A typical as-processed CMSX sample is presented in Figure 3. Unlike MARM, CMSX
experiments revealed that the heat transfer within the melt pool and solidification geometry had a
greater tendency to be influenced by surface tension gradients. This is particularly evident in the
left hand side of the longitudinal micrograph (Figure 4) where the melt pool was initiated.
Further, experiments conducted utilizing CMSX revealed five key observations upon
microstructural analysis 1) Completely dense deposits were achievable 2) Metallurgical bonds
were formed 3) Hot tearing was not evident in the as processed microstructure 4) Directionality
of base microstructure was maintained 5) The primary dendrite arm spacing of the added
material is on average 15 times finer than the primary dendrite spacing of the parent substrate.