Application Oriented New Materials by Spray Forming

Abstract

The development of new materials and processes is projected to be the prime mover for the 21st century. Rapid solidification process was developed in 1960s and gained tremendous interest from the research community. Similarly, spray forming, one of the variants of rapid solidification, was observed as a promise for the synthesis of bulk materials that could not be generally processed by conventional route. As spray forming has already been a well established process and has witnessed commercial production, the present paper attempts to investigate the possibility of employing this technique to produce bulk amorphous / nanocrystalline / quasicrystalline materials, which have shown unprecedented physical and mechanical properties. The effect of process parameters and mechanisms involved in the formation of these materials in bulk has been brought out.