Temperature influence on sintering with concurrent crystallization behavior in Ti-based metallic glassy powders

A large size and high strength Ti-based bulk metallic glass is fabricated from the amorphous powders by the spark plasma sintering (SPS) technique. The sufficient viscous flow induced by the macroscopic temperature under a sintering stress is considered as the main mechanism for the densification. During the SPS process, the microscopic temperature gradient was identified, which directly influences the microstructures and in turn the mechanical properties at different regions of the sample. A new phase with an orthorhombic structure (a = 0.48 nm, b = 1.03 nm and c = 0.61 nm) is determined.