting nitrogen into the storage drawer 23 through the nitrogen input pipe 26, heating the crucible body 51 after the heating pipe 6 is started, further melting the metal raw material in the crucible body 51, simultaneously leading the nitrogen in the storage drawer 23 to pass through the filter screen 24 to be contacted with the calcined charcoal, leading a small amount of oxygen in the nitrogen to be contacted with the calcined charcoal to be combusted, leading the nitrogen to enter the hollow disc 31 through the nitrogen output pipe 27, then ejecting the nitrogen through the exhaust pipe 33, when the nitrogen is ejected from the exhaust pipe 33, leading the crucible body 51 to rotate by taking the nitrogen output pipe 27 as the axis, meanwhile, the sprayed nitrogen gas pushes the extension plate 72, so that the extension plate 72 drives the repeated pressing mechanism 8 to integrally rotate through the annular rotating plate 71, the annular pressing block 83 in the repeated pressing mechanism 8 repeatedly presses the lifting block 94 due to the arrangement of the continuous corrugated surface at the bottom, and the lifting block 94 is continuously reset under the pushing action of the second spring 95, so that the stirring rod 93 is continuously and repeatedly inserted into the crucible body 51 and pulled out from the crucible body 51, when the stirring rod 93 is inserted into the crucible body 51, the crucible body 51 is in a rotating state at the moment, so that the metal raw material in the crucible body 51 is stirred by the stirring rod 93, and after the metal raw material is completely melted, the crucible assembly 5 is integrally taken out from the furnace body 1 and cast into an ingot blank;
s2, after impurities on the surface of the ingot blank are milled off, the ingot blank is placed in the crucible body 51 by repeating the operation, the ingot blank is heated again, after the ingot blank is melted, zirconium is added in a copper-zirconium intermediate alloy and magnesium is added in a copper-magnesium alloy form, a CuNiSiSnMgZr alloy melt is formed after the zirconium is melted uniformly, and the CuNiSiSnMgZr alloy melt is cast into a cast ingot;
s3, milling surface defects of the cast ingot, homogenizing in a hydrogen protection furnace, and carrying out hot rolling to obtain a hot-rolled plate blank;
s4, carrying out solid solution treatment on the hot rolled plate blank in a hydrogen protection furnace, then carrying out water quenching treatment, and finally carrying out surface milling treatment on the hot rolled plate blank subjected to water quenching to mill off the surface element-removed layer;
s5, performing cold rolling treatment on the hot rolled plate blank prepared in the step to prepare a cold rolled plate;
and S6, carrying out aging treatment on the cold-rolled sheet prepared in the step.
Example 2
Unlike the above embodiment, in order to make the crucible assembly 5 more stable during the rotation process, as shown in fig. 3 and 4, the crucible fixing mechanism 4 includes a positioning sleeve 41, a fixed block 42, a gas passage 43, a chute 44, a positioning pin 45, a sliding plate 46 and a first spring 47, the positioning sleeve 41 is fixedly disposed on the side of the crucible base 52 in the crucible assembly 5, the fixed block 42 is fixedly nested on the top of the hollow disc 31, the gas passage 43 and the chute 44 are both opened inside the fixed block 42, the gas passage 43 is communicated with the chute 44, the positioning pin 45 is disposed inside the chute 44, the left end of the positioning pin passes through the inner wall of the chute 44 and extends to the outside of the fixed block 42, the sliding plate 46 is slidably disposed inside the chute 44 in the horizontal direction and is fixedly connected with the right end of the positioning pin 45, the first spring 47 is sleeved outside the positioning pin 45, and has one end attached to the inner wall of the slide groove 44 and the other end attached to the slide plate 46.
It can be known from the above that, the inside nitrogen gas of hollow disc 31 promotes sliding plate 46 through gas channel 43, and then makes sliding plate 46 promote locating pin 45, and inside locating pin 45 entered into position sleeve 41 this moment, and then fixes crucible base 52, thereby make crucible assembly 5 more firm at rotatory in-process, when no longer inputing nitrogen gas simultaneously, first spring 47 promotes sliding plate 46 this moment, and then makes sliding plate 46 drive locating pin 45 and reset, and then removes the fixed to crucible assembly 5.
Finally, it should be noted that: although the present invention has been described in detail with reference to the foregoing embodiments, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that modifications may be made to the embodiments or portions thereof without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.