Realizing casting formation of 100 mm complex structure Vit1 metallic glass component over hundreds of grams

Bulk metallic glasses (BMGs) have not been applied in engineering despite their great potential over the past few decades. The size and structural limitations in the formation of BMG components remain a bottleneck, which continues to be a significant challenge. This work overcomes that bottleneck by utilizing the advantages of counter-gravity casting technology, optimizing the casting processes, and successfully forming a Vit1 BMG bracket component with an outer diameter of 100 mm and a weight of 462 g. The results show that copper molds are not suitable for achieving a cooling rate higher than the critical rate required for glass transition in the entire component. Additional water cooling on the mold is necessary to achieve a sufficiently high cooling rate. Based on this, the melt pouring temperature, mold preheating temperature, and pressurization speed were carefully tuned to ensure complete filling of the mold cavity and stable melt flow during cavity filling. This work demonstrates that it is feasible to produce large-sized and complex BMG components by casting, paving the way for the large-scale application of BMGs in various fields.