ALEXANDRIA, Va., March 12 -- United States Patent no. 12,247,269, issued on March 11.
"Method and apparatus for processing a liquid alloy" was invented by Qingyou Han (West Lafayette, Ind.).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A method and apparatus for producing solid alloy components from its liquid state are provided. The molten alloy is rapidly cooled using a chill to temperatures below the thermosolutal transition temperature of the alloy. Finite-amplitude acoustic vibration is applied on the chill to shake off dendrites that form on the chill surface, to stir the slurry containing the fragments of dendrites, and to shake off slurry material that sticks on the surface of the chill as the chill ...