Influence of microstructure on grain refining

performance of AI-Ti-B master alloys

c. D. Mayes, D. G. McCartney, and G. J. Tatlock
The morphological characteristics of so called duplex titanium aluminide (TiAI3) particles in several AI-5Ti-IB (wt-%)
master alloys in the form of rods have been investigated using a wide range of microscopical techniques. It has been found that
both rough blocky andfaceted blocky aluminides are present in such materials and that hexagonal platelets are entrained within
these blocky aluminides. Auger spectroscopy and transmission electron diffraction have confirmed that the platelets are
diborides. In previous work, it has been suggested that duplex aluminides are particularly effective in promoting grain refinement
during solidification. To investigate this, a master alloy containing duplex blocky aluminides was briefly remelted and recast
from a range of temperatures. This resulted in the formation of significantly different aluminide types. When the original and
remelted alloys were tested in commercial purity AI, using standard procedures, it wasfound that the presence of duplex
aluminides does not, in itself, seem to be of great importance in influencing grain refiner efficiency. The experimental findings
are discussed in the context of previously published experimental and theoretical work. MSTj 1650.

© 1993 The Institute of Materials. Manuscript received 10 March 1992; in final form 6 May 1992. At the time the work was
carried out the authors were in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Liverpool. Dr McCartney
is now in the Department of Materials Engineering and Materials Design, University of Nottingham.

extended melt holding time experiments. Furthermore, it

Introduction
It is now common practice to add an Al- Ti-B master
alloy to molten Al before casting to produce an equiaxed
grain structure in the solidified ingot or cast product. This
has been argued in a number of publications that duplex
aluminide crystals play an important role in enhancing
the grain refining characteristics of Al- Ti-B master
alloys,3,4,9,12and new theories of grain refining are being
proposed on the basis of these observations.9,H .

process is termed grain refining and one of the earliest
systematic studies was reported by Cibula in 1949.1 Since
then, much work has been done in an attempt to understand
the fundamental mechanisms through which Al- Ti-B grain
refiners are effective, and there have been two recent
reviews of the subject. 2,3 Furthermore, commercial pro-
ducers of master alloys have made considerable progress
over the years in improving the consistency and general
performance characteristics of their Al- Ti-B products.
Although the exact details of master alloy production
routes are not usually published in the open literature, it is
well known that commercial production involves the
addition of the inorganic salts potassium fluorotitanate,
K2 TiF6, and potassium fluoroborate, KBF4, to molten Al
at temperatures in excess of 700°C. Aluminium reduces
the fluoride salts to yield a melt consisting of molten Al
and dispersed particles of TiAl3 and (Al,Ti)B2 (the exact
composition of the boride phase is considered to depend
on the processing conditions4). Grain refiners for use in
semicontinuous or continuous casting of ingot or strip are
now usually supplied as 9·5 mm dia. rod, which is
manufactured by casting the master alloy followed by
mechanical working. These alloys generally have a micro-
structure in which the titanium aluminide (TiAI3) phase
has a rounded or blocky morphology,2-s which is very
different from the acicular aluminide morphology common
in master alloy waffle plate.6 Arnberg et a1.7,8 have
demonstrated that the blocky shapes develop when the
K2 TiF 6 and KBF 4 salts are added to molten Al at 750°C,
whereas, at an addition temperature of 900°C, acicular,
flakelike aluminides form on subsequent solidification of
the master alloy. Additional recent work on the micro-
structure of Al- Ti- B master alloys has indicated that
holding the master alloy melt at approximately 750°C for
several hours after the inorganic salt reaction is complete
produces master alloys having very good grain refining
properties and containing so called duplex aluminide
crystals.3,4,9-12 In general, these duplex crystals appear to
be rounded or blocky TiAl3 crystals, having what are
apparently borides entrained within them and on their
surface, as Lee and Terry13 have recently confirmed in their
The purposes of the investigation reported in the present
paper were (i) to examine the morphological characteristics
of duplex titanium aluminide particles in several AI-5Ti-l B
(wt_%) master alloys (denoted 5-1) in the form of rods and
(ii) to determine the significance of the duplex morphology
in influencing grain refining properties. A combination of
optical, scanning electron (SEM), transmission electron
(TEM), and scanning Auger microscopy was used to study
the microstructures. To investigate the role of duplex
aluminides in grain refining AI, the properties of a single
production grade 5-1 master alloy were compared with
those of the same alloy after it had been remelted and then
chill cast. Remelting temperatures of 700, 1000, and 1030°C
were employed. In microstructural terms, one effect of
remelting and casting from above 1000°C is to produce
flakelike aluminides instead of the blocky aluminides
present in both the original starting material and the alloy
cast from 700°C.
The results of this comparative study together with
detailed microstructural observations are presented below.
Experimental procedures
MICROSCOPY
Aluminide morphologies were examined in a number of
different 5-1 .master alloys manufactured in the form of
rods of approximately 9·5 mm dia.
Samples for optical microscopy were ground and polished
using standard metallographic techniques and viewed in
the unetched condition. To observe the morphological
features of aluminides more clearly, SEM was employed
with deep etched samples. The purpose of the etching was
to remove the Lt Al matrix, thus allowing the three-
dimensional morphological features of the aluminide
particles to be more clearly observed. Both NaOH and
Hel solutions were effective in dissolving the Lt AI, but
produced a very vigorous reaction. The iodine-
methanol-tartaric acid etch used by Guzowski et a1.3 was
found to be more controllable and etching times of about

