Solution and Aging Treatments of Inconel 718/TiC Nanocomposite From Selective Laser Melting

Author(s):  
Yachao Wang ◽  
Jing Shi ◽  
Shiqiang Lu ◽  
Yun Wang

Fabricating metal matrix composites (MMCs) through laser assisted additive manufacturing (LAAM) has attracted much attention in recent years. This is because the traditional metal components produced by LAAM are usually inferior to the counterparts produced by conventional manufacturing processes, reflected by porosity, lower density, and thus poorer mechanical properties and service performance. Adding reinforcements to metal matrix in LAAM process can alleviate the challenge. Also, for components produced by LAAM processes, post treatment is often required to further strengthen the material, reduce residual stress, or clean off surface for dimensional accuracy. However, research regarding how post treatment affects the microstructure and mechanical properties of LAAM-produced MMCs is still very rare in literature. In this study, a nano-TiC reinforced Inconel 718 composite is prepared using selective laser melting (SLM) technique. Various post heat treatment processes have been adopted to investigate their effect on final product properties. The motivation is that Inconel 718 is a Ni-based superalloy, whose full potential is explored in heat treatment after manufacturing processes. A composite with 0.5 wt.% nano-TiC addition is prepared. Three levels of solution temperatures at 940, 980, and 1020 °C (for 1 hr) or one level of annealing temperature at 1100 °C (for 1 hr) are adopted for the treatment, combined with the standard two-step aging (720 °C, 8 h, furnace cooling + 620 °C, 8 h, air cooling) on both the MMC and unreinforced Inconel 718 materials. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) observation is conducted to analyze the microstructure of the composite and understand the reinforcing mechanism. Tensile tests are conducted to evaluate the tensile properties. It is discovered that compared with the pure Inconel 718 by SLM, the Inconel 718-TiC MMC exhibits improved ultimate tensile strength for both as-built and solution/annealing treated conditions. Microscopy observation shows that the dendritic structures of Inconel 718 is remarkably refined by the TiC particles in as-built samples, and grain coarsening is largely inhibited by the TiC particles for solution/annealing treated samples. For both reinforced and unreinforced Inconel 718, dissolving of Laves phase and precipitation of δ phase is observed, but annealing at 1100 °C is not favorable for the formation of δ phase. Aging treatment significantly increases the UTS values for both type of material. Moreover, the strengthening effect of added nano particles becomes less significant in the aged condition, due to the precipitation of γ′ and γ″. Future work includes the process parameter optimization, and further evaluation of other mechanical properties.

Author(s):  
Jing Shi ◽  
Yachao Wang ◽  
Shiqiang Lu ◽  
Yun Wang

Selective laser melting (SLM) is an important additive manufacturing process. It applies focused laser energy to quickly melt and solidify material powders, and a controlled layered operation can result in a free form build that is often out of reach for machining processes. As such, it has attracted much attention in recent years. However, metal components produced by this process often have inferior mechanical properties, as compared with the counterparts by the traditional manufacturing processes. To strengthen the metal components by SLM, adding reinforcement particles and applying post treatment are regarded as the two effective ways. Although adding reinforcement particles to create metal matrix composites has been studied by researchers in literature, much fewer has been done to use post treatment processes to further improve the properties and performance of the metal matrix composites from SLM. In this study, a nano-TiC reinforced Inconel 718 composite is prepared using SLM technique. The material has 0.5 wt.% nano-TiC addition. Solid solution treatments at three levels of temperature (940, 980, 1020 °C) are carried out to evaluate the effect of the heat treatment methods on the microstructure and resulted mechanical properties of the composite material. The results of samples with and without heat treatment are also compared. SEM observations are carried out to analyze the microstructure of the composite and understand the reinforcing mechanism. Tensile tests are conducted to evaluate the mechanical properties of the formed composites. It is discovered that compared with the pure Inconel 718 by SLM, the Inconel 718-TiC composite exhibits improved ultimate tensile strength. Microscopy observation of as-built samples indicates that the dendritic structures of Inconel 718 is remarkably refined by the TiC particles. Suspected laves phase particles are observed in as-built Inconel-TiC composite, and they partially transform to large amount of needle-like δ phase during the solid solution treatment.


Author(s):  
Xiaoqing Wang ◽  
Xibing Gong ◽  
Kevin Chou

This study presents a thorough literature review on the powder-bed laser additive manufacturing processes such as selective laser melting (SLM) of Inconel 718 parts. The paper first introduces the general aspects of powder-bed laser additive manufacturing and then discusses the unique characteristics and advantages of SLM. Moreover, the bulk of this study includes extensive discussions of microstructures and mechanical properties, together with the application ranges, of Inconel 718 parts fabricated by SLM.


