Abstract: An apparatus is provided for obtaining a sample coupon from a container of molten metal for the performance of metallographic microstructural evaluation. The apparatus comprises a housing formed of a material resistant to thermal breakdown, the housing having an exterior surface, a closed first end, and a second end including an opening sized and shaped for receiving and retaining a support member. The housing further includes an interior coupon chamber and a passageway extending between the coupon chamber and the exterior surface. The coupon chamber has at least one generally flat surface and a cross-sectional dimension of not less than seven square millimeters and not greater than 1,250 square millimeters.

Abstract: There is provided an expendable device for use with a standard immersion sensor for a molten metal bath to simultaneously hold a standard immersion sampler in juxtaposition to the sensor when the sensor is in its protective sleeve at the end of a lance ready for immersion into the bath. This device provides another expendable heat insulating protective sleeve for accepting in its end the sampler with means being provided for maintaining a side by side relationship between the sampler sleeve and the sensor sleeve during immersion. This combination may advantageously have a vent pipe extending between the sleeves to allow air displaced from the sampler by influx of the sample to vent to a region above the molten metal bath by way of a passage in the sensor sleeve.