Materials Science and Technology Februar'y 1993 Vol. 9 97

98 Mayes et al. Grain refining performance of AI- Ti-B
2 h at room temperature were used depending on the
degree of (J. Al removal required.
A VG surface analytical microscope equipped for Auger
spectroscopy was used to investigate the distribution of B
in selected flat, polished, and lightly etched samples.
Because of the low atomic number of B, its detection using
X-ray microanalysis presents severe problems and using
wavelength dispersive analysis on an electron microprobe
gives a spatial resolution of the order of 3-5 ~m. Auger
~icroscopy, having a focused electron probe, enables the
sIgnal to be collected from a region < I ~m in diameter
and several atoms thick.14 ,
The TEM of grain refiners in the form of rods was
performed on 3 mm discs cut from sections transverse to
the rod axis. Discs were first ground to a thickness of
approximately 100 ~m and then electropolished in a twin
jet polisher using a solution of 15% perchloric acid in
ethanol at room temperature and 20 V dc. 'After polishing,
the foils' were further thinned by ion milling using Ar ions
at 4-5 kV for approximately 2 h; This ensured that thinned
regions of both (J. Al and intermetallic phases were produced.
GRAIN REFINER REMELTING
A single batch of grain refiner, the composition of which is
given in Table I, was used in these experiments. About
300 g of the master alloy were melted in an induction
furnace, which provided vigorous electromagnetic stirring
as well as heating. One melt was rapidly heated to 700°C
before casting, whereas other melts were heated to 1000
and 1030°C and then cast. A small cast iron mould
(approximately 100 x 25 x 25 mm) coated with colloidal
graphite was employed. The time spent above the melting
point of Al was about 10 min for all the samples.
GRAIN REFINER TESTS
The as received master alloy in the form of a rod (ARI)
and the remelted and recast master alloys (designated RMI,
RM2, and RM3 for the temperatures 700, 1000, and
1030°C, respectively) were tested using both the Alcan and
the Alcoa grain refining test procedures. 2,5,15 -1 7 Alcan tests
were carried out using master alloy additions of 0·0I and
0·005% Ti and a holding time of 60 s. In the Alcoa test an
addition of 0·01 % Ti was employed with a 120 s holding
time. In each set of grain refining tests, the performance of
remelted alloys was compared directly with that of ARI
using a single batch of commercial purity Al as the bas~
alloy to which additions were made. A typical composition
analysis for one particular batch of Al is given in Table 2.
~ince it was i~ ~he form of a rod, ARI had a relatively
unIform composItIon throughout. However, the chill cast
materials RM 1- RM3 exhibited macro segregation after
solidification. Therefore, when making additions of these
master alloys to the base AI, considerable care was taken
to ensure that addition levels were close to the desired
value of 0·0I % Ti. This was achieved by taking drillings