Author(s):  
Yachao Wang ◽  
Jing Shi ◽  
Yun Wang

Metal components produced by additive manufacturing processes usually have inferior properties and performances as compared with the counterparts by the traditional forming and machining processes. To close the gap, the metal matrix can be strengthened by adding reinforcement particles in additive manufacturing processes. This research presents the fabrication of nano-TiC reinforced Inconel 718 composites using selective laser melting (SLM). Tensile and wear performance tests are conducted to evaluate the mechanical properties of the formed composites. It is discovered that the composites exhibit improved mechanical properties in terms of ultimate tensile strength and yield stress. Compared with the pure Inconel 718 specimens by SLM, the ultimate tensile strength and yield stress of the reinforced Inconel 718 increase by 207 MPa and 204 MPa, respectively, with 0.5 wt.% addition of nano-TiC particle. Smaller increases are observed with 0.25 wt.% and 1.0 wt.% nano-TiC additions. On the other hand, the addition of nano-TiC particles decreases the ductility of Inconel 718. To investigate the strengthening mechanism of nano reinforcement particles in SLM, the microstructures with different levels of nano-TiC particles are observed. The results indicate that the microstructure of Inconel 718 is remarkably refined by the TiC particles, and the reinforcement particle significantly impede the growth of columnar grain in the solidification process.


Metals ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 645 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sebastian Marian Zaharia ◽  
Lucia Antoneta Chicoș ◽  
Camil Lancea ◽  
Mihai Alin Pop

In this study, lightweight sandwich structures with honeycomb cores are proposed and their mechanical properties are investigated through experiments and FEA (finite element analysis) simulation. Sandwich structures were fabricated out of Inconel 718 using selective laser melting technique with two different topologies—sandwich structures with perforated skin (SSPS) and sandwich structures with perforated core (SSPC). In addition, the effect of the homogenization heat treatment on the mechanical properties of the sandwich samples subjected to compression and microhardness tests was analyzed. Results showed significant increases of mechanical performance before and after homogenization heat treatment of the Inconel 718 samples. Microstructure analysis was performed to compare the microstructures before and after homogenization heat treatment for Inconel 718 alloys manufactured by selective laser melting (SLM). The accuracy of experimental data were evaluated by modeling of sandwich samples in Ansys software at the end of this study.


Author(s):  
Yachao Wang ◽  
Jing Shi ◽  
Xiaoyang Deng ◽  
Shiqiang Lu

Graphene nanoplatelets (GNPs) have many outstanding properties, such as high mechanical strengths, light weight, and high electric conductivity. These unique properties make it an ideal filler material for various composites. On the other hand, the development MMNCs (metal matrix nanocomposites) through additive manufacturing (AM) processes has become a major innovation in the field of advanced structural materials, owing to shorter production lead time, less material waste, high production flexibility. It is of great innovativeness to have the attractive features combined to produce GNPs reinforced MMNCs using AM techniques. In addition, metal components produced by laser assisted additive manufacturing (LAAM) methods usually have inferior mechanical properties, as compared to the counterparts by the traditional metal forming processes. To achieve optimized mechanical properties, the obtained MMNCs are subjected to various post treatment routines and the effect of post heat treatment on material properties is investigated. In this study, pure Inconel 718 and GNPs reinforced IN718 with 1.1 vol.% and 4.4 vol.% filler material are fabricated by selective laser melting (SLM). Room temperature tensile tests are conducted to evaluate the tensile properties. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) observations are conducted to analyze the microstructure of materials and to understand the reinforcing mechanism. It is found that fabrication of GNPs reinforced MMC using SLM is a viable approach. The obtained composites possess dense microstructure and enhanced tensile strength. The strengthening effect and mechanisms involved in the composites are discussed. Solution treatments at three levels of temperature (940, 980, and 1020°C) for 1 hour period are carried out to evaluate the effect of the heat treatment on the material microstructure and therefore the resulted mechanical properties of the composite material. The results of samples with and without heat treatment are also compared. The experiments results indicate that that addition of GNPs into Inconel 718 results in significant strength improvement. Moreover, at any volume content of reinforcement, higher solution treatment leads to lower strength, mainly due to coarsened microstructure. The addition of GNPs effectively inhibits the grain growth during the post heat process and the average grain size is significantly refined compared to unreinforced samples. Moreover, through the investigation of various strengthening mechanisms, it is found that Orowan strengthening effect is small and can be neglected for both as-built and heat treated conditions. Load transfer effect is the dominating strengthening effect among all contributors and solution treatment significantly reduces thermal mismatch strengthening.


2015 ◽  
Vol 651-653 ◽  
pp. 665-670 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anatoly A. Popovich ◽  
Vadim Sh. Sufiiarov ◽  
Igor A. Polozov ◽  
Evgenii V. Borisov

The article presents results of selective laser melting of Inconel 718 superalloy. It was studied phase microstructure of the material obtained by selective laser melting and also the material after heat treatment. The phase composition of the initial powder material, the specimens after selective laser melting before and after heat treatment was studied. The effect of heat treatment on microstructure and mechanical properties of the specimens was shown. It was studied the mechanical behavior of the manufactured specimens before and after heat treatment at room and elevated temperatures as well. The results of impact tests and fractography of the specimens are presented. Mechanical tests showed that the specimens after heat treatment have decent mechanical properties comparable to hot-rolled material. Fractography showed that the obtained material is characterized by ductile failure mode with local elements of brittle fracture.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document