Patent ID: 8323559

Claim:
A vessel for master alloying, the vessel comprising: a crucible including a composite of at least two materials selected from a group consisting of alumina, calcia, yttria, magnesia, and zirconia in a composition that has better resistance to reaction with hafnium from a molten hafnium-containing alloy than a nominal crucible composition of 70wt % magnesia and 30wt % alumina, the composition being one of a binary composition of yttria and alumina including greater than 10wt % of the yttria, a ternary composition of yttria, magnesia and alumina, a ternary composition of alumina, yttria and calcia including less than 20wt % each of the yttria and the calcia and a balance being the alumina, a ternary composition of calcia, magnesia and alumina including less than 20wt % each of the calcia and the magnesia and a balance being the alumina, a ternary composition of yttria, zirconia and magnesia, and a ternary composition of yttria, zirconia and magnesia including 6-9wt % of the yttria.