Abstract
Inconel 718 (IN718) is a superalloy commonly used in aerospace, turbomachinery, and applications with extreme conditions due to its creep and corrosion resistance and high strength and hardness at a wide range of temperatures. The recent development of metal additive manufacturing offers a new approach to fabricate complex IN718 parts with minimal machining. However, additively manufactured IN718 parts suffer from anisotropic mechanical properties and are usually inferior to conventionally produced parts. This is especially noticeable under dynamic loading conditions, where they suffer from lower fatigue strength and life in addition to lower reliability. This study focuses on post-processing heat treatments that aim to homogenize the microstructure of the additively manufactured IN718 and reduce the defects produced during fabrication. In this work, we developed modified solution annealing treatments for IN718 samples, followed by tensile testing. X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy imaging were used to evaluate the microstructure. The results show that by increasing the initial heat treatment temperature, better isotropy, Young’s modulus, and ductility were produced at the cost of a slight reduction in the tensile strength. The further rise in the heat treatment temperature increased the grain size significantly and produced unfavourable precipitate morphology, which caused a brittle behaviour.