Cold-hearth melt-spinning apparatus for providing continuous casting of refractory and reactive alloys

A cold-hearth melt-spinning apparatus for providing continuous casting of refractory and reactive alloys, comprising:

• a crucible having first walls defining a charge receiving cavity , said first walls having a surface area confronting said cavity;
• first means coupled to said crucible for cooling said crucible;
• second means coupled to said cooled crucible for impeding thermal flow between said cavity and said first walls , said second means including a predetermined pattern of spaced grooves having preselected dimensions integrally formed on said surface area of said first walls in such a way that the dimensions of the grooves pattern are selected to be no larger than those dimensions beyond which the surface tension of a melt is insufficient to prevent the melt from wetting the walls of the grooves;
• third means coupled to said cooled crucible and in fluid communication with said charge receiving cavity having second walls for providing a molten jet emitting nozzle in such a way that thermal flow is impeded between said second walls and said first walls of said cooled crucible;
• fourth means for superheating a charge received in said cavity to form a melt;
• fifth means for controllably emitting said melt through said molten jet emitting nozzle in a molten jet stream;
• sixth means for charging said charge-receiving cavity;
• seventh means for rapidly quenching said molten jet stream to controllably produce quenched material in a desired physical form;
• and
• eighth means for receiving said quenched material.