Bulk Metallic Glass (Pure Zr)

Here's another article I read:
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2004-07/danl-lap071504.php
So Los Alamos is claiming a bulk metallic Zr glass that has higher thermal stability than other metallic glasses.
If this high-pressure method proves difficult for industrial manufacturing, will the very unique performance properties justify it?
If pure Zirconium can do this, can anything else show similar promise?
Could it be possible to make pure Ti into a bulk metallic glass? Since that's one metal that's always touted for its strength relative to its mass, I'd wondered if a glassy form would be even stronger.

sanman wrote:
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READ the article.
"...but by squeezing the metal with roughly the same pressure needed to make diamonds, scientists at the University of California's Los Alamos National Laboratory made a pure glass that may prove nearly as valuable as real diamonds.
The pure metallic glass formed by their high-pressure method holds promise for stronger, more stable materials for medical, sports and electronic products."
Would you pay $5000/carat for a tennis racket? Do you think any commercial bulk process will run at 735,000 psi to produce anything substantially cheaper? An HPHT diamond press runs $1-2 million out of the crate.
"Zhao and Zhang have tried to duplicate their experiments with commercial-grade zirconium, but found that higher temperatures and pressures were needed to make the glass, and it didn't retain its characteristics when pressures and temperatures returned to normal."
Bingo. "More studies are needed." The emperor is naked.
Nobody is doing anything at Los Alamos until they find the two missing ZIP drives. Uncle Al would be ordering colonoscopes right now.
-- Uncle Al http://www.mazepath.com/uncleal / (Toxic URL! Unsafe for children and most mammals) http://www.mazepath.com/uncleal/qz.pdf

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Well, if it's feasible to make industrial diamonds this way by squeezing them, then why can't it be practical to do it for glassy zirconium? Sure, it's expensive now, but aerospace applications might justify that cost, if there was no other material that could do the job. If you're sending a space probe to another planet, perhaps spending top-dollar would be worth it. Eventually, costs could be brought down.
The fact that high purity is required right now may not preclude the adaptation of this technique for industrial grade Zr.

sanman wrote:
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But there are much cheaper processes out there for produing metallic glasses and with refinement the size of pieces that can be produced is increasing. This process is expensive in both processing and raw material terms.