from the cast ingots for chemical analysis. When these
values were obtained, slices of master alloy for the grain
refining additions were then cut from regions adjacent to
those drilled, and appropriate amounts added. Final
chemical analyses of all grain refined ingots showed relative
variations of Ti and B contents about their mean values of
approximately ± 6 and ± 12%, respectively.
Table 1 Chemical composition of grain refiner AR1 in
form of rod used in remelting experiments
(in wt-%), as obtained using spark emission
spectrometry
B K Fe Si Ti v AI
0·89 0·11 0·17 0·12 5·16 0·02 Bal.
Materials Science and Technology February 1 993 Vol. 9
alloys
Alloy AR1 showing ~ AI matrix, large blocky TiAI
phase, and small boride clusters (optical) 3
Grain size measurements were obtained from the test
samples using a standard linear intercept method.18
~etallographic .sectio~s were cut from the castings, pol-
Ished, and anodlsed USIngBarker's reagent.19 The sections
were viewed under crossed polars to give grain contrast
and to allow accurate grain size determinations.
Experimental results
MIC.ROSCOPY OF MASTER ALLOYS IN FORM
OF RODS
A~ optical micrograph taken from the grain refiner ARI
(FIg. I) shows a large blocky phase, which has been
confirmed. u~ing X-ray microanalysis to be' TiAI3. The
smaller partIcles generally occur as clusters in the (J. Al
matrix, but careful inspection reveals the presence of similar
small hexagonal particles both within the aluminide phase
and at the interface between TiAl3 and (J. AI. That these
particles contain Band, the'refore, are presumably (AI,Ti)B2
has been confirmed from the Auger microscopy analysis
~esul~sshown in Fig. 2. Using a focused probe, the spectrum
In. F.lg. 2a was 0 btai.n~d from a small hexagonal particle
WIthIn a larger alumlnlde, whereas the spectrum in Fig.2b
was from an adjacent region of the (J. Al matrix.
The peaks corresponding to 0, Ti, N, and B are marked
on both spectra. Since this type of analysis is essentially a
surface analysis technique, the 0 and N peaks are due to
surface contamination. Figure 2a shows high Ti and B
peaks confirming that the small particles are indeed Ti
and B rich. Figure 2b from the matrix shows, ~s expedted
very little evidence of Ti and B. '
The microstucture shown in Fig. I is typical of all the
master alloys in the form of rods investigated and neither
optical microscopy nor scanning Auger analysis revealed
significant differences between them.
When deep etched samples were observed in the SEM a
range of aluminide morphologies could be identified within
all the master alloys examined. Individual aluminides could
in broad terms, be described as having either a faceted
blocky morphology or a rough blocky morphology.
However, the situation is complicated by the fact that
aluminides often cluster into irregular islands. Figure 3
Table 2 Chemical composition of commercial purity AI
(in wt-%), as obtained using spark emission
spectrometry
B Fe Si Ti v AI
0·0005 0·18 0·05 0·004 0·01 Bal.

