Direct measurement of critical cooling rates has been challenging and only determined for a minute fraction of the reported metallic glass forming alloys. Here, we report a method that directly measures critical cooling rate of thin film metallic glass forming alloys in a combinatorial fashion. Based on a universal heating architecture using indirect laser heating and a microstructure analysis this method offers itself as a rapid screening technique to quantify glass forming ability. We use this method to identify glass forming alloys and study the composition effect on the critical cooling rate in the Al–Ni–Ge system where we identified Al51Ge35Ni14 as the best glass forming composition with a critical cooling rate of 104 K/s.

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In-space manufacturing draws great attentions due to its potential applications in space exploration. However, the high-vacuum and microgravity environment introduces extrascientific and technical challenges. Biological experiments in the International Space Station show that spiders can build webs under microgravity conditions, which indicates that the spiderweb building could be independent of gravity. Herein, inspired by the spiderweb, a strategy for additive manufacturing in space, that is, building a 3D structure composed of metallic ribbons and bonded joints, is proposed. Several kinds of 3D metallic structures are manufactured and the flexibility and strength of the obtained jointed-ribbons are tested. It is showed in the results that the tensile strength of the 3D metallic structures reaches about 70% of that of the raw materials, while their hardness almost keeps unchanged. Herein, an effective method to realize the manufacturing of the complex metallic structures in space is provided.