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The investment casting process offers great freedom of design with the economic advantage of near net shape production and has been widely used to process TiAl alloys. An investigation was undertaken to develop stable and cheap refractory slurry systems, suitable for use as a face coat in the investment casting of titanium aluminides. A TiO2–Al2O3 (TiAlO) based face coat slurry was investigated and compared with a traditional yttria based face coat slurry. After sintering, the chemical inertness of the manufactured shells in contact with molten TiAl alloys was tested by simulating the casting process using a flash re-melting test, in which sample shells were in contact with titanium aluminides at given temperatures for varying time durations and subsequently re-solidified. Compared with yttria, the TiAlO face coat had relatively lower chemical inertness against molten alloys, forming a thick hardened layer at the metal/shell interface with massive interaction products along grain boundaries. The reaction also changed the wetting behaviour of the TiAl on the TiAlO face coat with the contact angle decreasing as a function of interaction time.

The application of Melt Conditioner (MC) for production of high-quality DC billets and slabs at semisolid state is examined. In this technique, liquid metal is continuously fed into a twin-screw melt conditioning device, where the liquid metal or semisolid slurry is subjected to high shear rate, and then delivered continuously into a DC caster. In this paper, the feasibility of MCDC of a wrought aluminium alloy in the semi solid state has been investigated and the possibility of DC casting by MC technique below the liquidus temperature as a novel idea was explored. This idea may challenge the conventional DC casting which is normally performed above liquidus temperature.

Vitamin C (VC) levels (mg/l00 g FW) were determined in 10 varieties of colored bell pepper grown under different field conditions. VC was determined by the microfluorometric method. `Orobelle' (169 mg), `King Arthur' (143 mg), `Valencia' (141 mg), and `Chocolate Bell' (134 mg) had significantly higher VC levels than `Dove' (109 mg), `Ivory' (106 mg), `Blue Jay' (93 mg), `Canary' (90 mg), and `Black Bird' (65 mg). The largest variability (53 mg) in VC levels were observed for varieties that had the highest VC content. Mean VC levels were 143a, 143a, 141a, 136a, 108ab, 93bc, and 63c for the yellow, red, orange, brown, white, purple, and black colors, respectively. Since the Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) for VC is 60 mg per day, these results suggested that a 100-g serving of fresh bell pepper or less would supply 100% RDA of VC. Therefore, after selecting a color, growers still have the freedom to grow a variety that performs well in their area to produce peppers of high VC contents.

Field performance, ear characteristics and sensory ratings were determined for `Even Sweeter,' `Fantasia', `Silver Queen', `Silverado', `Snow Belle', `Snow White', `Starshine', and `Treasure' sweet corn varieties. Yield (P = 0.60), ears per hectare (P = 0.77), and ear fill (P = 0.22) were not significantly affected by variety, whereas ear set height (P < 0.01), ear length (P < 0.01) and diameter (P < 0.01), tip cover (P < 0.01), eye appeal (P < 0.01), as well as sensory ratings of appearance (P < 0.01), sweetness (P < 0.01), and flavor (P < 0.01) after cooking were. None of the selected varieties was rated unacceptable. However, because mean separation tests at the 5% and 10% levels did not provide clear groupings and because all attributes have to be considered together in variety evaluation, a global performance index (GPI) was developed by adding the ranks of each variety for each attribute. GPI ranged between 28 for `Treasure' and 59 for `Snow White' on a 10 (best) to 80 (worse) scale. `Treasure', `Silver Queen', and `Even Sweeter' were above average. These varieties may be considered best performers for white sweet corn production in central Alabama.