Joining of bulk metallic glasses in air

We present a thermoplastic deforming method to join metallic glasses in air. Mechanistically during straining of the interface the oxide layer breaks and pristine alloy flows towards the interface and forms a metallic bond. To demonstrate the effectiveness of this method we chose reactive Zr35Ti30Cu7.5Be27.5 as an example bulk metallic glass system. A model is introduced which quantitatively predicts the bonding strength solely from the shear strength of the metallic glass, the initial surface roughness, and the applied strain. The ability to join even reactive metallic glasses in air on a timescale of the order of milliseconds to seconds at low pressure and temperature with predictable joint strength suggest a highly practical and economic method to join metallic glasses.