(a)
600 Kinetic Energy eV. 60
(b)
1450 Kinetic Energy aV. 60
2 Auger electron spectra obtained using focused probe
from a small particle on aluminide and b nearby
IX AI matrix
shows a group of clustered faceted aluminides. Although
having a faceted shape, the surface is po~k~arked, w~th
borides covering regions of the surface. IndIvIdual alumIn-
ides are about 20-40 ~m across, which is consistent with
optical microscopy observations.
An example of much rougher blocky aluminides is shown
in Fig. 4. Again, the surfaces are pockmarked and .have .a
covering of borides. In the range of master alloys InvestI-
gated, it was generally possible to identify both rou¥h and
faceted blocky aluminides within the same sample. DIfferent
samples were taken from different production runs, bu~ it
was not possible to reliably quantify the effect of processIng
conditions on the distribution of aluminide forms within
the samples examined. ..
The deep etching procedures employed. In prepa.nng
SEM samples can obviously lead to the setthng of bondes,
released from the (X Al matrix, onto the aluminide phase.
3 Cluster of faceted blocky aluminides having what
appear to be hexagonal borides on surface (SEM)
Mayes et al. Grain refining performance of AI- Ti-B alloys 99
4 Example of rough .blocky aluminide having what
appear to be borides on surface (SEM)
Therefore, it is important to confirm that borides are,
indeed, partially or wholly entrained within aluminides.
The optical micrograph of Fig. 1 provides some ~rm
evidence but more detailed information has been obtaIned
using TEM. For example, Fig. 5 is a micrograph taken
from a sample of grain refiner AR1, and shows part of a
TiAl3 particle embedded in (X AI, having borides within it
and at the (X AI/TiAh interface.
MICROSCOPY OF REMELTED MASTER ALLOYS
Optical micrographs of the remelted and recast master
alloys are shown in Figs. 6a-6c. It can be seen that RM 1,
which was heated to 700°C, has broadly retained its blocky
aluminide morphology, although the boride distribution is
much less uniform than in the original material AR1 (in
the form of a rod). However, both RM2 and RM3 have
developed an essentially flaky or platelike aluminide
morphology similar to that reported elsewhere19,2o for
alloys cast from between 1000 and 1100°C. As with RM1,
the boride distribution is non-uniform. The segregation of
borides in cast samples is due to the growing (X Al dendrites
pushing borides into the liquid regions between them which
are the last to freeze.
The SEMs of Fig. 7 confirm that reheating to 700°C
retained the essentially duplex aluminide structure, whereas,
after casting from 1000 and 1030°C, large flaky aluminid~s
developed with a faceted dendritic growth pattern. ThIS
latter growth structure is consistent with solidification, at
moderate cooling rates, of an alloy heated to a temperature
above that at which the blocky aluminides dissolved.21
5 Thin foil taken from AR1 showing presence of boride
particles (arrowed) within and on surface of TiAI3
particle; TiAI3 is itself embedded in IX AI matrix (TEM)
Materials Science and Technology February 1993 Vol. 9
100 Mayes et al. Grain refining performance of AI- Ti-B alloys

c
7 Deep etched specimens of alloys a RM1, b RM2, and
6 Microstructure of master alloy AR1 after reheating
c RM3: these correspond to remelting temperatures
to a 700, b1000, and c1030°C before casting (optical)
of 700, 1000, and 1030°C, respectively (SEM)

GRAIN REFINING TESTS

increased by about 200/0. However, this deterioration
Stan,dard Alcan grain refining tests were carried out to occurred whether the alloy was reheated to 700 or above
quantify the grain refining performance of alloys ARl, 1000°C. In other words, it did not appear to be directly
RMl, RM2, and RM3. The required amount of master related to the aluminide morphology in the final casting.
alloy was stirred into 3 kg of molten commercial purity Al Results obtained from the Alcoa grain refining tese,5,16,17
for 60 s, whereupon the sample casting was taken according using commercial purity AI, a 0·01% Ti addition, and a
to standardised procedures.2,15 With each batch of Al used, melt holding time of 120 s demonstrate a similar pattern
tests were carried out first on AR 1 and then on the other to that for the Alcan tests. Figure 8 shows macroetched
alloys. Different batches of Al gave some scatter in the longitudinal sections taken from Alcoa test ingots. It is
measured grain size obtained using ARI (a typical value apparent that reheating to above 1000°C has had only a
being 140 J,tm). Hence, to simplify the presentation of data,
the results in Table 3 are given in terms of the range of
observed grain size ratios Rd, where Rd is defined as the Table 3 Results of Alcan grain refining tests on
grain size obtained using a remelted master alloy divided remelted alloys for different additions of Ti
by that obtained using ARIon the same batch of AI. Since
Ti addition Range of observed Rd values
several tests were always carried out with both ARI and from master alloy,
each of the other alloys, a range of observed values of Rd wt-% RM1 RM2 RM3
can be quoted.
It can be seen that remelting alloy AR 1 for a short 0-01 1-04-1·20 1-09-1'20 1·00-1·16
0-005 1·00-1'16 1-05-1'13 1·07-1·12
period appeared to result in a slight deterioration of t~e
grain refining properties. In the worst case, average graIn Rd grain size obtained using remelted master alloy divided by that
sizes as measured using the linear intercept method obtained using AR1 _

