Rapid cooling by laser melt quenching

Abstract

Laser melt quenching has been used to obtain high cooling rates comparable to those obtained by ``splat cooling'' techniques. By measurements of dendrite spacing, the average cooling rate in a laser-melted aluminum alloy was determined to be 3.7×106°C/sec. Laser melt quenching applied to a Ag–Cu alloy suppressed the two-phase equilibrium eutectic structure and resulted in the formation of a single-phase solid solution.