| Abstract Scope |
Experimental alloy development following the conventional, manual approach is a time-consuming and expensive process. This creates a bottleneck relative to computational modeling and artificial intelligence, which can screen large design spaces much faster but typically require experimental validation. To overcome this bottleneck, we are developing “AlloyBot”, an autonomous, self-driving laboratory designed to accelerate alloy development by orders of magnitude. As the foundational module, we here present an automatic arc-melting system capable of synthesizing over 100 alloy compositions per week. The system automatically dispenses bulk feedstock material to achieve target compositions within 1 atomic percent accuracy. The system then automatically melts, homogenizes, and optionally suction-casts the alloys. Novel design features for improved process control, combined with in-situ data collection, ensure reproducible alloy quality and thermal history. Overall, this is an essential building block to enable autonomous alloy discovery and shorten the timeline towards practical applications. |