An Experimental Platform for Controlled Solidification and Heat Treatment and its Application in TiAl Alloys

An experimental platform for controlled solidification and heat treatment and its applications in TiAl alloys are reported. The controlled solidification facility can be used to study the microstructure evolution of metals and alloys during solidification process and the controlled heat treatment device can realize the complex heat treatments and high temperature quenching conveniently. Compared with the traditional experimental equipments, this platform has three advantages. First, it can precisely control heating and cooling speed as well as isothermal holding time during solidification and heat treatment. Second, the high temperature microstructure can be obtained by quenching with high accuracy. Third, these two devices are cheaper and suitable to use in laboratory.