Fatigue Assessment of Inconel 625 Produced by Directed Energy Deposition from Miniaturized Specimens

In recent years, the industrial application of Inconel 625 has grown significantly. This material is a nickel-base alloy, which is well known for its chemical resistance and mechanical properties, especially in high-temperature environments. The fatigue performance of parts produced via Metallic Additive Manufacturing (MAM) heavily rely on their manufacturing parameters. Therefore, it is important to characterize the properties of alloys produced by a given set of parameters. The present work proposes a methodology for characterization of the mechanical properties of MAM parts, including the material production parametrization by Laser Directed Energy Deposition (DED). The methodology consists of the testing of miniaturized specimens, after their production in DED, supported by a numerical model developed and validated by experimental data for stress calculation. An extensive mechanical characterization, with emphasis on high-cycle fatigue, of Inconel 625 produced via DED is herein discussed. The results obtained using miniaturized specimens were in good agreement with standard-sized specimens, therefore validating the applied methodology even in the case of some plastic effects. Regarding the high-cycle fatigue properties, the samples produced via DED presented good fatigue performance, comparable with other competing Metallic Additive Manufactured (MAMed) and conventionally manufactured materials.

Microstructural Evolution And Mechanical Properties of FCAW Joints In 9% Ni Steel Prepared With Two Types of Ni-Based Weld Metals

The microstructural and mechanical evaluation of 9% Ni steel with Flux-Cored Arc Welding was performed with two different Ni-based weld metals: Inconel 625 and Hastelloy 609. Weld metals showed the microstructural change depending on the temperature gradient and crystal growth rate for each region during the cooling after welding. At the bottom of the weld metal, which is rapidly cooled in contact with the cold base metal, a cellular/planar growth was exhibited due to a large temperature gradient and low crystal growth rate. While, columnar dendrites were exhibited in the central region cooled relatively slowly and precipitates were observed in the interdendritic region. In the low-temperature toughness test, the absorbed impact energies were 89 and 55 J for Inconel 625 and Hastelloy 609, respectively. When Inconel 625 is used as the weld metal compared to Hastelloy 609, the high content of the γ stabilizer and martensite start temperature decreasing elements leads to the formation of a thicker γ-phase layer and thinner martensite layer in the transition region. In addition, high content of these elements suppresses the martensite transformation and maintains the stability of the weld joint interface even at low temperatures, resulting in the higher absorbed impact energy.