Small-volume Reactive Metal Alloys Prepared by Ellectron Beam Melting

The paper deals with the preparation of small volumes of reactive metal alloys (particularly titanium), utilizing an electron beam as the heat source. The melting was performed in a vacuum environment in order to prevent the compounds from reacting with atmospheric components. The water-cooled crucible avoids any contamination of the alloy, which would have otherwise arisen during the heating of the materials. The composition of resulting alloys were then investigated by energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy.