| The ever increasing requirements placed on the quality of metallic materials with regards to their cleanliness, low content of undesirable gases and trace elements, have meant that metallurgists are constantly being confronted with a need for improved metallurgical technologies. These new technologies must also be economical in order to remain competitive in the national and international marketplace.;The common denominator in the various methods for assessing the cleanliness of metals is the necessity of extracting a sample during the process for the subsequent analysis. The major disadvantage of such methods is time. How useful is an analysis once the process is finished? An instantaneous analysis while still in the liquid state is desired.;One very important measure that has been overlooked in the past forty years is the use of ultrasound for assessing the overall cleanliness, in terms of size, distribution and behaviour of particles, in the melt.;A series of experiments were carried out in molten aluminium and some alloys to determine the overall cleanliness and particle behaviour using the Pulsed Ultrasound Technique. These experiments proved successful in determining the overall cleanliness and particle behaviour. |
