Rapid heating blow molding of metallic glasses by infrared heating

Abstract

Rapid heating blow molding is introduced as a thermoplastic molding process for bulk metallic glasses. Infrared heating allows the selective and quick heating of an object with precise control, providing the opportunity to achieve much lower viscosities than in conventional blow molding. These low viscosities enable short processing times, high strain rates, large strains, and good surface finishes even under a forming pressure as low as 105 ​Pa. This technology permits the blow molding of glassy metal sheets with a wide range of alloy compositions.

Keywords

• Forming processes
• Bulk metallic glass
• Strain rate
• Phase transformations