Materials Science and Technology February 1993 Vol. 9


60mm
8 Macroetched longitudinal sections from Alcoa test
castings of commercial purity AI inoculated with
O'01%Ti from master alloys a AR1, b RM1, C RM2,
and d RM3
small negative effect on the efficacy of master alloys as
compared with the starting material ARt.
Discussion
The results obtained from the present studies raised two
main points of discussion which are presented in the
following sections.
ORIGIN AND NATURE OF DUPLEX
MORPHOLOGY
It can be seen from the present SEM observations that the
TiAl3 crystals which develop in 5-1 master alloys in the
form of rods do have micro metre sized hexagonal boride
platelets entrained within them and at their surface. These
duplex particles appear to form during, or shortly after, the
reactions involving K2 TiF 6 and KBF 4 with molten AI, i.e.
while the master alloy is in a semisolid state. There is no
evidence to suggest that thermomechanical processing after
casting causes the duplex particle structure to form. The
SEM studies have also shown that within any sample there
Mayes et al. Grain refining performance of AI- Ti-B alloys 101
appear to be both rough blocky and faceted blocky duplex
aluminides, although quantification of the relative pro-
portions was found not to be possible. These results agree
with those of Guzowski et al.3 (see, for example, Figs.
15a-15c of their paper) and Lee and Terry.13 However, the
present work has taken these SEM observations a stage
further and, using TEM, it has been possible to confirm the
presence of platelets within the TiAl3 phase and at the
lI. AI/TiAI3 interface. In other words, it has been shown that
the SEM. observations of platelets are not a result of the
deep etching process. Moreover, the scanning Auger micros-
copy analysis has shown conclusively that these micrometre
sized platelets are indeed B rich (with a spatial resolution
which is much higher than that attainable using wavelength
dispersive electron probe microanalysis). It has not been
possible to determine the exact composition of these platelets
in contact with the TiAl3 phase, so it is still not certain
whether they are 1)B2 or (AI,Ti)B2. However, it has already
been established that in master alloys "in the form of rods
boride particles, which were extracted onto a carbon replica,
proved to be essentially TiB2 having an Al content less than
1 0/0.22 Whether these extracted borides came from both the
Al matrix and the duplex aluminides is not yet known. .
To understand how the faceted and rough duplex
aluminides might have formed, it is necessary to consider
the reaction processes occurring during. production. As
outlined in the 'Introduction', 5-1 master alloys containing
blocky aluminides are produced by a chemical reaction
between the salts KBF 4 and K2 TiF 6 and molten AI. The
reaction is known to be strongly exothermic and, usually,
the reaction mixture is subjected to vigorous stirring.
Kiusalaas4 and Arnberg et ai.7,8 have shown that even on .
a laboratory scale it is difficult to precisely control the
process, and they have demonstrated that the final alloy
microstructure is critically dependent on factors such as
the order of salt additions, the melt holding time after
addition, and the temperature of the melt during and after
addition. Thus, with regard to the production of master
alloys containing blocky duplex aluminides, it is only
possible to propose qualitative explanations for the
development of this morphology.
It is known 7,8 that the blocky morphology develops
when the K2 TiF 6 salt is added to molten Al at a
temperature of about 750-800oe. At this temperature the
solubility of Ti in molten Al is only about 0'40/0. A possible
mechanism for the formation of blocky TiAl3 would involve
the formation of a pocket of hot Ti rich liquid heated to
perhaps 1100°C and containing up to 6% Ti as a result of
the exothermic salt reaction. Such a pocket of liquid could
then be swept into much cooler Al by convective mixing
and be rapidly quenched to a lower temperature of, say,
800oe. Thus, a high supersaturation of Ti would develop
and could lead to the growth of the faceted blocky shapes 7
