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Arc Casting
Arc Casting. The interior of an arc casting furnace is shown. Arc casting has been employed for many years at ISU and Ames Laboratory, for preparing alloys and inter-metallic compounds for materials research. The molten metal in the center is zirconium, #40 on the periodic table. It has a melting point of 3,371°F (1,855°C). It is held on a copper hearth, copper melts at 1,984°F (1,085°C)! Why doesn't the Zr melt through the Cu? Answer: copper has a very high thermal conductivity. The Cu mold is water cooled from below which keeps the Cu from melting.
