First results of ESA's IMPRESS Project

IMPRESS is an acronym for Intermetallic Materials Processing in Relation to Earth and Space Solidification. This 5-year project was selected by the European Commission in 2004 and is being coordinated by the European Space Agency. The main scientific objective of IMPRESS is to gain a better understanding of the links between materials processing routes, structure and final properties of novel intermetallic alloys. From a technical standpoint, the project aims to develop and test two distinct prototypes based on intermetallic materials; namely (i) gas turbine blades and (ii) Raney-type catalytic powders. Numerous material processing routes are being investigated within the project with a strong emphasis on solidification. For turbine blade manufacturing the main processes under study are casting and heat treatment. For catalytic powder production the focus is placed on gas atomisation and vapour condensation processes. IMPRESS combines a wide range of fundamental studies of solidification both on ground and in space, as well as industrial process development. This paper will describe some of the different facets related to solidification and the benchmark space experiments.