California Institute of Technology has developed the latest metal glass processing technology

A metallic glass that has better strength than steel or titanium, and has excellent flexibility. Whether it is for the mobile phone manufacturing industry or the aircraft parts manufacturing industry, it is an ideal material. And now the California Institute of Technology has developed the latest metal glass processing technology, so that metal glass processing can be as cheap as plastic processing. This new technology can heat metal glass at a frequency of one million degrees per second, and achieve an easy shaping effect within a few milliseconds.

The previous production process of metallic glass is to heat the metal alloy by reaching the melting point above the crystalline phase of the material, which usually requires a temperature above 1000 degrees Celsius, and then the molten metal is cast into a steel mold before cooling and crystallization. But the problem is that ordinary steel molds generally withstand temperatures of only about 600 degrees Celsius. Therefore, the mold must be replaced frequently, which makes the cost of the production process a sudden increase. And because of the strong fluidity of the liquid at a temperature of 1000 degrees Celsius, the metal solution is easy to splash or break, causing flow mark defects in the parts.

Therefore, the researchers adopted a new ohmic heating method: in about 100 milliseconds, by heating a strong short pulse current, transmitting about 1000 joules of energy to heat the metal alloy. In this way, we can all heat the alloy at least a thousand times faster than before. Johnson said so. Now the softened glass solution can be poured into the mold to cool in just one millisecond, including the half millisecond needed to reach the proper temperature. Except when exposed to the outdoors, the molded product will not show blemishes and oxidation problems.

In addition, this production process can also enable researchers to study these materials in a molten state, which was never possible before. Johnson also said: This new technology called rapid discharge shaping has now been patented and is developing towards commercialization. He and his colleagues have established a company called GlassimetalTechnology in 2010, using this shaping technology to commercialize the production of new metallic glasses.