3-D printing used to create metallic glass alloysResearchers…

3-D printing used to create metallic glass alloys

Researchers have now demonstrated the ability to create amorphous metal, or metallic glass, alloys using three-dimensional (3-D) printing technology, opening the door to a variety of applications – such as more efficient electric motors, better wear-resistant materials, higher strength materials, and lighter weight structures.

“Metallic glasses lack the crystalline structures of most metals – the amorphous structure results in exceptionally desirable properties,” says Zaynab Mahbooba, first author of a paper on the work and a Ph.D. student in North Carolina State University’s Department of Materials Science and Engineering.

Unfortunately, making metallic glass requires rapid cooling to prevent the crystalline structure from forming. Historically, that meant researchers could only cast metallic glasses into small thicknesses. For example, amorphous iron alloys could be cast no more than a few millimeters thick. That size limitation is called an alloy’s critical casting thickness.

“The idea of using additive manufacturing, or 3-D printing, to produce metallic glass on scales larger than the critical casting thickness has been around for more than a decade,” Mahbooba says. “But this is the first published work demonstrating that we can actually do it. We were able to produce an amorphous iron alloy on a scale 15 times larger than its critical casting thickness.”

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