The manufacturing of many industrial and consumer products involves the process of solidification. Solidification is a material transformation familiar to everyone.
Snow is a form of solid water that results from rapid cooling.
Snowflakes, when viewed with a powerful microscope, take on an interesting structure made up of tree-like forms called dendrites. Most metal products solidify by forming dendrites. The size, shape, and orientation of the dendrites help determine the strength and durability of steel, aluminum, and superalloys used in the production of automobiles and airplanes. Because virtually all industrially important alloys solidify from a molten state by dendritic processes, enhancing the basic understanding of dendritic solidification may help improve industrial production techniques. On Earth, dendritic solidification can be strongly affected by constant flows or currents in the molten materials caused by gravity.