Manipulating surface topology of BMG feedstock

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10233525-B2
Application number	US-201514740182-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 15, 2015
Priority date	May 15, 2012
Publication date	Mar 19, 2019
Grant date	Mar 19, 2019

Abstract

Described herein is a feedstock comprising BMG. The feedstock has a surface with an average roughness of at least 200 microns. Also described herein is a feedstock comprising BMG. The feedstock, when supported on a support during a melting process of the feedstock, has a contact area between the feedstock and the support up to 50% of a total area of the support. These feedstocks can be made by molding ingots of BMG into a mole with surface patterns, enclosing one or more cores into a sheath with a roughened surface, chemical etching, laser ablating, machining, grinding, sandblasting, or shot peening. The feedstocks can be used as starting materials in an injection molding process.

First claim

We claim:

1. A bulk-solidifying amorphous alloy feedstock comprising a body including an outer surface having recesses distributed around the body and having depths between about 2000 microns and about 5000 microns, thereby defining a roughness parameter between about 2000 microns and about 5000 microns.

2. The bulk-solidifying amorphous alloy feedstock of claim 1 , wherein the recesses are uniformly distributed around the body.

3. The bulk-solidifying amorphous alloy feedstock of claim 2 , wherein the recesses are separate from each other.

4. The bulk-solidifying amorphous alloy feedstock of claim 1 , wherein the outer surface forms a contact area with a support surface of a melting vessel that is less than 50% of an interface area between the support surface and the feedstock.

5. The bulk-solidifying amorphous alloy feedstock of claim 1 , wherein the outer surface forms a contact area with a support surface of a melting vessel that is less than 25% of an interface area between the support surface and the feedstock.

6. A bulk-solidifying amorphous alloy ingot having a cylindrical shape and comprising an outer surface having a roughness between about 2000 microns and about 5000 microns and defining grooves positioned around a circumference of the ingot and parallel to a longitudinal axis of the ingot.

7. The bulk-solidifying amorphous alloy ingot of claim 6 , wherein a depth of the grooves is from 2000 microns to 5000 microns.

8. The bulk-solidifying amorphous alloy ingot of claim 6 , wherein the grooves are uniformly distributed around a circumference of the ingot.

9. The bulk-solidifying amorphous alloy ingot of claim 6 ,
wherein the outer surface forms a contact area with a support surface of a melting vessel that is less than 10% of an interface area between the support surface and the ingot.

10. The bulk-solidifying amorphous alloy ingot of claim 6 , wherein the outer surface exhibits less heat loss from the ingot to a melting vessel during heating of the ingot as compared to a reference surface having a lower surface roughness.

11. A bulk-solidifying amorphous alloy feedstock, comprising:
a core; and
a sheath at least partially surrounding the core and defining an outer surface of the feedstock having a surface roughness of at least 2000 microns.

12. The bulk-solidifying amorphous alloy feedstock of claim 11 , wherein the sheath and the core are formed from a same material.

13. The bulk-solidifying amorphous alloy feedstock of claim 11 , wherein:
the core is a first core; and
the bulk-solidifying amorphous alloy feedstock further comprises a second core.

14. The bulk-solidifying amorphous alloy feedstock of claim 13 , wherein the first core and the second core comprise different materials.

15. The bulk-solidifying amorphous alloy feedstock of claim 11 , wherein:
the surface roughness is less than about 5000 microns.

16. The bulk-solidifying amorphous alloy feedstock of claim 11 , wherein the outer surface of the feedstock comprises recesses.

Assignees

• Apple Inc

Inventors

• Prest Christopher D
• Poole Joseph C
• Stevick Joseph
• Pham Quoc Tran
• Waniuk Theodore Andrew

Classifications

• B22D41/01

  Heating means · CPC title

• C22C45/003

  with one or more of the noble metals as major constituent · CPC title

• C22C45/10 Primary

  with molybdenum, tungsten, niobium, tantalum, titanium, or zirconium {or Hf} as the major constituent · CPC title

• B22D25/06

  by its physical properties (B22D27/00 takes precedence) · CPC title

• B22D17/00

  Pressure die casting or injection die casting, i.e. casting in which the metal is forced into a mould under high pressure · CPC title