Author(s)

Muhammad Musaddique Ali Rafique

Eastern Engineering Solutions LLC, Detroit, MI, USA.

Bulk metallic glass matrix composites are advocated to be material of future owing to their superior strength, hardness and elastic strain limit. However, they possess poor toughness which makes them unusable in any structural engineering application. Inoculation has been used as effective mean to overcome this problem. Zr_47.5Cu_45.5Al₅Co₂ bulk metallic glass matrix composites (BMGMC) inoculated with ZrC have shown considerable refinement in microstructure owing to heterogeneous nucleation. Efforts have also been made to exploit modern laser-based metal additive manufacturing to fabricate BMGMC parts in one step. However, the effect of laser on inoculated material is unknown. In this study, an effort has been made to apply single pass laser surface treatment on untreated and inoculated BMGMC samples. It is observed that laser treatment not only refine the microstructure but result in change of size, morphology and dispersion of CuZr B2 phase in base metal, heat affected zone and fusion zone in Zr_47.5Cu_45.5Al₅Co₂. A similar effect is observed for β-Zr and Zr₂Cu in non-inoculated Zr₆₅Cu₁₅Al₁₀Ni₁₀. This effect is documented with back scatter electron imaging.

Additive, Bulk Metallic Glass, Composites, Inoculation, Phase

Ali Rafique, M. (2018) Effect of Single Pass Laser Surface Treatment on Microstructure Evolution of Inoculated Zr_47.5Cu_45.5Al₅Co₂ and Non-Inoculated Zr₆₅Cu₁₅Al₁₀Ni₁₀ Bulk Metallic Glass Matrix Composites. Engineering, 10, 730-758. doi: 10.4236/eng.2018.1010052.