Abstract: A process for making an indium-tin-oxide shaped body, comprising: (a) filling an indium-tin-oxide powder into a first flexible mold, the indium-tin-oxide powder having a specific BET surface of at most 3 m.sup.2 /g with a mean primary particle size of 0.03 .mu.m to 1.0 .mu.m and/or having a density of at least 40% of theoretical density after cold pressing at a pressure of 100 MPa and/or the indium-tin-oxide powder being made by reacting at least two reaction partners comprising a molten indium-tin-metal alloy as a first reaction partner and oxygen as a second reaction partner in a plasma arc in a plasma chamber provided with an inlet opening for the reaction partners and an outlet with a gas-supply device to obtain a material, and quenching the material at the outlet opening of the plasma chamber with a gas stream which cools the material at a cooling rate of 10.sup.5 K/s to 10.sup.8 K/s to +50.degree. C. to +400.degree. C.

Abstract: A process for making iron, cobalt and/or nickel base alloys containing rhenium. The process involves melting together the components that form the alloys, at least one of the components being a rhenium master alloy having 30 to 70 wt % rhenium, then casting the resultant melt and allowing the melt to solidify. Possible difficulties such as the formation of rhenium heptoxide are avoided by using a master alloy containing (i) rhenium and (ii) iron, cobalt and/or nickel, instead of sintered rhenium as the rhenium source during the melting step.

Abstract: A process for making a crystalline solid-solution powder which involves reacting at least two reactants in a plasma arc of a plasma chamber and blast-cooling the resultant product in a high velocity gas stream to form the powder. The first reactant is a molten metal alloy and the second reactant is a gas. The reaction is carried out in a plasma arc and the products rapidly cooled by a gas stream acting at the outlet opening of the plasma chamber. The crystalline solid-solution powder formed by the process has a low electrical resistivity. If an indium-tin alloy is used as the first reactant and oxygen as the second reactant, there is obtained an indium-tin-oxide (ITO) crystalline solid-solution powder which, when compacted to 40% of its theoretical density, has an electrical resistivity in the range of about 2 .OMEGA.cm. This ITO crystalline solid-solution powder is particularly suitable for preparing an ITO target, with high electrical conductivity and thus high achievable sputtering rates.

Abstract: A sintered rhenium crucible, highly suitable for growing single crystals from refractory metal oxides, for example by the Czochralski technique, is formed of fine rhenium powder, by sintering. A compact is formed by cold isostatic pressing and thereafter the compact is sintered at 500-2800.degree. C. to obtain a sintered crucible. Product density is limited to 88-95% of theroretical in order to maximize creep resistance.

Abstract: A radially expandable support structure for holding open lumina within a body, especially in a blood vessel, has a tube-shaped body with a wall surface extending between a first and a second end which is formed from elongate members connected to each other. The elongate members include a first group of members which extend essentially in a longitudinal direction of the tube-shaped body, such that adjacent members of this first group are connected in pairs to each other at their ends to form a member pair which encloses a slit. These member pairs are connected approximately in the middle of their longitudinal extension to member pairs arranged adjacent to each other in a circumferential direction of the tube-shaped body to form a ring which surrounds the longitudinal axis of the tube-shaped body, and several rings connected to each other at the ends of the slits are arranged along the longitudinal axis of the tube-shaped body.

Abstract: Intermediate material in the form of a metal strip with a contact area is provided with a projection on the bottom surface of its core area, i.e., on the surface to be joined to a contact carrier strip of copper or a copper alloy. The bottom surface of the strip facing the contact carrier strip is plated with a material which consists essentially of silver, and the melting point of the core area of the metal strip is above the melting point of silver. For the production of a semifinished product for electrical contacts, the metal strip is welded by its silver-coated bottom surface to the contact carrier strip, consisting essentially of copper. The silver from the coating on the core area of the metal strip and the copper from the contact carrier strip mix with each other and thus form an alloy which corresponds or is very close to the eutectic alloy with 28 wt. % of copper and the remainder of silver.

Abstract: A method of manufacturing an electrically conductive cermet that includes less than 35% by volume of a precious metal by mixing a powdered refractory ceramic with the powdered metal, molding the mixture into a green, and sintering the green to create a cermet with a dense ceramic phase and a metallic phase in the form of a coherent network. The object is good electric conductivity at a low metal content. The precious metal powder is selected to shrink less and exhibits less sintering tendency as it forms the metallic phase than does the ceramic powder as it forms the ceramic phase.

Abstract: A process and apparatus for producing a laminate containing a metal foil strip and a plastic film strip, in which the two strips have stamped structures repeated at regular intervals in the longitudinal direction of the strips and are disposed at contiguous points in the laminate, a pre-stamped strip and the second strip being continuously joined together from one end.