which are frequently seen. It can also be envisaged that, if
the KBF 4 salt is being added simultaneously, then borides
could coprecipitate with the TiAI3, depending on the
process kinetics. However, there is some evidence to suggest
that some boride precipitation takes place during holding,
after crystallisation of the bulk of the TiAl3 has occurred.3,4
This precipitation, together with a roughening of the
faceted blocky aluminides, could occur if the bath temper-
ature were to increase during holding. A temperature
increase would cause remelting of aluminides and, thus,
would tend to round off their external facets.23 It would
also generate a Ti enriched boundary layer around these
particles, due to the need to diffuse Ti from the dissolving
solid TiAI3. Within this boundary layer the solubility
product for TiB2 could be exceeded, giving thermo-
dynamically favourable conditions for boride precipitation.
Variations of bath temperature of several tens of Kelvin
could well occur in an industrial scale process and allow
this precipitation to occur.
Materials Science and Technology February 1993 Vol. 9
. 102 Mayes et al. Grain refining performance of AI- Ti-B
1 60mm
9 Macroetched longitudinal section from Alcoa test
casting of commercial purity AI inoculated with
0·01% Ti from master alloy AR2
EFFECT OF ALUMINIDEMORPHOLOGY ON
GRAIN REFINING PERFORMANCE
In discussing the effect of aluminide morphology on grain
. refining .performance it is important to understand the
context of the present study. It arose partly from a desire
to clarify previous reports3,4,9-12 on the role of duplex
aluminide crystals in acting as potent nucleating centres
for a Al solidifying from the melt. The present results,
which are summarised in Table 3, seem to indicate that a
blocky duplex aluminide morphology is not intrinsically
important in influencing the grain refining performance of
5-1 master alloys. It is evident that remelting the master
alloy AR 1 had a deleterious effect on its performance.
However, alloys RM2 and RM3, having flaky aluminide
morphologies free from surface .borides, performed no
worse than RMI which, broadly, retained a blocky duplex
aluminide structure. In testing the master alloys obtained
by remelting ARl, it is observed that grain sizes have
increased by a factor of at most 20%. Assuming that the
grain size is proportional to the inverse cube root of the
number of nucleation centres, this represents a decrease of
about 400/0 in the latter. Thus, there is no doubt that
remelting adversely affects grain refiner performance.
However, it must be questioned whether duplex aluminides
per se play a significant role in nucleating a Al grains
during solidification of a grain refined alloy.
A limitation of the present results is that grain refining
efficacy has been tested only at short contact times (60 s
for the Alcan test, 120 s for the Alcoa test). Nevertheless,
two different addition levels have been used and the
different test procedures are considered to impose sig-
nificantly different cooling rates and solidification
conditions.5,15 In all experiments the performance
characteristics were entirely selfconsistent in indicating no
large differences in behaviour between the remelted alloys.
These short holding time results are contrary to the findings
of Arnberg et al.7 who reported that, after similarly· short
holding times, master alloys containing blocky aluminides
were much more effective in producing a small grain size
than those containing flaky aluminides. A possible expla-
nation for these contradictory findings lies in the processing
steps used to produce different aluminide morphologies. In
the present work, the salt reaction temperature was fixed
and morphological changes to the aluminide phase were
Materials Science and Technology February 1993 Vol. 9
alloys
achieved by subsequent remelting. On the other hand,
Arnberg et al. used different salt reaction temperatures to
obtain different aluminide structures, and this could well
be an important distinction. It is also relevant to note that
Banerji et al.24 attempted morphological changes resem-
bling those reported in this work. They too found that a
