Etching of Amorphous Alloys
Etching of Amorphous Alloys
Winter 1986
Recently amorphous alloys have become more important.
Quite a number of alloys are commercially available nowadays.
Suppliers include Allied Chemicals (tradename Metglas),
Vacuum Schmelze (Vitrovac), Hitachi etc. All the commercially
available amorphous alloys have belonged up till now to the
group H (T, M), in which:
H stands for the main metal components Fe, Ni or Co
T stands for other metal components of the alloy (viz. Fe, Ni,
Co, Mo, W, Mg, Cr, V and Ti)
M stands for metalloid components of the alloy (B, P, Si, C
Ge).
Depending on the composition of the alloy, special physical
properties can be achieved such as high strength, high corrosion
resistance, special magnetic properties etc.
Amorphous materials are produced by pouring a melt of the
aHoy composition on a rotating cooled drum. Figure 1. If the
temperature decreases at a rate of> 1060Isec, the melt is frozen
in and no crystallization can take place. With this technique, the
amorphous material is produced in the form of ribbon. The
commercially available width is up to about 50 mm with a
thickness of 20-60 um.
J. Havekes and J. van Ruler, Nederlandse Philips Bedrijven BV