Abstract: The targets for cathodic sputtering according to this invention are formed of hot-pressed or hot isostatic-pressed indium oxide/tin oxide powder with a minimum density of 95% of the theoretical density and with a sub-stoichiometric oxygen content are known. In order to provide the improvement of high stability and, simultaneously, high sputtering rate, it is proposed according to the invention that the target have a crystalline phase which is formed as a solid solution of indium oxide and tin oxide with a minimum of 90% by weight, preferably a minimum of 97%, of the solid solution, and which has an average grain size ranging from 2 .mu.m to 20 .mu.m.

Abstract: A method for the continuous preparation of a powder by reacting at least two reagents in a plasma arc, in which a first and a second reagent are fed to the plasma arc, which is maintained by a voltage applied between a first and a second electrode. At least the first reagent is electrically conductive and comprises the first electrode. The first reagent is fed to the plasma arc in a fluid form. A device for carrying out the method is provided. The device includes a parabolic shaped plasma chamber, a means for feeding at least the first reagent to the plasma chamber, and at least two electrodes for generating a plasma arc in the plasma chamber.

Abstract: A component made of sintered oxides of indium and tin and a method of manufacturing such a component. The mean size of the oxide particles is larger than 2 .mu.m. The empirical density of the component is more than 95% of theoretical. The component is characterized in that at least 97 weight % of the oxide particles are solid solution crystals with a crystalline matrix of indium oxide. The method comprises molding a green body of a powder of indium-oxide and tin-oxide solid solution and sintering the green body at a temperature less than 1100.degree. C. and preferably between 800.degree. and 1050.degree. C.

Abstract: In order to achieve, proceeding from the known methods of producing a ceramic component by sintering, in which an oxygenous ceramic powder is introduced into a sintering chamber, heated in there, and dense sintered under application of a halogen-containing sintering auxiliary agent, a simple and inexpensive method in which the oxygen stoichiometry of the sintered component can easily be adjusted to a given value, it is proposed to have the sintering auxiliary agent released from a reservoir separated from the green body at a given sintering temperature, the halogen superficially reacting with the ceramic powder separating oxygen, and the separated oxygen or a defined part of the separated oxygen being caught by way of an oxygen getter.

Abstract: A process and apparatus for producing a laminate containing a metal foil strip and a plastic film strip, in which the two strips have stamped structures repeated at regular intervals in the longitudinal direction of the strips and are disposed at contiguous points in the laminate, a pre-stamped strip and the second strip being continuously joined together from one end.

Abstract: Aqueous ammoniacal baths containing polyamines and mercaptoalkane carboxylic acids and/or mercaptoalkane sulfonic acids for the electrodeposition of palladium-silver alloys are provided, which are particularly suited as electrical contacts. The baths have very good stability and permit the deposition of alloys with a silver content up to approximately 99 weight %.

Abstract: Silver-tin alloys can be deposited by the galvanic method from a cyanide-free bath which is prepared using silver as the nitrate or diammine complex, tin as the soluble tin(II) or tin(IV) compound and mercaptoalkane-carboxylic acids and -sulfonic acids, Uniform and adhering coatings of silver-tin alloys with a silver content of approximately 20 to 99 weight % can be deposited from said bath. Silver-tin alloys are electrodeposited from said bath at a pH of 0 to 14 and a current density of 0.1 to 10 A/dm.sup.2.

Abstract: Lead frames completely surface-plated with palladium have a nickel-phosphorus or copper-tin layer between the base element, made for example of copper, and the palladium layer. Such lead frames exhibit good bondability and good solderability without tinning.

Abstract: A thin galvanically deposited gold-containing surface layer is backed by a support layer containing a palladium alloy and having a thickness between 0.05 .mu.m and 0.5 .mu.m. In a preferred embodiment the surface layer and the support layer have a combined thickness of less than 0.5 .mu.m.

Abstract: An electrical contact element having a core part made of an iron/nickel alloy and a gold/tin alloy applied to a portion of the core part which serves as a solderable connection part. The gold/tin alloy has a tin content of from about 10 to about 40% by weight and an adhesive layer, formed of a silver/tin alloy and containing about 10 to 50% by weight tin, is located between the core part and the gold/tin alloy.

Abstract: To manufacture a starting material for electrical contacts, such as relay contacts, a contact sandwich in the form of a metal strip made of a material of good electrical conductivity is bonded to a contact support strip consisting essentially of copper by resistance welding. The bonding surface of the metal strip has wales or ridges running lengthwise, the crests of the ridges being tapered in cross section and being provided with a coating consisting essentially of silver. To produce an electrical contact, the ridges are pressed against a copper contact support and a high heat is produced at the crests of the ridges by a welding circuit. This results in the melting of the silver coating, which is forced between the ridges by the pressure applied through the electrodes of the welding circuit, where it forms a silver-copper alloy with a melting point close to the eutectic.

Abstract: For the electrolytic extraction of metal from a solution containing metal ions and situated in a first cell, metal is cathodically deposited by means of an anode on an electrically conductive endless band immersed partially into the solution, and is redissolved anodically in the electrolyte of an adjacent second cell by partial immersion of the circulating endless band; the metal dissolved in the second cell is again deposited in high purity on a cathode.