Ok you manufacturing Guru's and forum physicists, I had an idea recently and wanted to know if it was any good or completely nuts.
I was thinking of traditional casting technology and its faults...
My idea is to fill a form with ingots of material, and then arc an electrical current through the material. The electrical current would basically "weld" the material into the desired shape. This should create a very consistant and desireable grain structure in the metal.
Of course the material would have to be rapidly cooled, but that is a non-issue the process would have to be done in a vaccum to keep the part from oxdizing as it stabilized (And vaccums are by definiton very cold).
By my estimation this process could be nearly as cheap as casting, and make parts nearly as strong as forged.
Of course, I may be wrong... does anyone here have an opinion?