Isothermal furnace for long-term in situ and real-time X-radiography solidification experiments

A new x-ray isothermal furnace has been developed, suitable for in situ observations of semi-solid processes including the transition from dendritic to globulitic grain morphology and coarsening metallic samples. homogeneous, temperature field is achieved using a novel heater concept. The structure sandwich-like with heating elements positioned beam line parallel sample. Planar heat transfer sample enables measurements low cooling rates minimized gradient. Cooling 0.1 15 K min−1 can be controlled range 1170–670 K. setup integrable existing rotatable laboratory facility (X-RISE) at German Aerospace Center (DLR). In this setup, an effective pixel size 3 μm view 8 mm diameter achieved. Preliminary solidification experiments hypo-eutectic alloy systems Al–Ge Al–Cu, inoculated Al–5Ti–1B refiner, are presented. They indicate very uniform distribution