Effect of substrate temperature on the interface bond between support and substrate during selective laser melting of Al–Ni–Y–Co–La metallic glass

•Substrate temperature can influence interface between metallic glass and substrate.•Solidification microstructure is strongly affected by the substrate temperature.•Higher substrate temperature gives rise to a stronger interface bond.•The reason is attributed to different cooling rates and thermal histories.

An Al–Ni–Y–Co–La metallic glass was laser-melted onto an Al substrate which was at two different temperatures: 25 °C and 250 °C. It was found that the substrate temperature played a critical role in determining the interface bonding between substrate and support and final solidification microstructures. The higher substrate temperature resulted in the formation of a stronger interface bond between metallic glass and substrate while lower substrate temperature resulted in the formation of a weaker interface bond. This has been attributed to different cooling rates and thermal histories present in the two cases. A multi-physics-based computational model based on the heat transfer theory in heat transient mode of COMSOL™ was introduced to explain the underlying mechanism.