Etching of Amorphous Alloys

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.