Exploitation of Metallic Glasses Through Surface Engineering

Abstract

Metallic glasses are formed when certain alloy compositions are cooled very rapidly from the liquid state. They show a range of potentially valuable magnetic, electrical, mechanical, and corrosion properties, but their usefulness has hitherto been limited by the form in which they are generally produced, i.e. in, very thin sections. Ways in which this problem may be overcome for different applications are reviewed. For the purpose of exploiting the wear and corrosion properties of metallic glasses, it is considered that laser glazing holds considerable promise.