master alloy in the form of a rod (containing blocky
aluminides), which was remelted and slow cooled to give a
microstructure showing flaky aluminides, performed simi-
larly to the starting material when subjected to grain
refining tests in commercial purity AI.
Finally, it is of interest to consider how the changes of
grain refiner performance brought about by remelting
compare with those arising from the inherent variability of
the manufacturing process. To this end the behaviour of a
master alloy in the form of a 9·5 mm dia. rod (designated
AR2), which had been rejected in quality control tests, was
evaluated. Careful SEM examination of the microstructure
of this alloy (after deep etching) revealed a duplex aluminide
morphology having a mixture of rough and faceted blocky
types similar to those observed in ARl. However, when
this alloy was subjected to the Alcoa test, an ingot
macrostructure developed (Fig. 9). This grain structure is
not wholly equiaxed; it is a mixture of columnar and
equiaxed grains, with the former predominating. Therefore,
AR2 evidently performed very poorly when compared with
the other inoculants. This can be readily seen by comparing
the structures shown in Figs. 8 and 9. Thus, it is apparent
that, despite having similar compositions and micro-
structures (as revealed by optical microscopy and SEM of
deep etched structures), AR 1 and AR2 beha ved very
differently. This evidence would seem to support the
hypothesis that duplex blocky aluminide particles do not,
in themselves, guarantee a good grain refining performance
from a master alloy and that, conversely, master alloys
containing flaky aluminides can perform as well as those
containing duplex blocky aluminide particles.
Conclusions
1. Several different grain refiners in the form of rods
containing nominally 50/0Ti and 1%B were examined using
SEM after deep etching. They were found to contain duplex
aluminide particles of either the rough blocky or the faceted
blocky type with entrained platelets.
2. It has been shown using TEM that the entrained
platelets were not a result of the deep etching preparation
technique. Platelets were observed both within the TiAl3
phase and at the interface between a Al and TiAI3.
3. Scanning Auger microscopy has confirmed that the
platelets are B rich, but it has not been possible to confirm
whether the borides in contact with TiAl3 are TiB2 or
(AI,Ti)B2• .
4. Carefully controlled solidification experiments have
shown that the grain refining efficacy of a production grade
master alloy in the form of a rod is reduced after remelting.
However, the aluminide morphology after remelting was
found not to be a key factor controlling grain refining
performance. This indicates that, for the experimental
conditions used in the grain refining tests, duplex aluminide
structures are not of great importance in influencing grain
refiner performance.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to acknowledge support for this
research from the Science and Engineering Research
 Mayes et a/. Grain refining performance of AI- Ti-B alloys 103

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International Conference on Spray Forming

A FOCUS ON END USE APPLICATIONS
13-15 September 1993 Swansea Marriott, Swansea, Wales
A full programme of about 30 papers focusing on applications of spray deposited materials has
been finalised for the second major meeting on spray forming. These applications include:
automotive; aerospace; electrical and wear components. In addition to detailed contributions,
several speakers will assess the market needs and potential of such materials and there will also
be papers on future developments of the process itself. Alongside the main meeting will be a
focused workshop on fundamentals of monitoring and modelling the Osprey process.
Early indications suggest that the conference will be heavily oversubscribed. For a registration
form and further particulars con tact:
ICSF Secretariat
Ms J. Abrahams
Beggars Roost
Channels End Road
Colmworth
Bedfordshire
MK442NS
Tel: 44 (0) 234378862; Fax: 44 (0) 234376219.

Materials Science and Technology February 1993 Vol. 9