An ingot, having a volume between 0.15 m.sup.3 and 0.80 m.sup.3 and a surface area to volume ratio between 10 m.sup.−1 and 18 m.sup.−1, made of at least one metal, having longitudinal faces extending between two end faces and including at least one hole extending from one of the longitudinal faces, the maximum distance between any point of the hole periphery, to its closest longitudinal face, noted MaxL, the at least one hole being configured such that said maximum distance MaxL is smaller than the minimal distance, noted MinE, between any point of the hole periphery and its closest end face.

The present disclosure provides a pulse current assisted uncanned rolling method for titanium-TiAl composite plates, including the following specific steps: 1. preparing titanium alloy sheets; 2. preparing TiAl alloy sheets; 3. uncanned lay-up; 4. pulse current assisted hot-rolling; 5. separation and subsequent processing, thus getting the titanium-TiAl composite plates. The composite plates are of good quality on the surface without oxide layer shedding, no cracks at the edges and the ends, with uniform and fine microstructures, good bonding interface and excellent mechanical properties.

A method includes the production of a primary ingot, the production of a secondary ingot, and the removal of a flux layer. A CaO—CaF.sub.2 flux in a content of 3-20 mass % and obtained by mixing 35-95 mass % of CaF.sub.2 with CaO is added to a Ti—Al alloy material including a total of at least 0.1 mass % of oxygen and at least 40 mass % of Al, and the resultant substance is melted by a melting method using a water-cooled copper container in an atmosphere having a pressure of 1.33 Pa or higher and held to produce the primary ingot. The primary ingot is continuously drawn downwards while being melted by a melting method using a bottomless water-cooled copper casting mould in an atmosphere having a pressure of 1.33 Pa or higher to produce the secondary ingot. The flux layer deposited on the surface of the secondary ingot is mechanically removed.

The objective of the present invention is to improve non-defective product yield by reducing shrinkage cavities inside small-diameter ingots, in a method for casting active metals. In this Ti—Al based alloy casting method for casting an ingot of Ti—Al based alloy by tapping molten metal from a tapping hole (5) provided in a bottom portion of a water-cooled copper crucible (2), in an induction melting furnace (3) employing said crucible (2), into a casting mold (4), the degree of vacuum inside the induction melting furnace (3) when the Ti—Al based alloy is being melted or cast is in a range of 80 to 700 Torr, and the Al concentration in the cast ingot is within ±1.0 mass % of a target value.

This invention discloses a series of low-cost, castable, weldable, brazeable and heat-treatable aluminum alloys based on modifications of aluminum-manganese-based alloys, which turn all the non-heat treatable Mn-containing aluminum alloys into heat treatable alloys with high-strength, ductility, thermal stability, and resistance to creep, coarsening and recrystallization. These alloys inherit the excellent corrosion resistance of the Al—Mn-based alloys and can be utilized in high temperature, high stress and a variety of other applications. The modifications are made through microalloying with one or any combinations of tin, indium, antimony and bismuth at an impurity level of less than 0.02 at. %, which creates nanoscale α-Al(Mn,TM)Si precipitates with a cubic structure (wherein TM is one or more of transition metals, and Mn is the main element) in an Al(f.c.c.)-matrix with a mean radius of about 25 nm and a relatively high volume fraction of about 2%.

A method for producing a metal ingot by using an electron-beam melting furnace including an electron gun and a hearth that accumulates a molten metal of a metal raw material, in which, in a downstream region between an upstream region in which the metal raw material is supplied onto the surface of the molten metal and a first side wall, an irradiation line is disposed so as to block a lip portion and so that two end portions are positioned in the vicinity of the side wall of the hearth. A first electron beam is radiated onto the surface of the molten metal along the irradiation line, such that the surface temperature (T2) of the molten metal along the irradiation line is made higher than the average surface temperature (T0) of the entire surface of the molten metal in the hearth.

Provided is a Ti—Nb alloy sputtering target containing 0.1 to 30 at % of Nb, the remainder of Ti and unavoidable impurities; and the Ti—Nb alloy sputtering target is characterized by having an oxygen content of 400 wtppm or less. Since the target in the present disclosure has a favorable surface texture with a low oxygen content and is readily processable due to the low hardness of the target, the Ti—Nb alloy sputtering target yields a superior effect of being able to suppress the generation of particles during sputtering.

The present invention provides an artifactless superelastic alloy including a Au—Cu—Al alloy, the superelastic alloy containing Cu in an amount of 20 atom % or more and 40 atom % or less, Al in an amount of 15 atom % or more and 25 atom % or less, and Au as a balance, the superelastic alloy having a bulk magnetic susceptibility of −24 ppm or more and 6 ppm or less. The Ni-free superelastic alloy of the present invention is capable of exhibiting superelasticity in a normal temperature range, and hardly generated artifacts in a magnetic field environment. The alloy can be produced by setting a casting time in a melting and casting step to a fixed time, and hot-pressing an alloy after casting to make material structures homogeneous.

A composition of matter is generally provided, in one embodiment, a titanium alloy comprising about 5 wt % to about 8 wt % aluminum; about 2.5 wt % to about 5.5 wt % vanadium; about 0.1 wt % to about 2 wt % of one or more elements selected from the group consisting of iron and molybdenum; about 0.01 wt % to about 0.2 wt % carbon; up to about 0.3 wt % oxygen; silicon and copper; and titanium. A turbine component is also generally provided, in one embodiment, that comprises an article made from a titanium alloy. Additionally, methods are also generally provided for making an alloy component having a beta transus temperature and a titanium silicide solvus temperature.

This invention relates to magnetocaloric materials comprising ternary alloys useful for magnetic refrigeration applications. The disclosed ternary alloys are Cerium, Neodymium, and/or Gadolinium based compositions that are fairly inexpensive, and in some cases exhibit only 2.sup.nd order magnetic phase transitions near their curie temperature, thus there are no thermal and structural hysteresis losses. This makes these compositions attractive candidates for use in magnetic refrigeration applications. The performance of the disclosed materials is similar or better to many of the known expensive rare-earth based magnetocaloric materials.