Thermoplastic Forming of Metallic Glasses

Metallic glasses (MGs) are an unusual class of materials that possess an amorphous atomic-level structure and display a plethora of desirable mechanical, chemical and physical properties, which makes them one of the most promising engineering materials. However, the poor processability of metallic glasses greatly hindered their engineering applications. Though some techniques have been developed to fabricate metallic glass components, the unique superplasticity of supercooled liquid metallic glasses attracts enduring attentions, which allows thermoplastic forming of metallic glasses on length scales ranging from atomic-size to centimeter and especially offers an alluring prospect in the field of microfabrication. While some pivotal aspects during thermoplastic forming of metallic glasses should be addressed, for example, the evaluation of thermoplastic formability and its relationship with material flowing characteristic, the required thermoplastic forming techniques for processing MG components with high quality and the potential applications of these thermoplastic formed textures are compressively reviewed in this chapter