Round Ball of Splatter.

Date 09-21-2014 16:28

Amazing.
Cannot recall to have seen something similar before.
Seems brittle at its outer boundaries; hence, hardly imaginable it's metallic throughout.
Maybe some sort of metallic core surrounded by some sort of non-metallic débris?
Byproduct of some slag producing process?
Or, maybe a liquid spatter, accelerated across and 'wallowed' in surface contaminants/oxides during solidification?
Similar maybe to some sort of snowball effect?
Or... accumulated metal-oxide maybe?
Anyway, I'll prove patience until somebody-if not you yourself-unravels the mystery.

Thank you for sharing.

By Metarinka (****)

Date 09-22-2014 18:47

Well it gives you a really good example of grain structure at work. As far as the mystery puffs of material? Stick it in a SEM and give me the composition, I'm guessing it's whatever interstitial element (probably silica) that is amorphous and rose to the top during solidification.

What's the material and process?

By ssbn727 (*****)

Date 09-23-2014 02:17

Hi Joel,

Look where it says "SEI" @ the bottom of the image... They have already done that @ Ed Craig's Alma Mater, The University of Alberta or "U of A."
SEI = Scanned Electron Image via SEM = Scanning Electron Microscope... Btw, How's "Bettis" doing these days? 3rd quarter just started a few minutes ago - Later dude!

Respectfully,
Henry

By Metarinka (****)

Date 09-23-2014 21:47

Bettis is good, I hear. I left a year ago, I'm in California now getting a tour of the world at my new job. Got back from Dubai not even two months ago.

By electrode (***)

Date 09-21-2014 17:54

"It's pretty cool stuff in my book."

That it definitely is.

By Tyrone

Date 09-22-2014 10:48

Interesting indeed. I suspect as it's solidifying, it's bouncing/rolling on the plate, picking up garbage. It's also possible the garbage are nucleation sites for grain growth.
Tyrone

By Plasma56 (**)

Date 09-22-2014 15:31

Tyrone, I like this thinking. The blob of splatter blows off as a molten drop, hits the surrounding cold plate and starts solidifying as you mentioned bouncing and rolling on the plate. Is it possible the garbage, is also vapour trails of elements not fully absorbed in solution and are being oxidized off?

By ssbn727 (*****)

Date 09-22-2014 17:04

Umm Those vapor trails as you call them...Now they wouldn't be the stringy shaped substance reaching out from the outer surface of this ball of splatter if indeed the name for it is correct? That "stuff" reminds me of dead skin peeling off and the variety of shapes associated with this "Dead skin" if you will... And it looks as if the dead, thin skin layer began flaking off from the now missing layer that once covered the surface of the ball...

This image currently shows some sort of stringy substance of unknown origin which may have once been part of the surface that eventually peeled and flaked or flaked and peeled off until almost nothing was left except for those remnants of a stringy irregularly shaped substance still attached to it...

Hmmm... I'm going to reserve my opinion of what this ball could actually be as well as the stringy and flaky looking substance also... The little voice in my head is yelling to investigate further by attempting to compare the image with other images of splatter or spatter as some name it instead... Hopefully as close as possible to the magnification, lighting and whatever that background substance is which was used to create the current image... So when I find something of significance, I'll come back and report what I found, or what I didn't find also.

Respectfully,
Henry

By jwright650 (*****)

Date 09-23-2014 19:39

I tend to lean towards Tyrone's theory...as it was what I was imagining while viewing the picture and then read his reply which sort of backed up my thoughts.

By Plasma56 (**)

Date 09-22-2014 23:01

Gentleman, The picture, I really don't know much more than what we have received in response to it's posting. University of Alberta in conjunction with AWS Alberta chapter CWB and a few others in the research lab deserve the majority of credit for it's release, but the guy that passed it to my buddy, both deserve a shout.

While I apoligize for my lack of formality in using descriptive terms, It's occurance is due to enabling the communication to appeal with a greater audience. I'll say this much, guess those little balls are not as smooth as they look with the naked eye. And if you looker closer, well, what you guys said sounds good for an answer. Thank you all..

By Northweldor (***)

Date 09-23-2014 17:36 Edited 09-23-2014 17:41

Could those wispy things on the sphere surface be carbon nano-tubes?

By ssbn727 (*****)

Date 09-24-2014 02:14 Edited 09-24-2014 05:12

No, because nano tubes are more organized in various patterns and shapes dependent a lot on how they are engineered... Those fuzzy looking "wispy thingy's" probably are some kind of interstitial element(s) as Metarinka mentioned earlier with the possibility of silica strands being the culprit... They can also be imagined as precipitates also...
However, being always skeptical when not enough data is available, I'm not convinced...

I remain only about 50% convinced that they are indeed strands of silica because of what electrode has posted... And I tend to agree with his observation in questioning whether or not those clumps of particles of unknown origin shown, bonded together somehow to make the shape of a sphere which would represent spatter - are metallic... My mind isn't convinced of those clumps and their rounded edges look to be a bunch of recrystallized grains of mild steel shaped as a ball of spatter since the grains are usually columnar & dendritic in shape upon solidification...

Instead of smoothly edged clumps which are not tightly packed or mixed with various components like austentite, pearlite, or either martensite or bainite as one would find in different combinations depending on Time and Temperature @ Transformation from one phase to the other in the grains of low carbon steel welds ... Then again, I'm not 100% convinced of the latter either because there just isn't enough evidence for the elimination of any doubts I have...

I was leaning towards electrode's opinion of this ball of spatter having a possible meta,l core and the outer shell being made of solidified flux turned to slag coating along with some type of strand like material... But Plasma56 posted earlier that the ball originated from solid wire which if true, blows that theory out of the water... I would need to confirm it's origin and then theorize what it might be made of - so I'm back to square one... :roll:

Now if there was a written explanation/description available along with this image, or even an EDS graph indicating the chemical composition - my opinion could change somewhat but not yet. :razz:

Respectfully,
Henry