California Institute of Technology

Konrad Samwer

William L Johnson

Marios D Demetriou

Scott N Roberts

Georg Kaltenboeck

An apparatus and method of uniformly heating, rheologically softening, and thermoplastically forming metallic glasses rapidly into a net shape using a rapid capacitor discharge forming (RCDF) tool in combination with an electromagnetic force generated by the interaction of the applied current with a transverse magnetic field. The RCDF method utilizes the discharge of electrical energy stored in a capacitor to uniformly and rapidly heat a sample or charge of metallic glass alloy to a predetermined 'process temperature' between the glass transition temperature of the amorphous metal and the equilibrium melting point of the alloy in a time scale of several milliseconds or less, at which point the interaction between the electric field and the magnetic field generates a force capable of shaping the heated sample into a high quality amorphous bulk article via any number of techniques including, for example, injection molding, dynamic forging, stamp forging, and blow molding in a time scale of less than one second.

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Goettingen, Germany

Konrad Samwer