Recently, Academician Wang Weihua, director of the Songshan Lake Materials Laboratory, collaborated with Professor Ma Jiang from Shenzhen University to compile a comprehensive review paper on the manufacturing and forming of amorphous alloys, integrating the latest research progress in this field. The paper was published in "Progress in Materials Science".
The paper highlights that since the inception of amorphous alloys in the 1960s, nearly 60 years of research has been conducted. Scholars from around the world have extensively studied the intrinsic structure, formation capability, and mechanical properties of amorphous alloys. However, the large-scale engineering application of these materials as structural components has been limited. The primary issue causing this dilemma is that most amorphous alloys have very limited material dimensions and room temperature processability, significantly restricting the exploitation and application of their exceptional properties.
Comparing Rapid Solidification Strategies with Advanced Manufacturing Approaches (Rapid Solidification: Liquid to Solid; Advanced Manufacturing Strategies: "Small to Large"). Image provided by the interviewee.
To date, among the explored compositions of over a thousand amorphous alloys, the majority of these materials exhibit a critical size at the millimeter scale and tend to be brittle at room temperature, making them difficult to process like traditional metallic materials. This limitation prevents the exceptional properties of amorphous alloys from being utilized effectively, falling short of meeting the engineering requirements for such materials. Therefore, overcoming the challenges related to the size of the alloys and their brittleness at room temperature remains a significant bottleneck in the field.
To address these issues, a team led by Academician Wang Weihua, in collaboration with Shenzhen University, Guangdong University of Technology, South China University of Technology, and Dongguan University of Technology, among others, secured funding for a major project in 2019 under the Guangdong Province's first batch of basic and applied research grants. The project, titled "Design, Preparation, and Advanced Manufacturing Fundamentals of Next-Generation Amorphous Alloys," focuses on the most critical scientific question of the formability of amorphous alloys.
The goal of the project is to overcome the limitations of traditional rapid solidification by harnessing advanced manufacturing concepts and technologies involving acoustic, thermal, and photonic energies, as well as multi-energy field coupling. By proposing a novel strategy for the "Manufacturing and Shaping of Amorphous Alloys," the project aims to break through the decades-long bottlenecks that have limited the large-scale application of amorphous alloys, achieving a series of high-performance new amorphous alloy materials.
Various manufacturing and shaping strategies, as well as processing technologies for amorphous alloys, were investigated. The research team, supported by this project, achieved a series of original breakthroughs. These include the development of thermally coupled manufacturing technology for amorphous alloys, obtaining meter-sized giant amorphous alloys. They also proposed ultrasonic vibration-induced plasticity for amorphous alloys, along with the development of various low-temperature preparation techniques and equipment. Additionally, they introduced the concept of atomic manufacturing for amorphous alloys, providing crucial support for obtaining novel materials with unique systems and properties.
In conjunction with the latest research advancements in this field, Wang Weihua and the team led by Ma Jiang comprehensively reviewed and co-wrote a lengthy review paper on the manufacturing and shaping directions of amorphous alloys. The paper extensively surveyed the current status of amorphous alloys and manufacturing technologies for amorphous alloy components. It covers a range of advancements in additive, equal, and subtractive manufacturing of amorphous alloys and their processing technologies, particularly elaborating on the achievements and application prospects of ultrasonic manufacturing processing as a new technology. The paper also provides a comprehensive comparison of the advantages and limitations of various processing technologies and evaluates their impact on the properties and structure of amorphous alloys during processing.
The paper proposes a conceptual framework for the manufacturing and shaping of amorphous alloys, delving into and summarizing some key scientific and technological issues in the current processes of manufacturing and shaping amorphous alloys. It offers new ideas and insights for further development in the field of amorphous alloys.
Related paper information: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pmatsci.2024.101283
