Development of granular structure in Cu90Co10 ribbons through furnace and current annealing

On-line measurements of resistance and temperature in melt-spun Cu90Co10 ri bbons are made using two different annealing techniques: conventional furna ce annealing, and linearly varying current Joule heating, The aim of this p aper is to consider the electrical current, flowing through the sample duri ng the annealing, as a possible parameter to control thermal treatment para meters and thus the microstructure of these systems. Although an exact way to obtain the temperature from the annealing current remains a difficult ta sk, the on-line changes in resistance with current allows one to identify s tructural changes in the sample during annealing, Also, because the tempera ture is found to increase continuously with electrical current, it is possi ble to calibrate the Joule heating system to precisely determine the anneal ing temperature.