Shockwave Consolidation to Create Bulk Metallic Glass

For most amorphous metal alloys, the requirement for rapid quenching restricts the final form to be small in at least one dimension—either a powder or a ribbon. Shockwave consolidation can yield fully dense bulk metallic glass objects from these amorphous precursors. An applied axis-symmetric pressure pulse occurs so quickly that particles bond without an attendant crystalline grain growth. For powder consolidation, amorphous Fe49.7Cr17.1Mn1.9Mo7.4W1.6B15.2C3.8Si2.4 powder is first loaded into a steel tube, green compacted and sealed. An explosive pressure pulse yields a dense metallic glass rod. An analysis using X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy demonstrates that the fully consolidated rod can maintain the amorphous characteristic of the precursors, establishing explosive shockwave consolidation as a viable production technique for bulk metallic glasses.