High-throughput screening of laser additive manufactured metallic glass via ultrasonic wave

Laser additive manufacturing (LAM) technology provides an opportunity to fabricate bulk metallic glasses (BMGs) without any dimensional constraint and achieve the large-scale applications of BMGs. However, flaws, such as cracks, gas porosity, and crystalline phases, are always formed accompanied by the process of LAM, which seriously worsens the mechanical and physical properties of the resulting BMGs. Here, we present a novel method that involves ultrasonic wave technique to high-throughput screen the optimum process parameters for the LAM of BMG. A parameter library, constituted by a series of rectangular BMG samples, is rapidly fabricated by the LAM method under continuously changed combinations of laser power and travel speed. The ultrasonic attenuation factor, which is sensitive to the flaws, is used as the monitor to screen the parameters of the BMGs fabricated by the LAM. Using this approach, the laser power of 1300 W and travel speed of 600 mm/min are estimated as the optimum parameter combination for the LAM of a Zr(51)Ti(5)Ni(10)Cu(25)Al(9) (Zr51) BMG with the slightest flaws. The amorphous-phase dominated microstructure and the sufficiently high tensile strength of the subsequent fabricated large-sized Zr51 BMG sample verify this optimum parameter combination.