Additive manufacturing of energy saving materials

Fe-based bulk metallic glasses (BMGs) have shown unprecedented coercivity andmagnetization saturation values and are thus envisioned as potential candidates toincrease the efficiency of electromagnetic components [۱]. So far, theircommercialization as bulk components has been prevented by the lack of processingmethods that can shape them into parts for real applications. Laser powder bed fusion(LBPF) allows to manufacture BMG parts with complex geometry while retaining anamorphous microstructure due to high local cooling rates. However, in practice, thethermal cycles generated in the layer-wise LBPF process tend to cause undesiredcrystallization. Currently, finding optimum LPBF processing conditions that yield,simultaneously, high densities and high fractions of the amorphous phase which, in turn,give rise to the required mechanical and magnetic performance, remains a challenge.This talk will describe recent work related to establishing meaningful relationshipsbetween the LPBF processing parameters, the (micro)structure, and the magneticproperties of commercial Fe-based BMGs. The feedstock amorphous powder isprocessed using a Renishaw AM۴۰۰ system with a pulsed-wave laser and thencomplementary experimental techniques such as X-ray diffraction, differential scanningcalorimetry, image analysis, magnetic and micromechanical testing are used tocharacterize the (micro)structural and multi-scale properties evolution with respect to theprocessing parameters. Guidelines for the successful additive manufacturing of Fe-basedBMGs by pulsed laser powder bed fusion are discussed.