Preparation of Ti–Ni–Fe phase by levitation and its structural characterisation

This paper presents results concerning the electromagnetic levitation of solid metal samples. It describes the levitation system and some coils designed to melt 10 g metal samples under controlled atmosphere, as well as melting the process. The main advantage of the method is the absence of any type of crucible and owing to this, the effect of side reaction can be avoided, resulting from the influence of the active metal on the walls of the ceramic crucible in the physicochemical investigations. In many cases, the side reaction makes the correct interpretation of the experimental results sometimes difficult and/or impossible. In order to describe the crystallisation process and the change in the microstructure of the samples obtained during electromagnetic melting at the intermetallic Fe–Ni–Ti phase, a scanning electron microscopy analysis and an X-ray diffraction analysis were used.