Local structure and composition : in additively manufactured bulk metallic glasses and composites

Sammanfattning: Additive manufacturing enables the production of complex multi-material geometries and bulk metallic glass parts beyond their critical casting thickness. The local modification of structure, composition, and properties is explored in this thesis with the aim to design novel composite materials and functional gradients. The present work contributes to the process understanding required to produce bulk metallic glass composites in the laser powder bed fusion process. The investigated material systems include zirconium and iron based metallic glasses, metallic glass - nitride composites, as well as laser nitriding of titanium.The onset of devitrification of metallic glasses due to the processing or post-processing heat treatments induces the formation of nanoscale clusters. Features of > 1 nm can be detected and reliably distinguished from random fluctuations by atom probe tomography. The progression of crystallisation depends on the oxygen content of the samples and the applied heating or cooling rates. In-depth understanding of the crystallisation processes can be used to optimise both compositions and processing conditions. The process atmosphere contains reactive species such as oxygen or nitrogen, which can be incorporated during different stages of processing by surface oxidation of the powder or substrate pieces as well as by reactions with the gas during processing. While an inert gas atmosphere with a low residual oxygen content is sufficient to hinder reactions with residual oxygen, a nitrogen atmosphere can be used for local laser nitriding and, thus, the fabrication of metallic glass – ceramic composites. Due to the decompositions of nitrides formed in the preceding process steps and the tendency of a metallic glass matrix to crystallise, which limits the processing conditions, the incorporation of nitrogen is restricted to the first few hundred nm from the surface for a Zr-based amorphous alloy. In titanium, as a crystalline example, nitrogen is incorporated throughout the molten pool.The nitride composites exhibit increased hardness depending on the local nitride fraction, which can thus be used to fabricate specific property gradients within or on a printed piece. With optimised process parameters, the amorphous fraction of a printed Fe-based bulk metallic glass can be tailored for improved soft magnetic properties.