Strong, Tough and Now Cheap: New Way to Process Metallic Glass

Good article--thanks for calling it to our (my?) attention!

Very interesting - excellent posting

Nicely explained, without hype or jargon. I too appreciated this well-written article.

A little confusing:
"Common window glass and certain plastics take from minutes to hours -- or longer -- to crystallize in this molten state, providing ample time for them to be molded, shaped, cooled, and solidified. Metallic glasses, however, crystallize almost immediately once they are heated to the thick-liquid state."
Star Trek fans will be glad to know they have invented transparent aluminum.

I'm not sure exactly what you are confused about, or whether you are still confused or not. I guess I see the potential for confusion in that last sentence:

... crystallize almost immediately once they are heated to the thick-liquid state."

And think what "they" really meant to say was more like:

... crystallize almost immediately after they have been heated to the thick-liquid state and are just (barely) starting to cool."

Very interesting indeed. This could revolutionize the way we make certain products.

Brilliant artical, and this could solve a lot of problems!

Spencer.

great article. I worked on a metallic glasses project in the 80's as an exchange student in Germany. Back then we were always limited to producing only thin strips. The limiting factor then was the inability to attain the phenomenal cooling rates required. Obviously they have overcome this by now. I can see how they attain the rapid heating - the article mentiones pulse heating (not sure whether it is induction heating or similar). But I could not make out from the article how they attain the rapid cooling. Does anyone have an idea?