forces applied to the outer radius of the melt in order to assure the application of sufficient stirring forces at the center of the melt additionally while a single multiphase multistator system is usually sufficient to thoroughly stir a molten metal volume it may be insufficient to provide uniformly controlled mixing throughout the melt controlled and uniform mixing is important insofar as it is necessary for maintaining a uniform temperature and viscosity throughout the melt as well as for optimizing heat transfer from the melt for its rapid precision cooling in contrast to the steady state temperature and heat transfer characteristics of the mhd process the production of a semi solid thixotropic slurry requires rapid and controlled temperature changes to occur uniformly throughout the slurry in a short period of time moreover in the thixotropic range as the temperature decreases the solid fraction and accordingly the viscosity rapidly increases in this temperature and viscosity range it is desirable to maintain steady uniform stirring throughout the entire volume of material this is especially true as the volume of molten metal increases to this end the present invention utilizes a combination of stator types to combine circumferential magnetic stirring fields with longitudinal magnetic stirring fields to achieve a resultant three dimensional magnetic stirring field that urges uniform mixing of the metal melt one or more multiphase stators are included in the system to allow greater control of the.