Solid state impact welding of BMG and copper by vaporizing foil actuator welding

The objective of this study was to create impact welds between a Zr-based Bulk Metallic Glass (BMG) and copper at a laboratory scale and subsequently investigate the relationship between interfacial structure and mechanical properties. Vaporizing Foil Actuator (VFA) has recently been demonstrated as a versatile tool for metalworking applications: impact welding of dissimilar materials being one of them. Its implementation for welding is termed as VFA Welding or VFAW. With 8 kJ input energy into an aluminum foil actuator, a 0.5 mm thick Cu110 alloy sheet was launched toward a BMG target resulting in an impact at a velocity of nearly 600 m/s. For this experiment, the welded interface was straight with a few BMG fragments embedded in the copper sheet in some regions. Hardness tests across the interface showed increase in strength on the copper side. Instrumented peel test resulted in failure in the parent copper sheet. A slower impact velocity during a separate experiment resulted in a weld, which had wavy regions along the interface and in peel failure again happened in the parent copper sheet. Some through-thickness cracks were observed in the BMG plate and there was some spall damage in the copper flyers. TEM electron diffraction on a sample, cut out from the wavy weld interface region using a focused ion beam, showed that devitrification of the BMG was completely avoided in this welding process.