IMPRESS Integrated Project—An overview paper.pdf

Materials Science and Engineering A 413–414 (2005) 583–591 IMPRESS Integrated Project—An overview paper D.J. Jarvis ∗, D. Voss European Space Agency—ESA/ESTEC, Physical Science Unit, Directorate of Human Spaceflight, Microgravity and Exploration, Keplerlaan 1, 2201 AZ Noordwijk, The Netherlands Abstract IMPRESS is an acronym for Intermetallic Materials Processing in Relation to Earth and Space Solidification. This project was selected by the European Commission and recently started in November 2004. The main scientific objective of IMPRESS is to gain a better understanding of the links between materials processing routes, structure and final properties of intermetallic alloys. Technically speaking, the project aims to develop and test two distinct prototypes based on intermetallic materials, namely gas turbine blades and Raney-type catalytic powder. Numerous material processing routes are being explored within the project with a strong emphasis on solidification. For turbine blade manu- facturing, the principal processes under study are tilt casting, counter-gravity casting and centrifugal casting. For catalytic powder production, the focus is placed on gas atomisation and vapour condensation processes. IMPRESS combines a wide range of fundamental studies of solidification both on ground and in space, as well as industrial process development. This paper will describe some of the different facets related to solidification. © 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Keywords: Intermetallics; Alloy solidification; Investment casting; Gas atomisation; Vapour synthesis; Microgravity experimentation 1. Introduction most effort is now concentrated on -TiAl with various alloying