Melting zone technique as a tool for a combinatorial approach in material science - I. Application to Al-Co alloys

The melting zone technique can be used in order to obtain the pattern of ph ase diagrams. Two examples have been investigated. They concern the binary Al-Co and the ternary Al-Co-Fe systems. After a single pass, the phase dist ribution along the rod was characterized by optical microscopy and micropro be analysis. In this first paper, the results concerning the Al-Co binary s ystem are just presented; they can be expressed in phase diagram terms and when the phase diagram is associated to some properties measured in situ al ong the rod, this procedure is a good way towards the research of optimized materials. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.