Forming of bulk metallic glass microcomponents

✍ Scribed by John A. Wert; Christian Thomsen; Rune Debel Jensen; Mogens Arentoft

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 2009
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 579 KB
• Volume: 209
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0924-0136
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jmatprotec.2008.04.005

✦ Synopsis

The present article considers forward extrusion, closed-die forging and backward extrusion processes for fabrication of individual microcomponents from two bulk metallic glass (BMG) compositions: Mg 60 Cu 30 Y 10 and Zr 44 Cu 40 Ag 8 Al 8 . Two types of tooling were used in the present work: relatively massive die sets characteristic of cold forming operations for crystalline metals and lightweight die sets adapted to the special characteristics of BMGs.

In addition to demonstrating that microcomponents of several geometries can be readily fabricated from BMGs, rheological properties are combined with crystallization kinetics to formulate a generally applicable method that can guide selection of optimal forming parameters. Finally, the use of particulate-based lubricants for BMG forming is shown to result in individual lubricant particles becoming mechanically locked into the BMG surface.