Esmaeil Sadeghimeresht

Isothermal Oxidation Behavior of EBM-Additive Manufactured Alloy 718

Oxidation of Alloy 718 manufactured by electron beam melting (EBM) process has been undertaken in ambient air at 650, 700, and 800 °C for up to 168 h. At 800 °C, a continuous external chromia oxide enriched in (Cr, Ti, Mn, Ni) and an internal oxide that was branched structure of alumina formed, whereas at 650 and 700 °C, a continuous, thin and protective chromia layer was detected. The oxidation kinetics of the exposed EBM Alloy 718 followed the parabolic rate law with an effective activation energy of ~248 ± 22 kJ/mol in good agreement with values in the literature for conventionally processed chromia-forming Ni-based superalloys. The oxide scale formed on the surface perpendicular to the build direction was slightly thicker, and more adherent compared to the scale formed on the surface along the build direction, attributed to the varied grain texture in the two directions of the EBM-manufactured specimens. The increased oxygen diffusion and high Cr depletion found on the surface along the build direction were attributed to the fine grains and formation of vacancies/voids along this grain orientation.

Microstructure Development in Track-by-Track Melting of EBM-Manufactured Alloy 718

Electron beam melting (EBM) is a powder-bed fusion process within the group of additive manufacturing (AM) technology that is used to fabricate high performance metallic parts. Nickel-Iron base superalloys, such as Alloy 718, are subjected to successive heating and cooling at temperatures in excess of 800 °C during the EBM process. Characterization of the dendritic structure, carbides, Laves and δ-phase were of particular interest in this study. These successive thermal cycles influence the microstructure of the material resulting in a heterogeneous structure, especially in the building direction. Hence, the aim of this study was to gain increased fundamental understanding of the relationship between the processing history and the microstructure formed within a single layer. Different numbers of tracks with equal heights were for this purpose produced, varying from one to ten tracks. All tracks used the same process parameters regardless of number and/or position. Microstructure characteristics (sub-grain structure, grain structure and phases) were analyzed by optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy equipped with energy disperse spectroscopy and electron backscatter diffraction. The direction of dendrites changed in the overlap zones within the tracks due to re-melting of material in the overlap zone. The primary dendrite arm spacings slightly increased along multi-tracks owing to a slight decrease in cooling rate by addition of the next tracks. Epitaxial growth of grains were observed in all samples due to partial re-melting of grains in previous layers and surface nucleation was also found to occur in all tracks.