Amorphous Metal Fabrication via Layered Thermal Spraying
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Solution Overview
Problem
The manufacture and implementation of metallic glasses are limited by high critical cooling rates, which restrict their thickness and applications, as conventional casting techniques cannot produce objects with uniform toughness and are prone to varying cooling rates throughout the casting process.
Innovation Solution
The use of additive manufacturing techniques to apply successive layers of molten metallic alloy, allowing each layer to solidify into amorphous metal before the next is applied, enabling precise control over cooling rates and overcoming thickness limitations by using thermal spraying techniques like HVOF, which can achieve high cooling rates and varied layer compositions.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Manufacturing precision
If conventional casting techniques are used to manufacture metallic glasses, then production simplicity is maintained, but the objects cannot achieve uniform toughness and are limited in thickness due to varying cooling rates
Solution Approach 1:
The manufacturing process segments the object into multiple successive layers, applying and cooling each layer individually. This segmentation allows precise control of cooling rates for each layer, ensuring uniform material properties throughout the entire object while maintaining process simplicity through iterative layer-by-layer fabrication.
Solution Approach 2:
Each layer is cooled and solidified into amorphous metal before the next layer is applied. This preliminary action of cooling and solidifying ensures that each layer achieves the required material properties before subsequent layers are added, preventing variations in toughness that would occur with conventional simultaneous casting.
2Temperature
If high cooling rates are applied to form metallic glasses, then amorphous structure is achieved, but the thickness of the object is limited because thicker parts cannot be cooled quickly enough
Solution Approach 1:
The object is fabricated as a series of thin successive layers rather than as a single thick component. Each thin layer can be cooled at the required high rate to form amorphous metal, while the aggregate of multiple layers achieves the desired overall thickness, overcoming the limitation of conventional single-step casting.
Solution Approach 2:
The approach transitions from controlling thickness in a single dimension to building thickness through accumulation in the vertical dimension. By applying layers sequentially and cooling each individually, the process achieves high cooling rates for each layer while the cumulative thickness is determined by the number of layers applied.
3Manufacturing precision
If successive layers are applied and cooled to form amorphous metal, then uniform material properties and increased toughness are achieved, but the manufacturing time increases due to iterative processing
Solution Approach 1:
The manufacturing process maintains continuity by immediately applying the next layer after each layer is cooled and solidified, without removing or interrupting the process. This continuous iterative application and cooling ensures uniform material properties throughout the object while minimizing idle time between layers, thereby maintaining productivity.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This method allows for the fabrication of objects with increased toughness and reduced shear modulus, achieving uniform material properties across varying geometries and thicknesses, beyond the limitations of traditional casting methods.
Implementation Method 1
cooling the first layer of molten metallic alloy such that it solidifies and thereby forms a first layer including amorphous metal
Implementation Method 2
cooling each subsequently applied layer of molten metallic alloy such that it solidifies and thereby forms a layer including amorphous metal
Implementation Method 3
at least one layer of molten metallic alloy is applied using a thermal spraying technique
Implementation Method 4
at least one layer of molten metallic alloy is applied using a technique that is one of: high velocity oxy-fuel spraying
Data Source
AI summary
Systems and methods in accordance with embodiments of the invention fabricate objects including amorphous metals using techniques akin to additive manufacturing. In one embodiment, a method of fabricating an object that includes an amorphous metal includes: applying a first layer of molten metallic alloy to a surface; cooling the first layer of molten metallic alloy such that it solidifies and thereby forms a first layer including amorphous metal; subsequently applying at least one layer of molten metallic alloy onto a layer including amorphous metal; cooling each subsequently applied layer of molten metallic alloy such that it solidifies and thereby forms a layer including amorphous metal prior to the application of any adjacent layer of molten metallic alloy; where the aggregate of the solidified layers including amorphous metal forms a desired shape in the object to be fabricated; and removing at least the first layer including amorphous metal from the surface.