Partial crystallization in a Zr-based bulk metallic glass in selective laser melting

Metals and alloys in amorphous state are promising for the use as structural and functional materials due to their superior properties related to the absence of such defects as grain boundaries and dislocations. Obtaining the amorphous state requires quenching from liquid state with a high cooling rate. In conventional technologies, this is the reason for a considerable size limitation hindering application of amorphous alloys. Additive manufacturing (AM) is free of the size limitation. The so-called bulk metallic glass (BMG) alloys have extremely low critical cooling rates and can be used in AM. Recent studies on AM from Zr-based BMGs by selective laser melting (SLM) has proved the possibility of attaining the amorphous state and revealed partial crystallization to be the principal drawback of this process. The present work aims to analyze the conditions for partial crystallization and attempts to control it by optimizing the process parameters. A comprehensive parametric analysis is accomplished in single-track SLM experiments with Zr-based BMG alloy Vit 106. The observed microstructures are related to the temperature fields and thermal cycles estimated by an analytic heat-transfer model in the laser-impact zone. In the cross section of a laser track, a central bright domain is identified as the remelted zone. An annular darker crystallization zone encircles the remelted zone. The model fits the experimentally obtained dependencies of the remelted zone size versus laser power and scanning speed and indicates that 43 ± 2% of the incident laser energy is transferred into the substrate thermal energy. The principal energy losses are reflection of the incident laser radiation and material evaporation. Primary crystalline inclusions existing in the substrate before laser processing dissolve at the laser melting. The mean cooling rate in the remelted zone is up to 4 orders of magnitude greater than the critical cooling rate. Therefore, homogeneous nucleation is not expected. Nevertheless, the theoretically estimated crystallization times are sufficient for a considerable crystal growth in the heat-affected zone where primary crystalline inclusions and nuclei are not completely dissolved.