No author given

Abstract: Kevin McHugh of the U.S. Department of Energy's Ldaho National Engineering and Environmental laboratory (INEEL) and his fellow researcher Bruce Wickham have been honored for developing a rapid solidification process (RSP) for tooling dies. The process involves spraying layers of molten metal onto a three-dimensional pattern. Currently INEEL can produce dies up to 4 inches square. Because the surface area of the droplets during the spraying is so great as compared to their volume, the droplets cool somewhere between 100 to 100,000 degrees per second, resulting in unusual beneficial characteristics of the sprayed alloy. Global Metals Technologies, Inc. has been licensed to commercialize the process.

Keywords:Solidification, Casting process, Molten metal, 3-dimensional pattern, Tooling.