Rapid Quench in an Electrostatic Levitator

The Electrostatic Levitation (ESL) Laboratory at the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) is a unique facility for investigators studying high-temperature materials. The ESL laboratory’s main chamber has been upgraded with the addition of a rapid quench system. This system allows samples to be dropped into a quench vessel that can be filled with a low melting point material, such as a gallium or indium alloy, as a quench medium. Thereby allowing rapid quenching of undercooled liquid metals. Up to eight quench vessels can be loaded into a wheel inside the chamber that is indexed with control software. The system has been tested successfully with samples of zirconium, iron-cobalt alloys, iron-chromium-nickel, titanium-zirconium-nickel alloys, and a silicon-cobalt alloy. This new rapid quench system will allow materials science studies of undercooled materials and new materials development. The system is described and some initial results are presented.