Supercooled liquid fusion of carbon fibre-bulk metallic glass composites with superplastic forming properties

Bulk metallic glasses (BMGs) are multicomponent metal alloys that form a glassy structure with relative ease upon cooling from the melt. Unique to glassy materials is a glass-transition (temperature), whereby the vitreous solid relaxes into a supercooled liquid state, leading to a dramatic decrease in viscosity. This softening behaviour allows novel thermoplastic forming and bonding processes to be carried out that are simply unachievable among conventional metal processing methods. The work presented herein utilises this supercooled liquid state by infiltrating carbon fibres within a Mg-based BMG to manufacture fully-dense carbon fibre reinforced BMGs which also exhibit unique secondary forming capabilities.